twitterThis article is about how to get started with Twitter. It is pretty easy to start using it, but the how to use escapes many people. Some people even think that twitter is a silver bullet for online marketing. It is not. It is just another place to network, communicate and chat.

Short Introduction to Twitter

Twitter is a micro blogging platform that allows users to write short 140 char messages, tweets. The basis of twitter are followers.

On Twitter you can choose,  do you start to follow. When you follow someone, you also start to receive their tweets. And vice versa, people who follow you will receive your tweets. This means that the amount of followers you have, will affect the amount of readers you get for your messages.

Getting Followers

The way to get followers is to follow people and hope that they follow you back. I’d say that around 25% of the people that you follow, will follow you back, so you are pretty well off with this strategy.

Many people who start out with twitter,  just run around and try to follow all the people they find. It is a big error, because you should only follow targeted people. Follow people that will likely be interested in your blog and in your tweets. The more interested the people are, the more clicks you will get. It’s that simple.

You can find targeted followers by looking at people that follow similar people as you are. For example, I have looked at problogger’s followers and started to follow people that follow him. Another great way is to find lists that contain people that fit your niche. Just go through the list follow all the people there. Some are bound to follow you back.

What and How to Tweet

As a blogger you should always tweet your new blog posts. By tweeting, you tell your close readers about the new post. You should also tweet other people’s blog posts and retweet some of their tweets. Just remember that the tweets should also be helpful for your followers. Basically keep in your niche and people will like it.

You can tweet your own posts multiple times, but remember that you should not over do it. I know of some people that tweet tens of their posts every day. It is bad policy, because no serious follower will like it. It makes you look really spammy and it should be avoided. Retweet your friends posts a lot and only sometimes retweet your old stuff.

How to Get ReTweets

The only way in twitter-world to get retweets is to have friends on twitter. Your friends are the people that do most of the retweeting. Just notify them of a new blog post and they will retweet your stuff if they find it useful.

Another great way to get people tweeting your blog posts, is to have a retweet button on your blog. I have installed the tweetmeme plugin on my wordpress and it works great. On every post here, there is a retweet button. It makes tweeting so easy, that people tweet my posts quite often.

Conclusion

As the conclusion I am going to tell you what twitter is not and what it is. Remember these points when you start using twitter and you will succeed.

What Twitter is Not

Twitter is not a silver bullet. It is not a marketing channel, where you can post your affiliate links. By posting affiliate links people will stop following you pretty quickly.

What Twitter Really Is

Twitter is a place to connect with other people and communicate. Communication and being social is the only reason to be active there. When you are active, people will be interested in you. As a result you will get people clicking and retweeting your posts.