Now you’re on Twitter and tweeting like the pros, but how do you develop a following. This involves a little reaching out. Granted people will find you without you having to go find them, but finding them first speeds up the process.

The first thing I tell anyone to do that is looking for more followers is to follow some local twitterers. You would be suprised how many people are using Twitter in your area. Following local people is great because it gives you something to talk about and connects you to a local channel of communicatio0n you never knew existed.

How can I find local people on Twitter? 

The answer lies in a website called TwitterLocal.

First thing you are going to do is put in your zip code. You can enter a zip code or a City/State combo however I would reccomend the zipcode to keep things simple.

TwitterLocal will then provide you with three different links; “View the latest tweets right now”, “RSS” or and “XML feed”. For the purposes of finding people and friending them we are going to click on “View the latest tweets right now”.

On the left handside you will see a list of the “Top Tweeters Here”. You should proceed to check out each local twitter profile and friend them if you are satisified with their profile. I prefer an “open in new tab” strategy for mass friending.

This is something you need only do once and maybe check to see if there is anyone new every once and awhile. I chose to friend everyone within a permiter of my office as well as my home. Connecting with your local section of Twitterville is an important step in “plugging in”. So if you’re in the Amesbury area why not send us a tweet and we’ll do lunch.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

Twitter’s API allows for information to be sent to your Twitter account without ever logging in. This is handy when using other status update type sites that you would also like posted on twitter. Here are a few examples of the more popular sites being used.

BrightKite

BrightKite is a location-based version of Twitter that supports images uploads. It’s a great way to find out who’s tweeting nearby. You can set up BrightKite so that it will send links to your BrightKite posts in real time. One thing you might want to change in your setting is to only update your Twitter when making a status update or image. The default sends an update to Twitter every time you update your location which can get repetitive.

12Seconds.tv

If you get bored with posting your text and image updates, why not move on to video. 12Seconds.tv is the video equivalent of Twitter with a great community. There are even third party applications that display 12 seconds videos found in the Twitter stream.

Ping.fm

Ping.fm lets you post everywhere. There was a point in time where I used this to update all of my status services at the same time; Plurk, identica, Twitter.

TwitterFeed

TwitterFeed is an easy way to Tweet your newest blog posts without having to remember how to be personal. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great service, but it is definitely abused. If you do decide to hook up your blog, remember, people are looking to connect to YOU … not your blog.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

Hash tags are a means of organizing conversations around events, holidays, ideas, webinars and the list goes on. Anything you would like to have an organized conversation about could have it’s own hash tag.

Anyone can create their own hash tag by simply placing a # before their tag. For example, during Graph Expo, Rick Littrell started the hash tag #graphexpo. This allowed other people on Twitter at Graph Expo to find each other as well as everyone who was not at the expo to follow what was going on.

There are several sites available to help track conversations with hash tags. HashTags.org is a site specifically designed to organize and display conversations with hash tags. I personally use Twitter Search or Twemes as they sometimes seem faster.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

One of the greatest things about Twitter is the ability to scan it quickly for resourceful links. When Twitter first burst onto the scene, people needed a way to shorten their links so they wouldn’t take up the whole Tweet. The result of this need spawned a whole slur of URL shortening websites.

Example:

http://www.magicomm.biz/blog/url-shortening-on-twitter becomes http://tinyurl.com/6ae575

Why should I use a URL shortener?

The obvious reason is so you will have more space to tweet. The not so obvious reasons could be:

• Hiding affiliate links
• Masking URLs you don’t want search engines picking up on
• Tracking the URLs usage and clicks
• Preventing URLs from breaking because of bad characters

Although I don’t recommend plastering affiliate links all over the web as TinyURLs (people won’t like you for that)

Tracking

One of the great things services like TweetBurner and Bit.ly have been providing is statistics. TweetBurner allows me to create Shortened URLS in the form of Twurls that I can track after I post it. Tweetburner is one of m favorite shorteners because of all the features and statistics it provides. Bit.ly is another great service I’ve just started using that seems equally as promising.

