DSA Online | New Media Updates

Kathryn’s article on Twitter highlights why it could be a great tool for your business to be using. But if you’re like me, you still have no idea HOW to use it.

I’ve signed-up for it and I can write my little posts, but is anybody reading it? Am I really utilizing Twitter?  I did a quick search and found an article offer 10 twitter tips.  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2341109,00.asp
Like most ’10′ lists, there’s a fair bit of filler, but there was a few useful hints I thought worth mentioning:

1. Shrink your URLs – with only 140 characters, Twitter is a great place to post links – provided they fit in the space. Unknown to many, there are websites that you can visit, paste a link into form, press a buttom, and like magic they give you a shorter URL to paste into your tweet.

• Pros: It’s pretty easy to copy and paste, its not rocket science.
• Cons: The shortened code is still a pretty messy thing to see in a tweet.
• Likelihood I’ll use this: Mos Def – posting useful links is the most practical use I see for my Twitter use.

2. ReTweet – apparently stealing tweets is totally fine in the Twitterverse. Just be sure you mention who you lifted it from.

• Pros: Jumping on the bandwagon, join the party, be hip with the current event junkies.
• Cons: You have to know the secret tweet language of strange shorthands, as well as posting the persons name and  message. You also need to be following people in order to take from them.
• Likelihood I’ll use this:  Low – I know I won’t remember the short-hand, and I can’t be bothered to paste a name AND their message.

3. The @ Sign – you can use the @ symbol to send messages to specific people.

• Pros: Everyone likes commenting right? We all love to put our opinions out there.
• Cons: I still don’t get who sees this.  Where do comments on Tweets appear? Also, more confusing special codes!
• Likelihood I’ll use this: Maybe – If I can figure out how it works?

4. Categorize your Tweets – apparently by putting a # symbol in front of a keyword will categorize your tweet with tweets also containing that keyword.

• Pros: This will make your tweets appear on searches, increasing the chances of people finding your posts.
• Cons: How do you search for phrases?  I couldn’t find a search box on my Twitter page.
• Likelihood I’ll use it: It’s not going to happen if I can’t figure out how to do my own searches.

5. Use it on your mobile device – if you have on.

• Pros:  This is what brought Twitter into the spotlight, planes in rivers and so on. Enough said.
• Cons: You need a great mobile device, and the ability to download the mobile version to your phone.
• Likelihood I’ll use it:  I couldn’t download the app to my phone, which makes this suggestion impossible for me.

In summary, my big beef with Twitter is that while there is evidently many ways to use it, none of it is intutitive. Users seem to need to use a secret language to utilize it, which to me seems to indicate that we’re forcing Twitter to do things that weren’t orginally intended.  It also really relies on developing a strong group of followers to be useful, which creates a catch 22:  Without followers, whats the motivation to learn all this; and without learning these tricks how to you develop a following.  My impression right now is that while Twitter could be useful to your business, you’d probably need to hire Kathryn to teach you how to use it. I’m sure her rates are reasonable.