The Twitter Book

CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Get Starte 1. d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Sign up 21
Q u i c k l y c r e a t e a c o m p e l l i n g p r o ‚ l e 23
Understand what “following” means 25
Find the people you know on Twitter 27
Get suggestions for cool people to follow 29
Twitter from the road 31
Test-drive the 140-character limit 33
Trim messages that are too long 35
The secret to linking in Twitter 37
Figure out how many people to follow 39
Join a conversation: the hashtag (#)
d e m y s t i ‚ e d 41
Key Twitter jargon: tweet 43
Key Twitter jargon: @messages 45
Key Twitter jargon: retweet 47
Key Twitter jargon: DM 49
Key Twitter jargon: tweetup 51
Twitter jargon: Fail Whale 53
Try it for three weeks or your money
back—guaranteed! 55
Get help from Twitter 57
Listen I 2. n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Use Twitter Search 61
Keep on an eye on hot topics 63
Four cool tools for tracking trends: #1 65
Four cool tools for tracking trends: #2 67
Four cool tools for tracking trends: #3 69
Four cool tools for tracking trends: #4 71
Take advantage of advanced search 73
Four impotant things to search for 75
Advance your advanced search 77
Track searches with RSS 79
Track search with email alerts 81
Track twittered links to your website 83
Find out what people are reading 85
Bookmark links to read later 87
Use a life-changing third-party program 89
Life-changing program #1: Twhirl 91
Life-changing program #2: TweetDeck 93
Use a great mobile client 95
Follow smart people you don’t know 97
F i g u r e o u t w h o ’ s i n ƒ u e n t i a l o n T w i t t e r 99
Hold Great Conversation 3. s . . . . . 101
Get great followers 103
Reply to your @messages 105
Retweet clearly and classily: Part 1 107
Retweet clearly and classily: Part 2 109
When via is better than RT 111
What to retweet 113
Troubleshoot your retweets 115
Ask questions 117
Answer questions 119
Send smart @replies 121
Twitter often…but not too often 123
Three cool hashtag tricks 125
Know your new followers 127
T h r e e t o o l s t o ‚ g u r e o u t y o u r f o l l o w e r s 129
Unfollow graciously 131
Don’t auto-DM (for crying out loud) 133
Don’t spam anyone 135
Fight spam 137
Share Information and Idea 4. s . . 139
Be interesting to other people 141
Make sure your messages get seen 143
Link to interesting stuff around the Web 145
Link appealingly to your blog or site 147
Link to a tweet 149
Post pictures 151
Live-twitter an event 153
Overhear things 155
Publish on Twitter 157
Participate in fundraising campaigns 159
Make smart suggestions on
FollowFriday 161
Post on the right days 163
Repost impotant messages
Reveal Yoursel 5. f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Post personal updates 169
Go beyond “What are you doing?” 171
Use the right icon 173
Fill out your full bio
(it takes two seconds) 175
Spiff up your background: Part 1 177
Spiff up your background: Part 2 179
Cross-post to your Facebook account 181
Keep track of friends and family 183
Twitter for Business: Special 6.
Considerations and Ideas . . . . 185
L i s t e n r s t 187
Have clear goals 189
Integrate with your other channels 191
Start slow, then build 193
Figure out who does the twittering 195
Reveal the person behind the curtain 197
Manage multiple staff Twitterers 199
Coordinate multiple accounts 201
M a k e s u r e y o u ’ r e ‚ n d a b l e 203
Be conversational 205
Retweet your customers 207
Offer solid customer support 209
Post mostly NOT about your company 211
Link creatively to your own sites 213
Make money with Twitter 215
Report problems…and resolutions 217
Post personal updates 219
Use URL shorteners to track
click-throughs 221
Engage journalists and PR people 223
Integrate Twitter with your products 225
Follow everyone who follows you
(almost) 227
Three key tools for business accounts 229
Continuing the conversation 231
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

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