R TEAM: Happy Birthday, Twitter!

March 13, 2011

Happy Birthday, Twitter!

I discovered (via Twitter of course) that Twitter was created five years ago with the first tweet happening March 21, 2006 from @jack (Jack Dorsey, Creator, Co-Founder & Chairman of Twitter).

I started using Twitter about a year later on July 14, 2007 and have since "tweeted" 21,684 times and have 3,510 followers. Each time you "tweet" you create a "url"...thanks to Twitter, I have 21,864 urls containing 140 characters or less...think about that! In 2009, Seattle Weekly named me Seattle Best Tweeting Mortgage Brokers for "takes questions, drops knowledge and provides bits of clarity..." Twitter is amazing and yes, I have been fortunate to actually receive business from my Twitter "peeps".

I'd like to share a few quick tips regarding Twitter that you may find helpful:

Please take 5 minutes to complete your bio. It doesn't have to be perfect -- you can always change it. If you want to increase your odds of having someone follow you (this is something you actually want with Twitter); have a photo and include where you're from, what you do...just something quick.
Remember that anyone can read your tweets once they're published--unless you "protect them"...I scratch my head when I see folks in the real estate biz shielding their tweets...if you are trying to attract new clients, friends and followes, don't protect your tweets. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, Twitter may not be for you and that's okay. I've seen some interesting tweets over the years....
I don't recommend auto-anything. Please try to not "auto-dm" (send an automatic direct message when you have new follwoers)....it's tempting, it seems techy...but it comes across as insincere. In my opinion, you're better off not thanking a new follower than sending something that is automatically generated in the social media areana.
Twitter is about having a conversation. It's really not about constantly broadcasting your message or product. I do use it for broadcasting rates that I'm quoting at the moment--but it's not the only thing I do on Twitter. If you check out my "twitter stream" you'll see that I'm having conversations with many folks.
Retweet things you like... it's kind of a compliment and you may start a conversation with someone. Twitter is viral because of the re-tweeting feature. If I tweet a rate or something that someone finds useful, and they "re-tweet" it, it's displayed in their Twitter stream (think mini-blog posts) for all their followers to see...and possibly retweet to all their followers too.
Follow people you find interesting.
Do check your "@" messages to you (which are public) and your DM's (which are private). It's unfortunate when someone sets up a Twitter profile because they've just been to some seminar, and they don't know that people are trying to converse with them.
Have fun! At 140 characters, sending Tweets can be a bit like writing a short poem. There are many aps to help you manage your twitter stream (Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, etc).

Questions? I'm happy to help.

Posted at 07:28 PM in Twitter | Permalink

Comments

I discovered (via Twitter of course) that Twitter was created five years ago with the first tweet happening March 21, 2006 from @jack (Jack Dorsey, Creator, Co-Founder & Chairman of Twitter).

I'd like to share a few quick tips regarding Twitter that you may find helpful:

Please take 5 minutes to complete your bio. It doesn't have to be perfect -- you can always change it. If you want to increase your odds of having someone follow you (this is something you actually want with Twitter); have a photo and include where you're from, what you do...just something quick.
Remember that anyone can read your tweets once they're published--unless you "protect them"...I scratch my head when I see folks in the real estate biz shielding their tweets...if you are trying to attract new clients, friends and followes, don't protect your tweets. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, Twitter may not be for you and that's okay. I've seen some interesting tweets over the years....
I don't recommend auto-anything. Please try to not "auto-dm" (send an automatic direct message when you have new follwoers)....it's tempting, it seems techy...but it comes across as insincere. In my opinion, you're better off not thanking a new follower than sending something that is automatically generated in the social media areana.
Twitter is about having a conversation. It's really not about constantly broadcasting your message or product. I do use it for broadcasting rates that I'm quoting at the moment--but it's not the only thing I do on Twitter. If you check out my "twitter stream" you'll see that I'm having conversations with many folks.
Retweet things you like... it's kind of a compliment and you may start a conversation with someone. Twitter is viral because of the re-tweeting feature. If I tweet a rate or something that someone finds useful, and they "re-tweet" it, it's displayed in their Twitter stream (think mini-blog posts) for all their followers to see...and possibly retweet to all their followers too.
Follow people you find interesting.
Do check your "@" messages to you (which are public) and your DM's (which are private). It's unfortunate when someone sets up a Twitter profile because they've just been to some seminar, and they don't know that people are trying to converse with them.
Have fun! At 140 characters, sending Tweets can be a bit like writing a short poem. There are many aps to help you manage your twitter stream (Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, etc).