A HIPPO Internet Marketing Training blog by Corey Creed

The Jungle Map, your guide through internet marketing

How to Use Twitter

December 27th, 2007
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For the past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with Twitter.

What it is

For those of you that don’t know what it is, Twitter is considered micro-blogging.  In other words, just like you can post a blog post very easily and quickly, you can very easily post on twitter. 

The one limitation is that it needs to be 140 characters or less.  Check out this video to get more of a feel for how this can work.

To understand it better, you can look at my Twitter page at http://twitter.com/coreycreed.  You will notice that I post whatever I want when I want, but it’s always 140 characters or less.

How to start Twittering

Anyone can do this for free.  Simply go to www.Twitter.com and sign up.

Once you sign up, you can go to your page and post anything you want whenever you want and your comment will be added to your page.

How to read twitters

Even if you choose not to do it yourself, what really makes this interesting is reading what others write.  For example, you can see CNN Breaking news or ESPN news.  Or you can read your friends, families and workmates’ twitters. 

Personally, I’ve signed up to read the twitter comments from various search engine optimization professionals.  If you go back to my twitter page, look in the bottom right corner under “People”.  You will see all the people (and businesses) I am following (or listening to) now.

How to get notified

Of course, once you have an account with Twitter, you can go to your account page and see all the messages by the people you follow.

You can also sign up to get these messages on your mobile phone.

But personally, I like to use it more like Instant Messaging.  So I downloaded a free program called Snitter.  It stays loaded on my computer and shows me when someone comments.  There are more applications listed here.

How to use Twitter

What good uses are there for Twitter? 

  • Nice way to keep up with friends and family.
  • Stay informed of the latest news.
  • Let others know about important things you are doing or learning.
  • Market what you are doing to others.

If you have not tried it yet, why not?  The full potential of Twitter is yet to come.  Many are experimenting with it.