What if I want to shorten my URLs without loosing any search engine juice?

Something I’ve started to seeing done sporadically around the web is custom URL shoteners. I’m not talking about shorteners that allow you to customize the URL (Example: http://bit.ly/jonbishop). I’m talking about a wordpress plugin that allows you to create your own short URLs on your own domain. I had heard about GoCodes a little while ago and have recently been taking a second look at it. It’s worth a look.

So go explore the world of URL shoteners and begin checking out all the features the different services provide whether it be the classic TinyURL or a more revolutionary approach.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

You’ve now mastered Tweeting and Replying to your fellow twitterers but maybe you want to message a user without the rest of the world seeing it. No problem. Just type “d”, then a space, then the username of the person you would like to send your message to. So if my boss wanted to send me a message from our company account it would look like this:

What’s so great about Direct Messages?

Well, there are a couple great things about direct messages:

• Mobile alerts. If the user you’re sending your message to has mobile alerts set up they will receive your tweet via txt message.
• Email alerts. If the user you’re sending your message to has email alerts set up under notifications they will receive your tweet via email.
• Privacy. Direct messages are only viewable by the person who receives the message.
• Greeting new followers. Direct messages are a great way to personally greet new followers without cluttering your twitter stream with redundant introductions. You can even automate this with tools like SocialToo.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

Replying to other people’s posts is a great way to make connections and gain new followers.

What is a Reply and how do I start doing it?

Replies are Tweets directed at other Twitter users. This could be as a response to a question or even just trying to get their attention.

To send a reply, start your Tweet with the @ sign followed by the username you wish to reply to and then write out the rest of your Tweet.

Example: @spazcer awesome post on the Magicomm blog. Looking forward to the rest of the Printer Tweet series.

The general rule of thumb is to include an @ sign before every refrence of a Twitter user.

Example: Just got back from @Magicomm hanging out with @RickLittrell and @gd85us

Twitter in turn takes your @ replies and hyperlinks the username to the appropriate profile so other users can jump into the conversation. Twitter also keeps a list of all @replies directed at you.

Conversation is key

When viewing your Twitter stream, if you hover over any Tweet you will notice a little star and a curved arrow to the right of the tweet. The arrow is a quick link to prepopulate the text box at the top of the page. Some applications even go as far as linking directly to the tweet you are responding to. This comes in really handy when looking back and managing conversations.

Replies take up roughly 1/4 of all tweets on Twitter. In the last post, I said that variety is key to a successful Twitter account.

What should I reply with?

You could reply to anything your heart desires. Here are a few just to get my point across.

• Event updates. A lot of people will Tweet themes and good discussions at events and replying to their tweets is a great way to participate without being in attendance.
• Interact with a webinar. Twitter has become a great channel for discussions during webinars. It’s a great way to get the attention of the hosts as well as give your professional two cents.
• Answers to questions. Become a resource and people will use you as a resource. This is one great way to establish yourself as an expert in your industry.
• Compliments. Flattery goes a long way. If you found someone’s Twitter account through their blog and you enjoyed their posts, let them know with a friendly tweet.
• Promote people you like. Help each other out. If a friend of yours just joined Twitter, let your followers know.
• Everything else. I basically reply to anything I find interesting from anyone who seems interesting.

So to practice what we’ve learned today, click here to send an @reply to magicomm thanking them for this great post about @ replies.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

What Are You Doing?

That’s what Twitter wants to know and that’s what you are going to tell them. The trick is filtering out the stuff that other people don’t want to know. There is nothing wrong with tweeting about your personal life and in fact it is encouraged. If you post things that are funny, scary, sad, exciting etc, you’re more likely to get responses from other Twitter users.

