1. Social Media: Twitter 101 LAAMA Christmas Luncheon: DEC. 17, 2009

2. Sahar Consulting www.saharconsulting.com @saharconsulting

3. What is Twitter Twitter is a micro-blogging application started in 2006, became popular beginning 2009 when celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and his competition with CNN to acquire the 1 st million followers erupted, followed shortly by Oprah; joined the fascinating world of Twitter. Twitter is the most used word in the English language in 2009. The updates on Twitter are called “Tweets” & Can’t be More than 140 characters.

4. Why to care about Twitter Twitter is the fastest- growing social-media site, with an estimated 14 M unique visitors/ month. Most of the users are age 25-54, largest segment the 45-54 age groups. Twitter like any other social media platform is not an advertising medium, it is about 2 way conversations, building & nurturing relationships.

5. How Businesses use Twitter Businesses use Twitter to meet potential customers and leads. Twitter can also be used to: 1) Develop and promote a brand 2) Interact with a customer base 3) Track what people are saying about a company and its brand 4) Create buzz around upcoming events 5) Promote other created content, including webinars, blogs 6) Develop direct relationships with bloggers and journalists for potential PR placement

6. Where to Start: @name Sign up for a Twitter account 1- Start by choosing a username as short as possible as it counts within the 160 characters, choose your real name or the business name for @name & add the real name in the settings. Choose a password, then sign in.

7. What Next: Fill BIO Go to Settings at the top of the page, the different settings items will show: 2- In Account: Enter your details as Email etc…, fill out your BIO (160 characters), make sure to add keywords relevant to your business, industry and clients.

8. Add a professional picture 3- Add a picture: click on Picture in settings, browse your computer for a professional nice picture, suggested that you use the same picture on all your social media profiles. A JPG, GIF or PNG of max. 700k. Save

9. Personalize your background Still in Settings, go to Design, on the bottom of the page, click on change background image: Browse your computer. Upload either your logo or a picture you can use as background Save it, choose as a tile background or single picture. OR

10. Personalize your background2 Personalize your background2 Some free services like ww.twitterbackgrounds.com you can have a free background if you use your logo or picture, or $4.95 if they upload up to 20 pictures for you as a background, or $99 if they totally personalize the background for you. Make sure it follows the theme of your brand.ww.twitterbackgrounds.com

11. Follow people/ be followed Start by following the people you know, enter your different Emails, servers and passwords. Twitter will send them Follow notices. Then start following people of interest to you: 1- Study the ratio between people’s followers and who they follow, avoid the lopsided ones. 2- Look at the frequency of their tweets/ posts not too often, not to little. Take your time adding people you follow. 3- Use applications as www.twellow.com to find people using Keywords.www.twellow.com

12. Find people of interest to follow Find the top users on Twitter as they will give you more exposure and visibility if they either follow you back or reply to you- Find them on www.twitter.grader.com/topuserswww.twitter.grader.com/topusers Courtesy of Hubspot.com

13. People that follow you You are not obligated to follow anyone that follows you. Don’t follow everyone. Choose quality versus quantity. (look at Zappos)

14. Some terminology before you start Replies: Responding to a specific person by using @theirname. Direct Messages: or DM are private messages that other tweeters can use to reach you privately, it can only be exchanged between people that follow each other. Retweets: RT:@username tweet, when someone re- sends your tweets. Trending Topics: Twitter will always show the top 10 trending topics. Favorites: Save your testimonials

15. Some terminology before you start Tweeple – Are the people that are tweeting. Mistweet - This is a Twitter message you wish you hadn't sent. Even if you delete unwanted messages they can still appear in searches. Tweetup – When some Tweeple get together for an "in person" meeting. Twitter has a new official Tweetup page, but it was down as I wrote this. You can also follow the Twitter Tweetup account to get the scoop on upcoming events.TweetupTwitter Tweetup account Twoosh - It is a perfect, 140 character Tweet. Twitterbait – Every now and then some users will bait a popular user into sending them an @username response. This gets the baiter's username in front of the more popular poster's network of followers and can result in quite a few new followers.

16. How it looks on a profile Credit to Hubspot

17. Engage your followers Rules of engagement: 1- Your tweets have to offer value 2- Link wisely helpful links 3- Quotes can be inspiring but not all the time 4- Be yourself, add humor 5- RT others important tweets, copy their tweets and add RT in front of the tweet 6- Answer your Direct messages DM 7- Thank whoever mentions you (To check that click on @yourname) 8- Don’t use automated direct messages they feel spammy

18. Search Box The Search Box: where you can search for your keywords, industry leaders, ongoing conversations, groups, and chats.

19. Applications to organize profiles Increase profile features, have more control on your tweets, follow groups, handle multiple accounts: 1- www.tweetdeck.com: Desktop software that lets you create a new column that filters the hashtag or chat name.www.tweetdeck.com 2- www.seesmic.com: beautiful desktop client for Twitter with a slightly translucent and tabbed interface.www.seesmic.com 3- www.ubertwitter.com: is a company devoted to delivering highly functional Twitter clients for mobile devices (For Blackberries)www.ubertwitter.com

20. Twitter The bird that connects and promotes all other social media channels/ networks.

21. Thank you Looking forward Tweeting with you @saharconsulting

22. Prepared by: Sahar Andrade @ Sahar Consulting www.saharconsulting.com www.linkedin.com/in/saharandrade www.saharconsulting.wordpress.com www.twitter.com/saharconsulting