social media twitter_userguide
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User Guide
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Included in this user guide are the following sections:
�� Intro: What Twitter Can Offer
�� The Tool
�� Set Up Your Account
�� Find People To Follow
�� Tweeting
• UnderstandTwitterShorthand
• LinkShorteners
• SpaceataPremium
• DirectMessages(DMs)
• FodderforTweets
• TwitterGatherings
�� Managing Twitter
• ManageFollowers
• BeingUnfollowed
• ManageVolume
The Twitter User Guide was developed by Michelle Golden of Golden Practices, Inc.
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Intro:WhatTwitterCanOfferTwitter is extremely simple to navigate, set up and use—there are only a few elements to master.It’s amazing how much you can convey or glean in 140-character posts. Use Twitter to:
It’s amazing how much you can convey or glean in 140-character posts.
�� Communicate timely news and information
�� Learn from others
�� Stay current on general or industry news and events
�� Connect personally with key, influential figures
�� Rely on good tweeters as information filters
�� Be a good information filter for others
�� Interact with others—create and deepen relationships
�� Research people and companies
�� Promote others (build goodwill) by sharing their thoughts or content
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TheTool
Navigation:Home Where you view the stream of tweets by those whom you follow.
Profile Where you view your page as others see it (called your “timeline”).
Messages Lists messages sent privately to you, and those you’ve sent privately to others.
Settings Under your name, where you create your account and manage your minimal profile.
Content just for you:@mentions Lists all mentions of your Twitter name.
Retweets Lists tweets re-broadcast (or forwarded) using Twitter’s built-in “retweet” feature. Shows retweets by those you follow, your retweets of others and others’ retweets of your posts.
Searches If you’ve performed a search and saved it, it shows up for your future reference until you remove it—clicking the search term opens a new search for that term.
Content others can see:Lists Twitter’s “list” feature is very powerful. Any lists you create will show for you and others (unless you made them private) and lists others make, which you “follow,” are shown.
Following Those whom you “follow,” a count and link to the list.
Followers Those who follow you, a count and link to the list.
Favorites Links to a list of any tweets you’ve indicated a “favorite” by selecting the “star.”
Listed The lists to which other users have added you.
Other featuresTrending topics At any time, see a quick reference of the 10 most popular topics at that given moment. Keep an eye on this list for breaking news!
Who to Follow Suggestions of people who might be of interest to you.
Footer The footer of each page contains links to Twitter’s Contact and Help information.
If you do not already have a Twitter account, you can simply go to Twitter.com, click “sign up” and fill out the required fields.
IfyoudonotalreadyhaveaTwitteraccount,youcansimplygo toTwitter.com,click“signup”andfillouttherequiredfields.OnceyoucreateyouraccountonTwitter,youcanbeginexploringthesiteanditsnavigation.Ifyouneedadditionalhelpfromthesocialnetwork,youmayvisitTwitter’sonlinehelpcenter atsupport.twitter.com.
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Choosing Your NameIt’s always better to tweet personally, under your own name (e.g., Bill Jones with username @billjones or @billjonescpa) versus under your business name (e.g., Smith Jones LLC with username @smithjonesllc). Even when a marketing or customer service person handles company tweeting, he or she should be set up as an individual—this makes you and your business more accessible in order to better develop relationships. Several big corporations do this such as “@ChrisatDell.”
SetUpYourAccount
These are the two Twitter name fields:Name: Use your actual human name, and definitely put CPA or other credentials in this space—it displays in text format on your profile.
Username field: Your “@” name, which is your main identifier and will be part of your unique URL (twitter.com/YourUsername).
Your first choice of username may already be taken. Including “CPA” is a good differentiator for a common name, and it helps brand you.
Tips for a great name:�� The shorter the better − with 140 characters in a post, they all count.
�� It’s okay to run words together (e.g., @dansmith) to keep it short.
�� Keep it simple and easy for others to recall.
�� Avoid uncommon abbreviations (e.g., “oklaacctgprof”).
�� Don’t use all caps. All lowercase is fine or capitalize first letters of words.
�� Leave out numbers—this isn’t a “login.”
�� Use a hyphen instead of an underscore between words if a break is necessary.
Also, do these few things in your Settings:
Account tab: Tweet Privacy: DO NOT select Protect My Tweets. Hiding your communications defeats the purpose of Twitter. Most people won’t bother to follow you back because they cannot see whether your tweets would interest them.
