The Beginner’s Guide To - Make Money with Twitter

This post is a 20-minute guide to Twitter for non-techies.

Saturday night over dinner, I helped my friend,linda meron, get started on Twitter. Yesterday, Chris Crimmins, got started. He was having some difficulty getting his phone hooked up to Twitter. I thought, I wish I had a simple, step-by-step guide to give him.

It doesn’t take long to get set-up with Twitter, but it helps if you know the basics. So, I decided to document these eight basic steps:

1. Set up your account. Go to Twitter.com and click on the Get Started—Join! button. Enter your username, password, and email address. Click on the I accept. Create my account button.

   Next, Twitter will give you a chance to see if some of your friends are on Twitter by checking your online address book. However, your contacts will have to be in one of the supported services: GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or MSN.

   This wasn’t that helpful to me initially, since most of my contacts reside in Microsoft Entourage 2008, the Mac equivalent of Outlook. However, I do have a GMail account, so I just exported my contacts from Entourage and then imported them into Gmail. It worked flawlessly. However, if you get stuck, forget this step. You can add your friends later.

   I did NOT invite my friends to Twitter, but you may decide to do so. I just don’t like to get these kinds of invites, so I would rather not send them.

2. Tweak your settings. Make sure you are on your Twitter home page: http://Twitter.com/home. Click on the Settings link. Now enter your full name in the “Name” field. Make sure the “Time Zone” field is set correctly. Enter your location. Do not check “Protect my updates” unless you only want those whom you approve to be able to get your updates. Personally, if you check this, it will seriously limit the fun.

   Now upload your picture. Verify that you have a digital photo of yourself on your computer. I have a 150 x 150 pixel headshot that I use for all social networking sites. (You can use iPhoto, Skitch, ImageWell, or any other photo editor to crop and size your image to the proper proportions.)

   Assuming you are still on Twitter’s home page, click on the Settings link. Now click on the Picture tab, select your file, and then click the Save button.

3. Set up your phone. Twitter is much more fun if you connect it to your cell phone. By doing so, you can receive updates from those you are following (or just some of them) as well as send your own updates. It’s all done through text messaging (e.g., SMS).

   However, be forewarned: While Twitter doesn’t charge anything for this service, your phone carrier might. It’s a good idea to check with them and make sure you are on an “unlimited text messaging plan.” You don’t want to be surprised with a giant phone bill.

   Again, under the Settings link, click on the Devices tab. Enter your mobile phone number and click on the Save button. Now take your cell phone and text message the code Twitter gives you to 40404 (the number will be different if you are outside the U.S.). Then be patient. Eventually, Twitter will confirm to you that your device is registered.

   Now, while still on your cell phone, set up a contact named “Twitter.” For the mobile phone number, use 40404. Now every time you want to send a Twitter update, you will send it to this contact name.

4. Follow some family or friends. If you haven’t done so already, add your family and friends by clicking in the “Search” field at the top of your home page. You can type in a username or first and last name. When you do, you will get a list of the Twitterers who match your search criteria. You can also do a more advance search (e.g., searching by location) on the Twitter search page.

   You can begin “following” them by simply clicking on the Follow button. If you want to also follow them on your cell phone, then you can turn the “Device Updates” to “on.” Personally, I only follow my family and a few close friends on my cell phone. Regardless, you will be able to see everyone you follow on your Twitter home page.

5. Learn the basic commands. Think of Twitter as a room full of people, all sitting in a circle. It’s a conversation. When you update your status, you are speaking to the whole group. Everyone can hear what you have to say.

   Replies. If you want to direct your comments to one specific person in the circle, but loud enough that everyone else can hear, you use the “Reply” function. You address the person by using their Twitter user name preceded by the “@” symbol. For example:

   @spencesmith I get my haircut at Dion’s South in downtown Franklin.

   Everyone who is following Spence and me will see the message, but I am specifically directing it to Spence. (Those who are not following both of us will not see the message.)

   You can also use the Reply function to refer to someone by name. For example:

   I’m headed to dinner at Tin Angel with @gailhyatt and @meghyatt. I am looking forward to trying the new menu.