Mix It Up

Here are a couple of things you can Tweet about:

• Links to interesting news stories. You can usually find some interesting articles on social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon.
• Links to industry news. One of the things I will be talking about in a future post is how to choose who you are going to follow. One great thing about Twitter is the ability to connect with other individuals within your industry. Tweeting industry news both attracts more like minded individuals to your profile as well as gives your followers something to ReTweet (I’ll talk more about ReTweeting later as well)
• Company news. Whether it’s your blog, news or press releases. Let the world know what your company is up to.
• Ask questions. Twitter is a great resource for finding answers fast. It’s also a great way to get quick poll results.
• ReTweet, reply and DM. This will make more sense within the next couple of posts. Twitter basically gives you the tools to reply to other people’s posts, re post other peoples posts or message them privately. This is the heart and sole of Twitter and each function will get special attention as needed.
• Links to videos and images. This could be stuff from assorted sites liked Flickr or YouTube or even your own media from sites like 12seconds.tv and TwitPic.
• Your thoughts. People love responding to other people’s opinions and it’s always interesting to hear other people’s points of view on topics.
• Promotional material. Offer discounts to your Twitter followers.

The key is finding a good mix of resourceful and personal posts. Think of Twitter like an ongoing networking event. Learn from each other, help each other and make new connections.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

The first thing you should do after you’ve created your account is personalize your page. Most Twitter users will check out your Twitter page before subscribing to your feed, so it is important that you create a good first impression.

All changes to your page can be done through Twitter’s “settings” tab.

Your “About Me” section

Be sure to include your companies name under the name field as well as a short bio and a website to find more information. People underestimate the importance of including a website and bio however it could be the pinnacle of your account’s success.

Twitter Profile Pic

Next you will want to add a picture. A lot of the more successful Twitter accounts use their head shots or logos they’ve used to brand themselves. This is also a great chance to get creative and people will often change their pictures on a regular basis to keep things interesting. At the same time it is also good practice to stick with one picture as to not confuse your followers.

Changing The Twitter Theme

Finally you can edit the theme of your Twitter page. This used to be a semi complex process however now the fine folks at Twitter have simplified the process with a small archive of Themes to choose from.

Custom Twitter Background

Most people see their Twitter background as an opportunity to market themselves a little more than the existing bio lets you. You can find some templates to work from at http://twitterbacks.com (UPDATE: Also check out http://www.twitbacks.com) or create your own with photoshop. If you do choose to create your own background you should try and use dimensions around 1600×1200 and keep the file under 300k to avoid browser and loading issues.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

Signing up for Twitter could possibly be the easiest thing you do all day. It only takes a few minutes and it is pretty much self explanatory.

First things first you can either use the link below or find that button on the Twitter home page to begin the sign up process.

Choosing a Twitter Username

Now you have the daunting task of creating your first Twitter name. I recommend using your real name as your Twitter Username because it helps reinforce who you are. However if you are not comfortable using your real name, your company name or an appropriate pseudonym will do just fine.

Note: It’s a bad idea to impersonate other people.

Once you choose whether or not to receive “the inside scoop”, you can move on and click I accept. Create my account.

This will bring you to an area designed to help you find friends and contacts that are already on Twitter. This is a useful little tool which I highly recommend using. If you wish to speed the process up and not locate existing friends, you can always click the SKIP button.

You are now officially on Twitter. In the next post of the series we will talk about how to personalize your twitter profile.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.

- From Wikipedia

Commoncraft also has a pretty good explanation of what twitter is on youtube.

Here’s another way to look at it that might also help you better understand what a microblog is.

If someone likes someone else’s blog, they can subscribe to it’s RSS feed via some third party service like Google Reader. You can subscribe to as many blogs as you want and they are all funnelled down into one stream of posts for easy sorting and reading. Now what if there was a maximum character limit on your blog posts and you eliminated the third party service to subscribe to feeds. Woila, we have a microblog.

Through Twitter, you can subscribe to other Twitter users accounts. Other people can also subscribe to your account.

Why should I be on Twitter?

There are a bunch of reasons why your company should be on Twitter.

1. Establish your expertise
2. Market your services
3. Network with other individuals
4. Stay on top of industry news

The best part is that it is a lot less time consuming than traditional blogging because of the 140 character limit.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.