Since I am a visual person, I would like to begin this post with a short twitter video presentation from [...]]]> modified content  by Terrence O’Brien, posted Mar 26th 2009 at 1:59PM

I thought I would blog a small series of posts on Twitter so all the NE Internet subscribers could be on the same page .

Since I am a visual person, I would like to begin this post with a short twitter video presentation from the University of YouTUBE.

I know that you have  been hearing all about this new and growing service, but what exactly is it?  Twitter? is this something I do after drinking too much coffee or what?

What is Twitter?

Twitter is what is known as a microblogging service, an online place where you can ‘post’ short messages, or ‘tweets’ of 140 characters (including spaces). These ‘tweets’ can be read by anyone who is ‘following’ you (essentially, subscribing to your tweets). Similarly, you can follow (subscribe) to the tweets of anyone you want, from friends and family to favorite celebrities, publications and Web sites (like Switched, which you can ‘follow’ on Twitter by clicking here). The tweets of your followees show up in a main feed right on Twitter’s main page, one after the other in chronological order.

At its most basic, Twitter is a dedicated status updating service à la Facebook (in fact, Facebook seems to have modeled its recent upgrade on Twitter), with which you can keep people up-to-date with your life — be it what you’re doing at a particular moment in time, a link to an interesting Web site, or something as mundane as what you had for lunch.  In our profession you can market yourself using twitter and providing tweets about what you just had for lunch. Was it good, was it nutritional, was it something your peers or clients would find significant or useful? Do you want the whole twittering world to know about this restaurant and what are the particular features you want to shout in your tweet? Go for it!

Why You Should Use Twitter!

To increase your profile

Twitter is not just a fad. When very high profile folks begin evangelizing Twitter, it’s worth closer examination. Here’s what some of those gurus reported:

Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch identified three big advantages of Twitter, “(1) I get great insight when I ask questions, (2) let’s face it, I get traffic and (3) people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.”

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com said, “We’ve found that Twitter has been a great way for us to connect on a more personal level with our employees and customers. We use it to help build our brand, not drive direct sales. It’d be like asking how does providing a telephone number for customer service translate into new business when they are mostly non-sales-related calls. In the long term, Twitter helps drive repeat customers and word of mouth, but we’re not looking to it as a way of driving immediate sales.”

Bestselling author David Meerman Scott said, “I have personally connected with hundreds of people I otherwise wouldn’t have, and I booked an interview on NPR and a big daily newspaper using Twitter.”

How do you get on Twitter?

You simply go to the twitter.com website  register and sign up.  Choose a username — something uniquely you, but not embarrassing. If it’s available, try to get your real name. The next step is to start following friends and family that you can find using Twitter’s contact importer, which searches your contacts on Gmail, Yahoo!, or other Web mail services for people on Twitter. If you just want to search by name, that’ll work, too. Following someone is as simple as pressing the ‘Follow’ button on their Twitter page.

Next, it’s time to create your profile. You get one image (so make it count) and 160 characters to explain who you are and what you do to the ‘Twitterverse.’ As you can see, we’re not in Facebook-land anymore. While Facebook and MySpace are filled with various ways to post information, pictures, and annoying applications, Twitter is a more controlled environment — just a name, location, Web site link, 160-character bio, and a picture. Therefore, it’s all about what you say in that 160-character space, especially since people are more likely to read your whole Twitter profile than they are the hard-to-wade-through, gargantuan tomes that end up on a typical Facebook or MySpace profile. In other words, yes, your Twitter profile can get you fired, so watch what you say here (and in your tweets, for that matter).

Stay tuned for more tips on your tweets….

Nadine

 SheSource.org is an online braintrust of female experts on diverse topics designed to serve journalists, producers and bookers who need female guests and sources. SheSource.org includes spokeswomen from a variety of backgrounds, representing demographic and ethnic diversity as well [...]]]> Should you be listed on SheSource.org?

View video: [kml_flashembed movie="/shesource/shesource.swf" height="300" width="300" /]

 SheSource.org is an online braintrust of female experts on diverse topics designed to serve journalists, producers and bookers who need female guests and sources. SheSource.org includes spokeswomen from a variety of backgrounds, representing demographic and ethnic diversity as well as expertise in areas, ranging from security, the economy, and politics to law, peacekeeping, humanitarian crisis, nutrition, and more. Check out their nutrition experts.

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The Women’s Funding Network, The White House Project and Fenton Communications to foster a more representative public discourse by increasing the number of women whose opinions are reflected in the news media. Visit the website and sign up today!