On my Gab With the Gurus Radio Show today,
the five social networking experts I interviewed agreed to give Tips for you Twitter
newbies out there.
Here are some pointers from social media observer Shel Israel, author of Naked Conversations and of the upcoming Twitterville:
1. Show yourself. Scroll through some pages and see what catches your eye. Chances are good that it will be the avatars. Personally, I like to have conversations with real people so I like to see real photos, not cartoons or the Twitterville place keeper. If you have a blog or Web site, link to it. Under your bio, say something about what you are really about. Saying your location is on iPhone is overused and unhelpful to someone deciding to follow you or not.
2. Read first.When I check out a new Tweeter, I read his or her most recent posts. If one interests me, I'll look further. If none does, I'm gone. My advice is to start by reading what others have to say and get a sense of the rhythm of Twitterville conversations before you join in. Wait until you have something useful or interesting to add to the conversation.
3. Celebrities don't count. You can always start by getting followed by a few celebrity Tweeters like Scoble, Calacanis and Loic. But they give you no credibility at all because they simply follow everyone. Their purpose is to be a new media star and it works well for them. But is that what you want from Twitterville? Those of us who have been around for a while see no value in being listed at as Followers, because they follow everyone.
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