Do you Twitter?

Posted by Merlyn Sanchez on May 21st, 2008

What’s Twitter and why should you care? Well, today’s article is written by my colleague, Shama Hyder of http://www.afterthelaunch.com. She’s an online marketing expert and has partnered with me so I can offer my clients the latest information and tools on Web 2.0 and creating a powerful online presence.

By the way, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/missmerlyn

Here’s her take on Twitter:

Twitter: Why it Should Matter to You
by Shama Hyder

If you haven’t already heard of Twitter, you are probably hiding out in a cave! Twitter is the social media site which allows you only 140 characters at a time to convey your thoughts. Think of it like a huge ongoing chat room. Doesn’t sound too appealing you say? Keep reading!

1) Why Twitter?

Twitter is like having your own personal search engine. Once you build up enough followers, you can use Twitter to:

quickly mastermind with others
find resources and make friends
share links to interesting articles (your own and others)
learn what’s hot and relevant in your industry
people watch online! (think e-cafe)
drive traffic to your site (20% of After The Launch’s traffic comes from Twitter)

2) Get started!

Go to Twitter.com and setup an account. This takes less than a minute. Then add me as a friend by clicking “Follow Me.” I will follow you back. This way you will have your first Twitter follower. You can follow whoever you like, but also have the option of keeping your own updates private. Meaning: you get to approve who follows your “tweets” (or messages). Then, watch and learn. See who is saying what and contribute your own two-bit when relevant.

3) Manage your Time

It’s easy to get carried away with Twitter, but that’s not the best use of your time. When starting out, give it 15 minutes twice a day. Log on, see what’s happening, and have your say. Eventually, you will be able to find your own rhythm for tweeting. At first it can seem like noise, but over time (a few weeks), you will be able to start making connections and finding value.

Questions on Twitter ? Comments? Feel free to ask me on the blog at http://www.afterthelaunch.com.

� 2008 Shama Hyder and AfterTheLaunch.com
Shama Hyder is an expert marketing consultant to independent professionals and professional service firms around the world. You can get her f’ree report, 101 Ways to Market your Business” at http://www.AfterTheLaunch.com.

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Do you Twitter? said,

May 22, 2008 @ 12:26 am

[...] Continue Reading [...]

Jim Hutchinson | Website Managers said,

May 22, 2008 @ 9:47 am

Finding your rhythm also includes monitoring the number of people you follow. Having a very large list of followers can be good for marketing your services and staying in touch with them.

However, those who follow thousands of others can miss quite a bit of information unless they frequently look in the Replies section for tweets directed at them.

On the same note, only dedicating 15 minutes per day is usually not enough to keep up with the activity unless you are following a very small list of people. As your list grows, you might want to use another Twitter tool to keep it on your desktop, or keep a browser window open that you can refresh periodically. That way you can take a few seconds to scan the page and catch anything that may be important or of interest to you.