Your Twitter Goals

Before you jump into the Twitter waters, you need
to decide your Twitter goals.
Why do you want to use Twitter?
„ For business communication (to build
community with your customers, vendors,
and other related business people)
„ To keep in touch with your peers or keep an
eye on your competitors
„ To reach out to potential customers
„ To drive traffic to your website or blog

If you are new to Twitter and social media, it may
take you a while to define your Twitter goals.
That’s okay. Get your feet wet, explore what
Twitter has to offer, and think about what you
discover.
Why Your Goals Matter
Your Twitter goals impact everything you do on Twitter. They determine your account
settings and whom you decide to follow. After you use Twitter for a while, you develop a
greater understanding of what is possible. This may change your Twitter goals, also.
Start thinking about your Twitter goals now.

What Do People Tweet?

People tweet about the things they think about. Here are some example tweets:
„ Business news. “Today's burger is "The BLT Burger" featuring lettuce, tomato, and
bacon! Simple and delicious. http://twitpic.com/2fmmxh”
„ Observations about life. "I imagine that the street signs in heaven will be printed in
Helvetica."
„ Interesting things to read. "You gotta love this: Monopoly gets reinvented for its 75th
anniversary with debit cards, round board | http://bit.ly/9fmXub”
„ New blog posts. “Is Your Company More Interesting Than My Wife? (Facebook,
content, & the fight for attention) http://om.ly/erWY "
„ A humorous take on life events. "Who would have thought this granola-eating
hippie with a liberal arts education would write a biz book? Life really is amazing."
„ Inspiring thoughts. "I'm living proof that dreams can come true. I love my work/
company/partner/employees. It’s great to make a living doing what you love."
„ Professional news. "The NYT included my website in a list of just FIVE recommended
grammar blogs! Wow! http://is.gd/2rSl"
„ Workaday life details. "It's so hard to entrust work to others, and yet so rewarding
when they come back with great results. I need to delegate more!"
„ Business issues and challenges. " What if a fraction of the time spent talking about
why social media is so spiffy and how to do it the bestest went into writing new
content?"
„ Family life details. "Excited for my daughter who made the varsity soccer team as a
freshman."

Twitter Is Like A Party

Twitter is a new communication form. Until you use
it, you might not understand it easily. After you use it,
there isn’t an easy way to explain it to others. Everyone
must make the same journey to understand it.
But after you start using it, you’ll see how it can be a
powerful tool in your business communications. This
ebook will help you make that jump.
Party Metaphor
There is no great way to explain Twitter to new users.
The most effective metaphor is to compare Twitter to a
huge cocktail party.
„ Twitter is like walking through a large party and
eavesdropping on conversations as you walk
past people.
„ You invited these people to attend your party for
a specific reason. However, once they arrive, they are free to talk about anything on
their minds.
This metaphor explains some of the Twitter features, but doesn’t explain them all.
Twitter was created by a software development team to solve their own communication
challenges. They took features from other communication tools like email, chat, and instant
messaging and mashed them together to create Twitter. There’s nothing else quite like it.

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is a unique conversation tool that allows you
to send and receive short messages (called tweets)
within your Twitter community.
Your Twitter community consists of:
„ People You Follow. You define your community
by following other Twitter users. You see the
tweets created by everyone you follow.
Following someone means that you subscribe to
their tweets.
„ People Who Follow You. Other people read
your tweets and decide to follow you. Your
followers see the tweets you send out.
What Are Tweets?
Tweets are short, only 140 characters long, so they are
easy to skim.
The Twitter website says you tweet to answer the
question “What’s happening?” It might be more accurate to say that you tweet to answer the
question “What are you thinking about?”
Perhaps you think it would be boring to read what people have for lunch or about their
commute in traffic. Fortunately, most tweets are not about those things. Instead, you learn
the major events and the small details about the business and personal lives of the people
you follow.