The Executive's Introduction to Twitter

After following social media for some time now, I've noticed two places where currently available information falls short. For one, most blogs and articles assume the reader is currently participating in various social networks. Additionally, most literature is geared towards social media marketers and online entrepreneurs, not toward c-suite leadership. This blog exists to address the second issue; this post will address the first.

So you've heard about Twitter and tweeting, now it's time to get your hands dirty. Getting started is extremely simple.

Creating an account

1. Visit http://twitter.com (obviously)
2. Press the big green "Sign up now" button
3. In the Full Name box, you can put whatever you want. However, using your actual name is helpful because colleagues, friends, and fans can locate your Twitter profile by searching for you buy name
4. The user name is what you will use to sign-in, but more importantly, it make up your unique Twitter address. When you have your account setup, you can direct people to your profile by directing them to twitter.com/your_user_name.
   
• Be careful! Don't misspell your name. You don't want to publicize the wrong address. But if you do make a mistake, you can change your user name later, provided the name you want is still available
• FYI: your user name is often referred to as your "handle," in a throw-back to the days of CB radio
5. Your password must be at least 6 characters
6. Your email address is used to contact you when you have a new follower or a new direct message
7. Just enter the two words in the reCAPTCHA box (as spam prevention) and your all set!
   

Your first Tweet
When you first log in, you'll notice that Twitter is somewhat pushy about your personal life. It asks, "What are you doing?" Of course, you don't have to be honest, but the box immediately below is where you type your Tweets. In Twitter lingo, anytime you announce something to the Twitter universe, it's called a Tweet. Some people really do share what they're up to ("On the way to dinner"), or share useful information ("Check out the new post at The Social CEO"), or even to send messages to other Twitter users.

NOTE: You have to be a creative Tweeter, because your Tweets are limited to 140 characters, including spaces and alphanumerics.

Following and Followers
Over in the side bar, you'll see two numbers: one for following and one for followers. These two concepts comprise the web of twitters network.

When you follow a person, you receive their tweets on your homepage. When you log in, you'll see a list of tweets in chronological order. This can be helpful if you follow leaders in your industry, or authors you admire, or even news companies. If you follow CNN for example, you'll receive a stream of news updates from around the world right on your Twitter homepage.

How do you find people to follow? One way is by using the Find People link in the top navigation bar. If you search CNN, for example, you'll get a list of handles currently used by CNN for various news genres. To follow any one of these profiles, just click the "Follow" button.

As you follow more and more people, you'll notice your "Following" number will rise. You may also notice that when you follow others, quite a few will follow you back. In Twitter world, this practice is considered good etiquette by many. In the same way you receive updates on the people you follow, your followers will see your tweets on their homepage.

You can also find new people to follow by seeing who your friends are following. Each time you view someone's profile, you can see a list of their followers as well as who they follow. This is a great way to find people of similar interests or others in your field.

This is the power of Twitter, in that you can instantly send information to potentially thousands of interested parties. You may have a personal account that updates your friends and family about your weekend plans, but your branded account may update many thousand customers of a new promotion or product. Or, if you're especially sneaky, you might even create a pseudonymous account and follow all your competitors to see what they're up to.

Now you're up to speed
Now that you're up to speed on how to get involved in Twitter, we'll discuss advanced functionality in a coming post. You'll want to know about hash tags and using the @ symbol to pinpoint other Twitter users. Retweets, direct messaging, and profile customization will also be covered. So stay tuned!