   The thing about replies is that they are “clickable links.” If someone who is following me, clicks on one of the names, they will automatically go to that person’s Twitter page. This will give them the opportunity to follow that person, too.

   Direct Messages. Continuing with the metaphor of a conversation with a room full of people, you can also use the “direct message” function. This is like whispering in one person’s ear. They can hear you, but no one else can. You are directing the message to them and only them. For example:

   d lnobles Can you bring my Business Review notebook down to the cafeteria conference room?

   Or:

   d gailhyatt It looks like I will not be able to leave the office for another 30 minutes. Bummer.

   Tracking. This is straight out of the Twitter FAQ: “Tracking is an SMS or IM only feature that allows you to receive all twitters that match a word you’re tracking. For example, if you send ‘track Obama,’ you will receive all updates that match ‘Obama.’ All updates sent from tracking will begin with parenthesis. You can easily stop getting these messages by sending ‘untrack Obama’.”

   Other Commands. You can add people you want to follow from your cell phone. Just type in “follow [username].” For example:

   Follow dearkaren

   You can check your stats—the number of people you are following plus the number of people following you—from your cell phone by typing “stats” without any additional text.

   To stop all Twitter updates to your phone, send:

   off

   To turn them back on send:

   on

   You can find answers to almost every other Twitter question on the FAQ page.

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7. Start twittering. So now you are all setup. It’s time to start Twittering. You can do this from your Twitter home page or from your cell phone.The main thing you need to know is that the message can no longer than 140 characters long. If you use the Web page, the entry field will automatically count your characters. After a while, you’ll instinctively know how long this is. I rarely go over the limit. But if you do, it’s no big deal. Your message will just be truncated.

   How often should you Twitter? That’s the 30-character question. My daughter @meghyatt says, “Don’t Twitter more than six times a day.” Personally, I think 10–12 should be the upper limit. Obviously, there’s a balance here. Some of the people I follow, Twitter way more than that.

   The real issue is whether or not you are adding something of value. There’s an old Jerry Seinfeld comedy routine called “Air Travel.” In it, he talks about airline pilots who insist on telling us all about the route they are taking. Like anyone cares. He says, as passengers, we don’t knock on the cockpit door and say, “Oh, by the way, I’m eating the peanuts now.” (Obviously this was pre-911.) So why do pilots feel the need to update us. All we care about is getting to the destination.

   No one probably wants to hear the blow-by-blow of your life. However, some color commentary is good. However, this is definitely art not science, so there are no hard, fast rules. But you should consider every Twitter update as a branding impression. You are developing a reputation with your online friends, so make sure you are adding something to the conversation.

   This is really no different than a face-to-face conversation. You want to say something that is interesting, helpful, or just plain entertaining. I don’t think you should over-think it, but I don’t think you should just text the first thing that pops in your mind.

8. Be careful. You definitely need to be cautious. It’s probably not a good idea to say something like, “I’m headed to the west coast for a week. My poor, beautiful wife is going to be home all alone.” Bad idea. For obvious reasons.

   You need to think about the fact that crazy people and criminals have Twitter accounts, too. You especially need to be cautious about sharing too much private information that could compromise your safety or that of your loved ones. I have also had some experience with stalkers, so you may only want to Twitter after you have gone somewhere, not before. Otherwise, you might find people showing up to watch you. (Don’t laugh. It has happened to a very good friend of mine.)

9. Consider third-party apps. An entire eco-system has sprung up around Twitter. Here are some of my favorite applications:

   Twitter for Facebook application. This application automatically syncs all your Twitter updates with Facebook. Once you set this up, you won’t ever have to make another Facebook update.
   

   TweetDeck. This is the application I use to manage Twitter on my desktop. It is great because it allows you to segment people by groups. I have groups for my family, close friends, colleagues, etc. It is available for both Windows and Mac.

   Twittelator Pro. I wish that there was a Tweetdeck application for the iPhone, because I love the groups function. Until then, there’s Twittelator Pro. It at least allows me to keep with my direct messages and replies.

Twitter is one of those apps that is best learned by using it. The most important thing you can do is get started. You really can’t make that many mistakes. Just remember to have fun and enjoy the people you meet online.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, click

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