Let’s jump right in and get your account set up in Twitter!

Create Your Twitter Account
Twitter is rapidly growing and it is one of the most powerful ways to get a ton of targeted traffic to your website with very little effort. Twitter is a powerful marketing tool that can be used for lead generation, networking, customer service, building a community and as a branding tool.



Not only can you use Twitter to build solid relationships with other people in your niche, but you can also get real time updates on anything happening in the world. You can even use Twitter to do research on what others are saying about a topic right now – including your own business.

All of the potential of Twitter means increased income for you. Plus, Twitter is very easy to use and takes just a few minutes each day to update…

To set up your Twitter account, go to Twitter. Setting up your account is a simple process.If you need any help just let us know.

Now that you have your Twitter profile set up, let’s discuss using Twitter effectively…

How To Use Twitter Effectively

Log in to your account.

At the very top of your Twitter window, you’ll see this:
Here are the functions of the menu bar:

You can click the “Home” link to go to your homepage and Twitter feed.
Use @ Connect to see who has mentioned you (we will cover this in a bit).
Use # Discover to explore new content.
The Search bar will search Twitter.
You can click the drop-down menu next to the face icon to access several options:
Direct Messages – These are private messages that only the person you send one to can see. You can only message people who are following you.
Lists – Lists are a great way to organize the people you follow and group them. Remember all lists are public.
Settings
Use the blue icon for quickly composing a tweet.

Understanding Tweets
There are a couple of ways to compose a tweet:
1. Click Home.

2. Click the Blue icon.


Let’s see what happens as you start to type in that box:
Notice the 95 at the bottom? This is a countdown of how many characters I have left. With Twitter, each update can be no more than 140 characters.

A character is anything you can type… all letters (a-z), all numbers (1-9), all punctuation
(.@#%^& and even spaces. They all count toward your 140 character limit, so use them wisely.

Tip: Links embedded in your tweets are a great way to drive traffic to your site. But, links can take up a lot of valuable space. Remember, you are only allowed 140 characters total, including any links you want to send.


We recommend using a tool – such as Bitly- for shortening URLs so they take up fewer characters. Simply copy and paste the URL you want to shorten onto Bitly’s website, and click “Shorten.” Then, copy and paste the new URL into your tweet.

On the Home page, look to the left and you’ll see information about your account, including number of Tweets you’ve sent, who you are following and who is following you.

Followers are basically the same thing as friends, however, you don’t have to follow everyone who follows you and people you follow don’t have to follow you back. Another way to look at this is Followers are people who have “opted-in” to your Tweets.

When you say you are “following” someone, that means their Tweets (or Twitter updates) will appear on the right side of the Home page. You will also see Recommendations of who to follow and Trends in your area.

Here is our current Twitter Feed:


@ Connect

@ Connect is when someone Tweets and mentions you by including the @ symbol followed by your Twitter username. For example, if your Twitter username was JoeSmith, their Tweet would include @JoeSmith somewhere in it. They can either be replying to something you Tweeted or simply mentioning you in their Tweet.

Here is an example:

What Can You Do With Tweets

With each Tweet in your Twitter Feed you can make it a Favorite, Reply to it or Retweet it. When you hover over each Tweet in your Twitter Feed, you’ll see the options appear.

Favorite – By clicking “Favorite” you are adding that Tweet to a list of your Favorite Tweets that anyone can access. This is not a list of people, only a list of the Tweets you clicked “Favorite” on.

Tip: Anytime you get a positive comment or testimonial via a Tweet – click the Favorite link and before long, you’ll have a whole list of Testimonials that others will find on Twitter.

Reply – Reply means that you are responding to what they Tweeted. When you click the
Reply button, a popup will appear, like this:Then, you’ll just type your response in the white box and click “Tweet”. This reply will appear in your Twitter Feed for all your Followers to see.

Retweets (shown as “RT”) are when you repost a Tweet from someone you are following so your followers can see it. It’s similar to forwarding an email message, except it goes to everyone who is following you.

Here’s an example:


Hashtags
Hashtags are defined as community driven conventions for adding additional context and metadata to your Tweets.

Basically when someone tweets about something specific, they can use a Hashtag to make it show up in the results if someone else searches for that Hashtag.

Hashtags are denoted by “#”, like this:
Examples of some Hashtags are: #seo, #wordpress and #webdesign.

In Twitter, you can search for a Hashtag and see everything people are Tweeting about it.

Here is a website to find popular Hashtags to use.

Viewing Other People’s Profiles

When you’re viewing your Twitter Feed, you can click on anyone’s name and a pop-up box will appear.

In the pop-up box, you can click their username (with the @ symbol) and see their full profile, including their Tweets, who they are following, whose following them and more.

Twitter Tips
• The goal of all social media is to increase your exposure. On Twitter we do this by building our list of followers. The best way to increase your followers is by following people.

◦ Follow people who tweet using a hashtag that is relevant to your business.


◦ You can click on people’s followers and follow their followers.


◦ Don’t follow more than 100 people in one day or Twitter may think you are a spammer and block or cancel your profile.
• When someone follows you, follow them back.
• Don’t just update. Interact.

Twitter Tools
SocialOomph
• Let’s you schedule tweets and automate your account.

Twitbacks
• A website that lets you create a free Twitter background

MyTweetSpace
• Another website with free Twitter backgrounds

Tweetdeck
• Allows you to keep track of people you want to build great relationships with by grouping them into columns.
• But don’t leave this tool turned on all the time or you’ll never get anything else done.

Twellow
• Twellow is like the Twitter yellow pages
• You can search for people on Twitter by name, keyword, location, etc

Search.Twitter
• Allows you to search for anything and get a live feed of it on Twitter
• Tip: Type in your name (or business name) and see what others are saying about you

Bitly
• Bitly is a tool for shortening URLs so they will fit in the 140 character

Embedding Timelines
• Allows you to add a Twitter feed to your websites.

Our next lesson will cover setting up your Facebook account, including a Facebook Business page and we’ll show you how to integrate Facebook and Twitter!

Also, share your process, questions, suggestions – or whatever you want – in the comments below…

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source:http://www.zolamandesign.com/tutorial/daily-tips/39-using-twitter-to-build-traffic-to-your-website