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.