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What's with Twitter?

Wednesday 1st July 2009 | 2 comments

It seems you can't turn around these days without tripping over a reference to Twitter. Most people have at least a hazy idea that it has something to do with 'microblogging in maximum 140 characters'.

I started my social media adventures with Facebook (which I only joined because my favourite online scrabble game went there). After a while I got interested in social media for my own business and now I'm on Twitter and Facebook, Linked-In, Squidoo, Ning and more...

Twitter in particular has brought me contacts, ideas and information...it's like a river flowing past my door, that I can dip into whenever I like.

I became so fascinated that I recently wrote an article for the Australian Financial Review BOSS magazine called 'Beyond Twitter', May 2009 issue. There's a link in the news & events box on the home page.

So how do you get started on Twitter? Here's 5 tips:

1. Joining is easy at the twitter website. Be careful when you choose a username, because it will appear on every post you make and can't be changed. If you are joining for business reasons, choose your business name or at least something that won't embarass you later! (I am on Twitter as @workincolour).
2. Follow a couple of people to start with. This means you will see a stream of their posts and also posts from others that they have retweeted (like forwarding). If any of these look interesting, follow them too. Feel free to follow me.
3. You can search for people here, or search for subjects that interest you here.
4. Stuck? Watch the 'get started' video here or find answers to FAQs. One of the best websites about social media is http://mashable.com/.
5. Once you have the look, download a twitter organiser like Tweetdeck which means you can highlight your favourite people and have easier access to all the twitter functions.

The best way to get the hang of Twitter is to jump in and see what you find.

If you're in Sydney, you can also come along to my one-night intro to Twitter, blogging, Linked-In and more. There's a link in the news & events box on the home page.

Hope to see you in the twitterverse!

Tags: media, twitter

Comments

1. Joanna, I love your analogy of the river you can dip your toe in to.

   I think there many people feel overwhelmed by the notion of being constantly 'plugged-in' and the tidal wave of information crashing over them all the time - but that's a great strategy to manage the overload and take control into your own hands.

   Posted by Megan Wilson | Thursday 6th August 2009 @ 12:32pm

2. I couldn't handle Twitter at all til I thought of the river, so I'm happy to share it. Anything to make technology work for us not against us, I say!

   Posted by Joanna Maxwell | Thursday 6th August 2009 @ 2:51pm