Like a lot of people, when I first heard about Twitter I was a skeptic. I thought it was just millions of people posting “I just ate a burrito” updates. While it may be true that there are plenty of useless tweets out there, I’ve also discovered that Twitter can be used many different ways and some of them are actually useful! If you are wondering how to use Twitter, I can help you make the most of this very powerful website. If you decide to follow me on Twitter, I promise that I will never tweet about a burrito that I just ate…unless it was really good!
- Custom New Feed. Even if you never send a tweet of your own Twitter can be a fantastic tool. If you are highly selective about who you follow, or better yet create good lists, then your Twitter time line will be filled tweets and links that will be useful to you. This is how I fell in love with Twitter. I started out by following people like Seth Godin (@thisissethsblog) and Anthony Robbins (@TonyRobbins). Twitter can be a way to tune in to some of the great minds of our time. You can add people to lists even if you don’t follow them. By creating targeted lists you can control and filter the content that you see. You may decide that you want to tune into local news, your favorite celebrities, or the leaders in your industry. You can customize your lists any way you choose. You can also follow lists created by other people. Each list is viewed on it’s own timeline. If you find and create great lists you can get straight to the content you want without the noise.
- Trending Topics. If you want to know what people are talking about right now, take a look at what’s trending on Twitter. Sometimes you’ll see some nonsense, but it can be fun to join in the fun. Trending topics are often jokes, rumors and news. When something important happens it becomes a trending topic very quickly. From natural disasters like the earthquakes in Haiti to civil unrest in Egypt, Twitter has become the fastest way to find out what’s happening in the world. More importantly, it has become the fastest way to tell the world what’s happening.
- Instant Messager. Some people use Twitter as an alternative to texting. The difference is that your conversation is public. This is a very popular way to use Twitter but if you are trying to add Twitter followers you need to make sure your tweets are interesting. Having a conversation on Twitter can be like talking on your cell phone in the elevator. It might not be very interesting to the people who only get half the conversation. One way that you can keep it interesting is to retweet the original post and add your comments so people can see what you are responding to. A good tweet should stand alone. Deepak Chopra (@DeepakChopra) is great at writing tweets that are useful even out of context. His answers are often so profound that that you don’t even need to know what the question was.
- Status updates. AKA “I just ate a burrito” posts. This is the most obvious use of Twitter. Twitter asks “What’s Happening?” and the obvious answer is whatever you are doing at the moment. You can keep in touch with your friends and family easily using Twitter. Sometimes people just use Twitter to complain. If you are trying to add Twitter followers you probably don’t want to do much complaining. However, if you have an issue that you want to air, or you are looking for people that you can help, Twitter is a good tool for you.
- Networking. Twitter can be a great tool for networking with people who share your interests. Find people who are tweeting about things that interest you and join the conversation. Search for people who list your hobbies, interests or keywords in their bio. If you want to add Twitter followers, you should add people who are interested in the same things that you are. Chances are good that you may like their tweets and that they may like your tweets. Most of the time people will follow you back if you have a good profile and timeline. A good way to get someones attention is to retweet something they have posted. Don’t be shy. Social media is all about being social!
Twitter can be used many different ways. I’ve listed 5 of my favorites. How do you use Twitter?