How & Why to Use Twitter

I recently organized a conference call for top-level members with Carol Roth, author of 'The Entrepreneur Equation' and frequent business news contributor for MSNBC and Fox News.  

I first met Carol on Twitter.

I loved her no-nonsense approach to business (sans puppy dogs and sunshine), found a lot of value in her posts and retweeted them to my followers. She noticed. Our relationship grew because I gave her and her book a lot of support over the past year (and because I'm friends with Michael Port who wrote the forward to her book - that certainly didn't hurt!).

In addition to networking, I use Twitter to learn from top thought leaders, get my news and pass on valuable information (from me and others) to my followers.

If you haven't yet tried Twitter, here's a guide to get you started:

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform. Users publish messages in 140 characters or less. Their message is seen by anyone that is following them. Users also monitor the messages of the people they are following. This medium allows for fragmented opinion, news, events, ideas & feedback. Posts (or "tweets") can include links to articles, images etc that are hosted elsewhere on the web.

How to set up a Twitter account:
Enter your full name, a user name, a password & your email address. The user name should either be a version of your name or brand. Upload a professional photo of yourself with "Settings" "Picture" Use a headshot rather than a full body image as the image will be small on the screen. Add a profile description about yourself. Also use the "Settings" page to personalize your profile background and setup account notifcations.

How to follow people:
Click "Find People" & type in the name of someone you'd like to follow. Or click "Invite by Email" to send a personal email to someone asking them to follow you. By clicking the "Find on Other Networks" tab, you can search your entire email address book, see who is already on Twitter and send out a lot of requests at once. Once you start following people, you can click on their name to see who is following them (or they are following). If you find someone interesting, you can start following them as well.

How to post information or "Tweet":
On the home page, in the box at the top, where it says "What's happening?", type your message using 140 characters or less. Twitter will let you know if you've reached the 140 character limit. To include a hot weblink, use http:// in front of the address. To shorten the weblink, you can use a url shortening site to convert the address (i.e., http://tinyurl.com) however twitter now shortens urls automatically now. To link your mention of someone to their actual Twitter account (so followers can click to their profile if they wish), use the "@" symbol in front of their Twitter user name in your tweet.

How to send someone a Direct Message:
If you want to send a private message that only one person can see, click on "Direct Messages" in the right hand column of the Home page. Select a user from the dropdown box (this person must be following you & you must be following them). Type your message in the second box & click "Send". You can see messages that were sent to you below in the "Inbox". This tool is helpful when you do not have a person's email address.

Good luck and I'll see you online! You can find me on twitter at @JamieBroderick and @Network_Now.