What the Twit is this?

A friend told me she setup a Twitter account for her job, but really had no idea how it works. She asked me for some advise and here's what I told her. This is my extremely brief introduction to Twitter. Comments and critiques are appreciated.


Twitter is definitely one of those things that you grow into. Let me see what I can answer for you.

My account is largely my own thoughts. I talk a lot about web development because that's what I do...a lot. It gets me into that community on the web and often results in good tips, advice and occasionally job leads. I try to make my tweets diverse in subject matter. I'll explain why in a sec.

I follow as many friends as I have that actually use Twitter. It's a super easy way to keep in touch and share ideas. I also follow all my favorite sports teams, news stations, Ghost Hunters, local businesses etc.

There are a couple of ways to get people to follow you:

1. Tweet often and diversely. Keep in mind, tweeting is like participating in a conversation. Start spamming and talking too much, you'll lose people.

2. Follow lots of people yourself. Many businesses use follow-back programs that will automatically follow you if you follow them.

3. Ask questions in your tweets and use #hashtags on keywords. This will help engage people searching through Twitter and following trends.

4. RT (retweet) other tweets you like. It's like passing notes.

5. Mention other users like @ChrisAlbrecht in your tweets. That's a sure way to get some attention.

Even though you are representing your business, you can still be personal. I think that might actually get you a better rapport with your followers. Use "I" in your tweets, just keep it to office-speak more or less. I tried having one account strictly for my business and one just for me, but it's too hard to keep up on both. I just use the one and kind of filter my thoughts a little.

Since you're a charitable company, I would follow tons of charities, especially ones you work with, and RT as many applicable tweets as you can. Build up a solid tweet base then just participate in the conversation.

So that's my two and a half cents on Twitter. Hope that helps.