How to Customize your Twitter Experience Freelancer work

 Learn How to Use Twitter          Correctly
When Just Starting Out!

Chapter 1

What is Twitter?

Today, Twitter is a social website used by absolutely millions of people to 

send messages to groups and friends every day. It has become one of the 

hottest social networks on the Internet today with thousand of new people 

signing up on a daily basis. This new phenomenon, ranks right up there 

with Facebook and LinkedIn for social contact and social media marketing. 

Today, companies are using this information to keep their friends, families, 

and customer base up to date on what is happening in their lives, families, 

and business ventures.

Twitter has long since considered itself to be one of the top communication 

systems for exchanging quick little “blurbs” of information with those you 

wish to keep in touch with. This short and direct communication has 

become known as “Tweets”, or short form messaging system, that allows a 

connected individual to share and listen to what is happening to and with 

the people their surround themselves with.

As Twitter has evolved it has become a communication device that 

provides many platforms for communication, but mainly communication on 

Twitter is done through posts, or “tweets”, which are restricted to less than 

approximately 140 characters in length. Using Twitter, members can keep 

people updated, as well as follow updates from other members. Today, 

tweets are used for more than just updates; they are also used to discuss 

hot topics, videos, music, and events happening in the daily news.

One of the bonus features of Twitter is the ability to “Retweet”. This 

enables users to share things like tweets, links, and other little gems that 

they pick up from others who also use Twitter. New users often do not 

understand the benefit of retweets, but after a little time on Twitter they 

soon learn the value of retweets and set out to share as much as possible.

To retweet the user has a special set of tools available that make it easier

to do. Some of those tools include copy and paste so you can share

tweets themselves with others. When users do this, because they are

using someone else’s information, the retweet is usually followed by an

“RT”, short for retweet, as well as the original creator’s name. So, if you

were to retweet the following sentence from “SueSmith”, your retweet

would look like this:

The ipod I bought was great and I would recommend it RT@SueSmith

As a rule people track, or follow, the most popular retweets on Twitter by

using one of the following methods:

Retweetradar – a tool for tracking and bringing to the forefront the most

popular content on Twitter – right now, today, or yesterday.

Retweetlist – this tool lets you track the most popular links that are being

retweeted by other users on Twitter. You will note that it also keeps track

of the accounts that are retweeted the most.

Tweetnmeme – this is a tool that records and keeps score on the number

of retweeted Urls and stories on Twitter and then places the ones that

receive the most retweets on the front page of Tweetmeme, which if

selected can be broken down into categories – i.e.: business, sports, etc.

Another great thing about Twitter is that all your friends and tweets can

appear on your desktop and retweets only take two simple clicks – one to

create the retweet and one to post it.

Chapter 2

How to Customize your Twitter Experience

As a Twitter member you will notice that the site has some great user

friendly tools that will help in making your experience on Twitter a

completely customized one. However there are some steps you should

initially take when creating your profile that will further enhance your

customized experience.

First to ensure that you get the best possible results on the site, starting by

creating your Twitter log in using your real name or company name this

makes it easier for people to search for and find you. Also, using your real

name makes it easier for fellow tweeters to follow and recognize you or

your brand. Including a personal photo or company logo on your profile

page is always the best way to give your customized notability.

Your photo should be a good quality one; the picture should be clear, well

lighted and you should have a friendly appearance the more approachable

you appear the more people will follow you. If you are using a company

logo make sure it is professional looking and represents your company’s

brand you will want a pleasing image that people will remember and

associate with your specific product or service.

Next you should work on customizing the settings on your profile page

using the settings tool. Twitter does have built in themes that have

predesigned backgrounds that use preset color schemes which is fine if

you prefer it but you can also use the theming tools offered on the site to

create your own theme and use your own personally designed color

schemes.

Another customization tool available is language preference you can

customize your profile to appear in your preferred language; there are

several global languages to choose from. 

You can also change your privacy settings from public where anyone can

view your tweets to private where only your followers can share your

tweets.

Another way to customize your Twitter page is to share your personal

media whether it is photos, videos, music or documents there is a tool

available to help share your personal media. Grooveshark seems to be the

most popular and user friendly music sharing application. You can tweet

about a song you are listening to it.

Feature wise the most popular, free and easy to use file sharing application

for sharing documents and videos is FileTwt. If interested you can find out

more about this application by visitin A newer file sharing application available is Twitgram; It is a file sharing

application that offers some great features such as : file sending, sending

and sharing messages over Twitter in complete privacy, create chat rooms,

organize your chats and the 140 character limit for tweets is not an issue

with this application. This application however, costs to use. To find out

more about Twitgram you can visit http://techcocktail.com/twitgram-share￾files-send-private-messages

Also, Tweeters now have mobile access to Twitter. Now you can Twitter

using most currently used mobile devices. Now Twitter is a mobile

companion for the tweeters.

Chapter 3

How to Build a Personal Brand on Twitter

On Twitter the Twitter handles have become an important aspect of being a

part of the community. Your handle represents you who you are and what

you represent. As a matter of fact the Twitter handles have actually

become a commodity on the site; there has been a need for an aftermarket

to be created for the handles. The aftermarket is where Twitter handles are

constantly bought and sold.

It has become a necessity for any member of the community whether

business related or otherwise to claim their Twitter handle for their full

name or full business name. If another member claims the name first it

could lead to confusion when people are looking to contact you or your

business on the site. It is very advisable to also employ this action for future

business or personal prospects.

To gain followers a good way to attract people to you is to have your profile

completely filled out and do so accurately. 

A word of warning, don’t claim

expertise at something when you are not - create your brand based on your

interests and your skills.

Your Twitter profile page should have a background that is related to your

particular brand. When someone looks at your profile they should see an

extension of who you are and what your brand represents. You should use

the same logos, themes and color schemes as on your company website.

Furthermore, there are three different methods that can be used to brand

you or your business on Twitter:

Leading with your company - Use your company as the beginning part of

your account name and use your personal picture as your avatar.

Mutual branding – using your employees to subtly advertise by having their

photos accompanied by the business logo as their profile avatar.Personal branding- create everything completely about you.

Using Twitter to establish that you are an expert in a particular field works

very well to create an expert image for your brand and garner followers by

constantly tweeting about the subject. Also, If you have a blog you can use

Twitterfeed to create an affiliation between your blog and Twitter. You can

also host question and answer forums on Twitter with your followers about

your field of expertise.

By creating a marketing scheme you can also build up your brand. Some

elements that can be employed as a marketing plan are:

Adding your Twitter handle to your email signature.

Promote your Twitter address on your company website.

Promote your Twitter in you blog or articles

Use your Twitter address in your company newsletter.

Mention your Twitter address in company presentations.

Place your Twitter handle on your business cards.

Using the @ symbol referencing someone specifically in your tweets

possibly engaging a response.

Use promotional items to advertise your Twitter handle.

You can additionally use third party applications to stay connected to your

industry.