What I love about… Twitter

Of all the social networks, Twitter is probably the one that most people are nervous about starting. For me, it is my favourite of the social networks.

Whether you are on Twitter or not, you hear about it everyday whether watching a TV program “Share your views with us on Twitter” or because something someone has tweeted has been picked up by the media and caused a bit of a stir, notably by Celebs, Politicians and other high vis people.

So it’s not surprising that people are initially wary of Twitter.

My big bit of advice in getting started is: it’s ok to jump on twitter and not say anything initially. A high number of users in the UK read only. Let’s take a look at why.

You choose who to follow based on your subject interests.

Just like we would buy a newspaper or magazine that most matches our views beliefs and interests, Twitter enables you to follow the things that matter to you.

Whether you are passionate about politics, sport, a TV program or celeb or just want to find out what’s going on in your community – Twitter gives you the power to follow what you want ensuring a high quality user experience which you control.

When you first start Twitter, you will be offered a selection of popular twitter accounts to follow. These are good in giving you an initial idea of how twitter works.  When you chose to follow an account, their tweets will start to populate your ‘Home” tab.

#Toptip: use the search bar at the top of the screen to insert keywords and filter through content to find tweets relating to that content e.g. #Fashion or #Eastbourne

From here you are likely to find accounts that you want to follow. If you are keen on gardening you may want to follow @The_RHS or @GardenNewsMag

If you are following a program like BBC Question Time and just want to see what others are saying – insert the hashtag #bbcqt while the program is live and all tweets relating to that program will stream live as they are posted.

Hashtags enable you to search for tweets relating to a subject if the hash tagged word is in the tweet.

If you were writing a tweet wishing to reach people that are interested in gardening in Eastbourne you would hashtag #gardening & #Eastbourne so your tweet comes up in a search.

Organise your interests into Twitter lists

If you have a number of different interests you may want to start lists early on to manage the content that comes in to you.

You can add or remove twitter accounts from lists by using the cog icon in the twitter profile. You then create the list and give it a name e.g. Gardening or Food.

From there you can organise the people or organisations you want to add to those subject lists ensuring you can have a quick fix of your interest when you want, without trawling through the main “Home” feed which will include everyone you follow.

Going to start using Twitter for business?

Then my advice is get used to Twitter as a user first. Create a ‘personal’ account, which is just for you to get used to how twitter works.

A business profile can then be created to enable you to represent your brand and grow your tribe on twitter.

I offer practical workshops on Twitter for businesses, please see: https://ditzymedia.com/social-media-training-courses/