Notices tab: Turn on (or off) email notifications to receive direct messages (DMs) and new followers. These can be voluminous. Plus you can view them on demand, so off is good for most.
Even when a marketing or customer service person handles company tweeting, he or she should be set up as an individual—this makes you and your business more accessible in order to better develop relationships.
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Profile tab:Picture: Add a photo as soon as possible to replace the default image. A photo cropped tightly on your face, in which you look relaxed and approachable, is best. Don’t use your logo−be human.
Location: Add city/state.
Web: List your company website address here or that of your blog, your LinkedIn profile, Google profile or other online bio—hopefully one that links to all your other websites.
Bio: Don’t leave it blank! Use 160 characters to describe yourself, your credentials (say you’re a CPA!), your specialties and something interesting about yourself, for example: “father of 3 beautiful girls,” “die-hard hockey fan,” “birdwatcher,” “love helping people” or “PTA member.” If your website is your company site, you needn’t repeat your company name here.
Do be positive, friendly, and talk about yourself in the first person.
Design tab: Select one of Twitter’s backgrounds, or upload a favorite picture as your background image. Simple is best. If you want to sport a professionally designed, branded background image, hire a graphic designer or use an inexpensive service (e.g., twitterbackgrounds.com). Some examples are:
�� twitter.com/CLT_CPA
�� twitter.com/dentalcpas
�� twitter.com/Schneider_Downs
Because background images aren’t clickable, don’t list more than one or two links, and do list a phone number and email address.
Select one of Twitter’s backgrounds, or upload a favorite picture as your background image. Simple is best.
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FindPeopleToFollow
Did you know the AICPA is on Twitter? Some of our popular accounts are:
@AICPANews@AICPA_JofA@CPALetter_Daily@YoungCPANetwork
To make Twitter interesting, follow interesting people. Use the Search feature to find people you know.
Suggestions for whom to follow:�� The AICPA (@AICPA) and its various groups and staff members
�� Your state society
�� Any relevant media, both national and local
�� Peers
�� Experts in your industry(ies)
�� Association representatives
�� People you respect and/or enjoy learning from
As you read others’ tweets, you’ll see them referring to others. If you like what you see, follow those people, too. This is how your follower count grows.
Also look for “lists” people have compiled of those you might like to know. For instance, for CPA types, these lists can be helpful:
twitter.com/michellegolden/cpas-cas-who-tweet
twitter.com/michellegolden/accounting-news-info
twitter.com/michellegolden/accounting-firms-corp
twitter.com/AICPA_JofA/statecpasocieties
Click on a list to see the most recent tweets, see and directly follow any list members. You also can just “follow” a whole list after which a link to the list will appear on your Twitter page sidebar for your convenience.
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Tweeting
Twitterwasn’tinventedasasalestoolbutratheracommunicationtool(morelikeatelephone),thusitshouldn’tbeusedinapushyorpitchyway.Thinkhowvaluableaphoneis,andyethowintrusivemanypeoplefindunsolicitedtelemarketingcallstobe.Don’tbethatTwitteruser.
Use a 10:1 ratio of promoting others to promoting yourself or your business. Retweet (RT) and mention other people often (using their @name). And be sure to mention others who mention you. There is a limit to how much public replying to do in a conversation, though. If you are going to exchange more than three messages with someone, move the conversation to direct message (DM), email or phone—take it private.
Twitter Shorthand“RT” A designation that what follows is retweeted or re-broadcast by the person typing it. The RT is a powerful tool created by users within the Twitter community. When people RT you, it spreads your ideas and links to their broader audience. To make it easy for people to RT, leave extra space in your tweets.
When you quote others, always use “RT” and their @name. RTs can be manual (type or paste someone’s tweet) or you can use Twitter’s built-in RT feature, which offers some benefits:
�� It’s fast and easy.
�� You won’t need to shorten a long tweet to keep it at 140 characters.
�� RTs are captured for you in your sidebar (“Retweets by you”) so you can measure and analyze.
The manual RT is necessary, however, if you want to append the original tweet with your own commentary or context.
See the below RT. In this example, the Young CPA Network is RTing an original tweet from AICPANews:
@replies or mentions– typing the “@” character followed by a Twitter username (@name) is an @mention or reply and results in two things:
1) It creates a link to the person’s Twitter page
2) Your tweet appears in their @Mentions list. In other words, they see that you named them. Use this to reach out to, respond to or thank another Twitter user. If you don’t cite them this way, they are unlikely to see what you’ve posted.
