Everybody is talking about joining Twitter and you often hear it mentioned in the news. So what is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking site that is similar to Facebook. All posts on Twitter are known as ‘tweets’ and all tweets are limited to 140 characters. You can post comments, photos, videos and links to a website.

How do you get started?

The first step is to go to http://www.twitter.com to set up an account. Sign up with your name, email and a password. Bear in mind that the name you enter will be how you are known to all your followers. If you have a long name or want to be anonymous you may want to use a nickname. Once you have filled out the details you will receive a confirmation email, click on the link to activate your account.

The second step is to set up your profile. Upload a profile picture of yourself or your organization. This appears as a very small photo every time you post a tweet. So choose a photo or logo that works well when it is very small.

The third step is to write a short biography about yourself or your organisation. Try and make the text interesting or funny as this will help people find and follow you on Twitter. You can also enter your location and a link to a website page.

Now you can write your first tweet to tell the world what’s happening! Your tweets will appear on your profile page in date order with the most recent at the top.

How about following other people who are on Twitter? First go to the top of the home page and click on the Who to follow link. Here you can find friends or suggestions from Twitter. ‘Following’ a person on Twitter means subscribing to have their tweets appear on your homepage ‘feed’. The more people you follow, the busier your Twitter feed.

When you post a tweet you can write to just one follower. The way to do this is to use the @ symbol followed by the person’s username e.g. @emilycagle. This is the same as using the ‘To’ or ‘CC’ fields in an email, and is called a Mention. If you want to see who has mentioned you in a tweet, go to the home page and click on @Mentions next to the timeline.

If you like what someone else has tweeted, you can repost it to your followers. This is called a Retweet (RT). You can also reply in public to the post or add it to your favorite posts. To do these three things, look under the tweet and you will see options to Favorite, Retweet or Reply. If you want to send someone a private message (DM), go to Messages at the top of the home page.

So now you are ready to build up your social network. The best way to get going is to start engaging in conversation with your followers. Start off by posting news, information about yourself, your family and world events.

You can use Twitter on your computer, tablet or mobile phone. Twitter provides web-based programs and downladable applications to do this. As you get more advanced and gain more followers, you might want to use third-party applications that make Twitter easier to use. For example TweetDeck and HootSuite can manage your stream of posts by displaying it in columns. They also have a tool called a link shortener which shortens a very long website link so that you can fit it into the 140 character limit.

If you’re struggling to get started, check out tutorial videos on YouTube or go to Twitter’s Help Center.

Of course the first thing you should do is follow me on Twitter! You can find me here: @jewnet
I look forward to chatting with you on Twitter.

Let’s start with a short history lesson.

Facebook was launched in February 2004, Twitter in July 2006, YouTube in February 2005 and LinkedIn in May 2003. So social media channels have only been around for 7 years. This has led to the birth of a new breed of marketer who is expert in using these new media: the social media marketer.

Traditional marketing, on the other hand, has been around for a very long time. The Internet and World Wide Web took off in the early 90’s. Something that we think of as very new, viral marketing was identified as far back as 1996.

But we have to go way back to find the origins of Marketing. Did you know that “Marketing emerged as a separate technical field in the late 19th century”? (Source: Wikipedia)

With over a century of experience in traditional marketing, and a vast amount of published academic material on the basics of marketing, perhaps there is something social media marketers can learn from? Let’s start with basic marketing principles:

Lesson 1.  Research your market

This means take a look at your marketplace and industry. Who are your main competitors? Who is your current audience? What do your consumers think of your brand? Where do they buy?

Social media provides great tools for doing market research. You can actually listen in to what people are saying about your brand or organization. Just do a real time search in Twitter or Hootsuite on your name. Or check out your competitors.

Lesson 2.   The customer comes first

This old line can become the core of your social strategies. Immediate customer service can be provided by a ‘social media help desk’ to respond to customer questions and queries. Social pages and messages can be updated regularly to provide customer information like prices, delivery dates and special offers.

Lesson 3.  Develop a unique selling proposition (USP)

You should be able to sum up in one line what differentiates your product or organization from its competitors.  The USP for social media may be different than for the traditional media. It should nevertheless be developed and written into your social media plan. This message should be conveyed across all social media, both in terms of what you say and how you visually present your offering.

Lesson 4.   Develop a social media strategy

Having a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a LinkedIn page is not a social media strategy. What are you intending to gain for your organization? What action do you expect people to take?

Try  The POST Method: a systematic approach to social strategy developed by Forrester Research,

This is the basic structure of the POST system. The acronym stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology, explained as follows:

People: assess your customer’s social computing behaviors

Objectives: decide what you want to accomplish

Strategy: plan for how relationships with customers will change

Technology: decide what social technologies to use

Lesson 5.  Integrate all your marketing efforts

The consumer is exposed to all your marketing efforts; offline and online. Branding should therefore be consistent across all marketing channels. Social media is of course only one element alongside print, PR, TV, online and retail.

In practice this means the Facebook page design should reflect your website. The Twitter account should use corporate colors, logos, and a bio which reflects your ‘social face’. YouTube videos should be branded and not generic.

Make sure your social media team is well trained in presenting the ‘right’ corporate message. If not serious damage can be done to your brand properties and corporate image.

Do you have any other lessons that could be added?