A guest blog by Steven Healey
Twitter is opening up new ways to quickly communicate with the world.
Whenever you send a public messages it can be seen by millions around the globe , and of course by your intended audience.
Your tweet can be found on Google and will stay there as a permanent record of what you tweeted. It also appears on web pages designed to collate tweets.
It started as a simple status message .. ‘What are you doing’ ?
Given the question on the Twitter page , people typed where they were and what they were doing ,simple enough .. and anybody following you had more information than before.
The thing is though , that while there are a few people who still use it in this way , the number of people who use twitter as a real two way communication tool is growing.
If all you do is post your own observations then you are not getting the most out of twitter .. you are one dimensional ..
If you send messages to others then you become 3D , you are reaching out and interacting.
So you start your tweet by prefixing it with @username , eg(@stevenhealey, @nikkipilkington,@subbutcher) and the message can be seen by the person you send it to.
They will then read it and reply , and a conversation begins.
Now you could assume that this is just a conversation between two people but it is not , everyone on twitter can see it.
This is where is gets interesting .
People can set up searches on keywords .. and monitor anyone talking about them. If they see an interesting post they may join in and connect with you , and so your network grows .. with people around the globe who share a common interest.
You can use that same search facility to track keywords you are interested in and then make contact with anyone who tweets on that topic.
I use @tweetlater to send me twice daily updates of my keywords , then I can just skip down the list and follow people of interest and catch up on the latest news , I know Nikki does the same using @tweetscan.
Everybody wants to know that their words are heard , the only way this can happen is if people respond .. there are three ways to respond to a tweet
A) Direct Message (DM) .. if they are following you .. the message is then just between the two of you.
There is a feature here you should be aware of , if you follow someone – they can direct message you but you can’t reply by DM, only if you both follow each other can direct messages be two way.
B) Retweet (RT) .. if you feel that the people following you should see the message then just retweet .
This heightens your profile and helps the person who did the original tweet , and given that no two people have exactly the same followers then new people will see it.
Just today I retweeted a request , Mireille (@DTPHULP" target="_blank">@@DTPHULP) saw it , replied and now she is in touch with Jay(@specialmemories" target="_blank">@specialmemories)
C) Reply .. what you say is visible to your followers , their followers and the world at large.
It is just so simple the more you reply and retweet , the more rewarding and enjoyable Twitter becomes , and it all begins to make sense.
Twitter is fun , it’s a way to keep in contact with people , make new contacts , market yourself , learn and get help when you need it.
Just remember one thing .. you are live on channel twitter .. please do not swear .
Steven (@stevenhealey) Is an inveterate networker who enjoys all thing networking , loves to help and chat and knows how to create great software. You can read his blog at http://vamoss.tumblr.com/
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