You can use the “reply” button/link (found to the right of a tweet when you hover over it with your mouse) to quickly reply to someone or multiple people. This auto-populates the name in the tweet field and the post will have a subtle reference under it telling others that your tweet is “in reply to …” with a link to the original tweet. This makes it a lot easier to follow a conversation of your own or among other friends you follow.
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#Hashtag Hashtags are used often in Twitter to isolate or designate multi-party conversations. This is how groups converse about specific topics. You can search by hashtag to find an entire conversation. Highly publicized events, for example, include the #hudson airline landing or #haiti.
For most conferences or events, in person or online, attendees or hosts designate an event hashtag. For instance, the AICPA’s National Tax Conference used the hashtag #AICPANatTax. Before, during and after the event, people could follow along by reading #AICPANatTax search results. The act of sharing tidbits during the event is called “live-tweeting.”
Anyone can make a hashtag—just announce it to likeminded friends—and consider registering it with a site like What the Hashtag? (wthashtag.com) to archive it and help promote it to others.
Link ShortenersWhen you share links, you’ll quickly find that they consume a lot of precious space in your tweet. Link shortening services convert very long links into nice, short ones. A popular one is bit.ly because, when you create a (free) account, you can revisit bit.ly anytime to see click-through statistics for your links. If you have a bit.ly account, you can choose a custom (or vanity) name for your link such as bit.ly/mybio instead of the random letter/number combo bit.ly auto-generates.
Other link shortening services and some third-party Twitter reader applications (e.g., TweetDeck) have built-in URL shorteners. A comparison chart (from 2009) of link shorteners is found at: searchengineland.com/analysis-which-url-shortening-service-should-you-use-17204
When you tweet links, a key to good readership and getting retweeted is to write great, compelling “headlines.” And when you share a link, always provide context! Don’t just write: “Great article: LINKHERE.” State why you think someone ought to read it.
Anyone can make a hashtag—just announce it to likeminded friends—and consider registering it with a site like What the Hashtag? (wthashtag.com) to archive it and help promote it to others.
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When people RT you, follow you or otherwise mention you, it is considerate to thank them. You can do this with an @reply (which all will see) or send such thanks in a DM.
Space at a PremiumAt just 140 characters per tweet, Twitter definitely teaches brevity! As you type your tweet, a remaining character countdown appears. Type out your thoughts, then whittle down your words as needed to fit.
Sometimes you’ll need to abbreviate whether composing a tweet or shortening a RT of others. Avoid obscure abbreviations, but it’s okay to use common shortcuts. You’ll see “mktg” for marketing, “preso” and “convo” for presentation and conversation, respectively, and SM for social media is a standard as is “yest” for yesterday, and so forth. If you need help shortening a tweet, try twonvert.com that automatically suggests how to conserve space.
On a limited basis, it’s acceptable to resort to “U2” and “B4” but don’t write every tweet in this manner if you want to convey an overall professional image.
Direct Messages (DMs)You might receive a private thank you DM from people you follow, mention or RT. This is a very good practice. You will also, no doubt, receive
some “Auto DMs.” This is not a good practice. Auto DMs (canned auto-responses) do not serve to build goodwill and they lack the personal touch.
When people RT you, follow you or otherwise mention you, it is considerate to thank them. You can do this with an @reply (which all will see) or send such thanks in a DM.
Note: you can only DM people who follow you. This prevents all Twitter users from getting DM spam from just anyone. So if someone mentions you, and they don’t already follow you, the only way to thank them is to do so publicly with an @reply. If people bombard you with DMs, you can unfollow them.
In general, don’t click links sent to you in DMs unless you are expecting them. Like email, there are some malicious users, and sometimes Twitter accounts get “hijacked” so you could receive something nasty from a “friend.” If unsure about an unexpected link, ignore it or ask the friend if it’s a legitimate before you click.
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Fodder For TweetsThe best source for tweets is your own content, housed elsewhere online (i.e., website or blogs). But heed the 10:1 ratio of You:Me posts. If you aren’t currently generating content, don’t worry. Once you start reading tweets, it will not be difficult to find things to share. Even five minutes of reading per day will provide ideas for interesting content to share.
