Hello from Twitter – good to tweet you! If you are already a Twitter expert, then just click to read more about me, or see what I write about on the Blog.
If you are new to Twitter, then welcome to an exciting way of meeting people and communicating. It can be a little bit disorientating at first, but you’ll get the hang of it. The most important thing is to experiment and explore. The longer you use it, the more your understand it.
I suggest following a few people, just click on the link here and then click on the follow button on their page. That way you’ll see some of the conversations and be able to get started:
- You can follow me. I don’t bite, and I help people with tools like Twitter as part of my work.
- If you are a musician, you can’t do better than to follow @solobasssteve. He’s lovely.
- For technology start with @actionlamb and @yellowpark as a start.
- If you work in the mobile space, check out @technokitten, @ilicco and @whatleydude.
- If you would like to meet social media people in London, check out @lloyddavis of The Tuttle Club.
- There are lots of famous people on twitter too, like @stephenfry and @schofe.
- You’ll even find No.10 Downing Street on there.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to respond to every singe message, or even to read them all! This isn’t like email, it is quite the opposite. It is background chatter. Dip in and out as you have time. Unless some one @‘s you (@yourname – which means they are talking directly to you), they are just talking out loud – like you might do to a group at a cafe or a party. Look at who people talk to (via their “@” messages). If someone is saying something you find interesting, follow them and join in the conversation.
You can send messages privately if you want to (by putting a ‘D‘ infront of your message – for example D benjaminellis Hello I’m shy!), but it only works if the person is ‘following’ you already. But don’t be shy – reply back publicly and see who else joins in.
It is a good idea to start with a few tweets (message) saying just a little about yourself or what you are interested in. That gives people a way to start to engage with you.
Remembering, Twitter is a public place, so don’t be rude or do anything that might be embarrassing later.
It’s up to you which conversations you join. If you aren’t interested in what someone has to say, you can click on them and unfollow just as easily as you followed them – it’s the on-line equivalent of moving around the room at a party.
Happy tweeting!