Read other tweets as well as online and print news/articles, or simply discuss observations (sanitized to protect confidentiality) that you have in day-to-day business. It’s a good idea to have some focus in your tweets, so primarily share content related to your specialty.
Promote others. A lot. RT or @mentions go a long way. Social media is all about courtesy and sharing. When others do something for you, thank them with a nice tweet, especially when they:
�� Add you to a list
�� RT you
�� Follow you
�� Mention you or your work
�� Host live Tweetups, Twitter chats and other events
�� Share something you enjoyed
�� Teach you something
�� Help you
Twitter “Gatherings”There are opportunities to join “gatherings” of other Twitter users online, real-time, called TwitterChats, or in-person gatherings, known as Tweetups. A core purpose in using Twitter is to broaden your contacts and develop rapport—this requires participation. When you attend a TwitterChat, you’ll discover people to follow who share your interests and, if you participate in the conversation, you’re likely to pick up some new followers, too.
You may stumble upon these gatherings, but you can also use tools for finding gatherings such as TweetMeUp.net and Tweetvite.com. If you’re attending a conference, ask if there already is a #Hashtag for it, and then search the #Hashtag to see if there is mention of a Tweetup. If not, initiate one! With about 20 million people using Twitter, hardly any event is held without at least a small Tweetup. While at the event, include the #Hashtag in tweets of some of key take-aways—this is “live-tweeting.”
The AICPA uses hashtags for several of its conferences. Some recent examples include:
#AICPANatTax
#AICPABVAL
#AICPASEC
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ManagingTwitter
People will follow you, including some shady types. You needn’t follow back everyone who follows you. But unless they look sketchy, it doesn’t hurt to follow back.
Manage FollowersPeople will follow you, including some shady types. You needn’t follow back everyone who follows you. But unless they look sketchy, it doesn’t hurt to follow back. You can unfollow them later− perhaps they post too much or post off topic. The person may notice their follower count drop but usually won’t know who dropped them. Bear in mind that if you only follow a small number of people (fewer than 100), one person can seem to flood your feed. You might want to wait until you follow more people before penalizing someone for volume.
If someone is abusing Twitter, you may “block” them, but only do this if they are truly offensive.
Weekly or more often, review your followers list and follow back people who seem legitimate. A few tips for spotting spammers:
Consider their photo: Does it look “real?” Or like a stock photo?
User name: Does it seem credible? Or feature a product name or the words “marketing,” “seo,” “guru” or “free?”
Bio: Does it seem appropriate or interesting? Or is it blank, linking to a questionable site or salesy?
Their most recent post or posts: Do they seem thoughtful and do they have replies, interacting with others? Or are there repetitive posts (same links) or multiple posts that discuss weight loss, teeth whitening, affiliate marketing or the like?
Evaluate who else trusts them: Do they have a balanced ratio of followers to following, and are they included on some lists? Or do they follow far more than follow them back and are on few or no lists? Note, new users won’t have many followers or be on lists. If they have only a few tweets, this isn’t a valid indicator. That said, if they have tons of followers and few tweets or are on few lists, they probably aren’t legitimate.
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Being UnfollowedPeople will unfollow you from time to time. Don’t take it personally. Your follower count will rise and fall. Sometimes spammers get booted from Twitter. When Twitter does a bulk cleanup, your numbers can drop by dozens. Odds are you did not offend anyone and that changes in your numbers just reflect some housecleaning.
Manage VolumeFilter tweets of favored people by creating Lists. Grouping people by organization, industry or talent (CPAs, lawyers, journalists, thought-leaders and friends) makes it easy to locate focused conversations or not miss out on the activity of key people. Lists can be private (e.g., “friends”) but creating public lists is a service to others who may also value them as content filters. For instance, a list for people who tweet on “fraud” or “IFRS” might interest you and be helpful to others.
See a tweet about something but can’t read it right away? Simply click on the little star to “favorite” the tweet to find it later in your Favorites list.
Third-party software applications (such as TweetDeck) also can help you manage your Twitter stream. New tools for Twitter emerge every day. To see the newest and most highly rated, visit oneforty.com.
Filter tweets of favored people by creating Lists. Grouping people by organization, industry or talent (CPAs, lawyers, journalists, thought leaders and friends) makes it easy to locate focused conversations or not miss out on the activity of key people.
