Twitter™ for Dummies®

Twitter™ for Dummies®

Released July 2009
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9780470479919

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Book description

Twitter can boost your business and marketing efforts, and this guide shows you how

Twitter, the simple-to-use microblogging service, offers immense benefits for businesses and organizations. Fire departments, political candidates, and C0EOs have used Twitter to share up-to-the-minute information. Laura Fitton, maybe better known by her Twitter handle - @Pistachio, has more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, and gives presentations on how to use Twitter to build business and personal opportunity. She's joined by Michael Gruen and Leslie Poston to share Twitter expertise in this easy-to-follow guide.

You'll discover how to get set up on Twitter, build a follower list, and find a voice for your tweets. Then you'll learn to use third party tools to link Twitter to other sites and incorporate it into business communication models. This book covers

  • The basics of signing up and creating tweets

  • Following other users and adding followers to your own tweets

  • Mastering the "Twecosystem"-the tools that tie Twitter to many other Web applications, including mobile devices

  • Strategies for enhancing business communication, marketing, and networking opportunities with Twitter

Twitter For Dummies gets you up and running on this hot communications tool the fun and easy way.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About the Authors
  3. Authors' Acknowledgments
  4. Publisher's Acknowledgments
    1. Acquisitions and Editorial
    2. Composition Services
    3. Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
    4. Publishing for Consumer Dummies
    5. Composition Services
  5. Foreword
  6. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. Conventions Used in This Book
    3. What You're Not to Read
    4. Foolish Assumptions
    5. How This Book Is Organized
      1. Part I: Twitter? Like Birds Do?
      2. Part II: Joining Your Flock on Twitter
      3. Part III: Twittering in High Gear
      4. Part IV: Knowing Why We Twitter
      5. Part V: The Part of Tens
    6. Icons Used in This Book
    7. Where to Go from Here
  7. I. Twitter? Like Birds Do?
    1. 1. Sharing Your Thoughts, 140 Characters at a Time
      1. 1.1. Figuring Out This Twitter Thing
      2. 1.2. How Individuals Use Twitter
      3. 1.3. How Organizations Use Twitter
      4. 1.4. Businesses That Use Twitter
      5. 1.5. Getting Your Tweet Wet
      6. 1.6. Tweeting Like a Pro
      7. 1.7. Branching Out with Third-Party Applications
    2. 2. Hello, Twitter World!
      1. 2.1. Signing Up
      2. 2.2. Picking a Name
      3. 2.3. Finding Contacts
        1. 2.3.1. Using useful people-finding tools
        2. 2.3.2. Searching by using Twitter Search
      4. 2.4. Inviting Contacts
      5. 2.5. Say Hello! Your First Tweets
      6. 2.6. Customizing Your Profile
        1. 2.6.1. Changing your avatar
        2. 2.6.2. Changing your background
        3. 2.6.3. Using your background image to expand your profile
      7. 2.7. Adjusting Your Text-Messaging Settings
        1. 2.7.1. Controlling the text-message flow
        2. 2.7.2. Selecting your text notifications, person by person
    3. 3. Stroll Around the Grounds: A Tour of the Twitter Interface
      1. 3.1. Starting Out on the Home Screen
        1. 3.1.1. The sidebar
        2. 3.1.2. The "What are you doing?" box
        3. 3.1.3. The Twitter stream
      2. 3.2. Tweeting to One Specific Person: @Replies
      3. 3.3. Shhh! Sending Private Notes via Direct Messages
      4. 3.4. Playing (Twitter) Favorites
      5. 3.5. Becoming a Renaissance Man via the Everyone Tab (RIP)
      6. 3.6. Seeing Who You Follow
      7. 3.7. Figuring Out Who's Following You
      8. 3.8. Looking at What You've Tweeted
    4. 4. Using Twitter Wherever You Think Best
      1. 4.1. The User Multi-Face: Interacting with Twitter Every Which Way
        1. 4.1.1. Text messages (SMS delivery)
        2. 4.1.2. RSS feeds
        3. 4.1.3. Desktop clients
        4. 4.1.4. TwitterFox
        5. 4.1.5. Widgets and gadgets
      2. 4.2. Going Mobile: The Key to Happiness
  8. II. Joining Your Flock on Twitter
    1. 5. Tweeting It Up
      1. 5.1. Finding People to Follow on Twitter
        1. 5.1.1. Look who's talking
        2. 5.1.2. Searching for people
        3. 5.1.3. Inviting people personally, through Twitter
        4. 5.1.4. Opening up your stream
      2. 5.2. How to Follow People
      3. 5.3. Replying to Tweets
      4. 5.4. Direct Messaging
        1. 5.4.1. Direct-messaging shorthand
        2. 5.4.2. Should I @ or DM?
      5. 5.5. Encouraging More Followers
    2. 6. Who's Using Twitter
      1. 6.1. Tweeting with Regular People
      2. 6.2. Building Company Relationships with Twitter
      3. 6.3. Talking Politics with Actual Politicians
      4. 6.4. Following Celebrities on Twitter
      5. 6.5. Signing Up for Syndicated Material
      6. 6.6. Tweeting in Unison
  9. III. Twittering in High Gear
    1. 7. Tricks of the Twitter Gurus
      1. 7.1. Following Twitter Protocol
        1. 7.1.1. Language and abbreviations
        2. 7.1.2. Engaging others on Twitter
        3. 7.1.3. Tweeting frequency
      2. 7.2. Inserting Links into Your Tweets
      3. 7.3. Using Your Twitter History and Favorites
      4. 7.4. Your Feeds, My Feeds, Everyone's Feeds
      5. 7.5. Deciphering Twitter Shorthand Code
        1. 7.5.1. D — direct message
        2. 7.5.2. F — follow
        3. 7.5.3. @ — reply
        4. 7.5.4. On/Off
        5. 7.5.5. Fav — favorite a tweet
        6. 7.5.6. Nudge
        7. 7.5.7. Stats
        8. 7.5.8. Get
        9. 7.5.9. Whois
        10. 7.5.10. Leave
        11. 7.5.11. On/Off username
        12. 7.5.12. Invite
        13. 7.5.13. Quit and Stop
        14. 7.5.14. Codes may come, and codes may go ...
    2. 8. Twitter Minus Twitter.com
      1. 8.1. Tweeting with Your Cellphone
        1. 8.1.1. Via text messaging
        2. 8.1.2. Via smartphones or PDAs
      2. 8.2. Using Twitter through Your E-Mail
      3. 8.3. Swimming Your Twitter Stream with RSS Feeds
        1. 8.3.1. Grabbing RSS feeds
        2. 8.3.2. Sending RSS feeds back to Twitter
      4. 8.4. Using Third-Party Services
      5. 8.5. Sharing Tweets All Around the Web
      6. 8.6. Auto-Tweeting
    3. 9. Embracing the Twitter Ecosystem
      1. 9.1. Finding Interesting Twitter Talk with Search Tools
        1. 9.1.1. Twitter Search
        2. 9.1.2. TwitScoop
        3. 9.1.3. Hashtags
      2. 9.2. Expanding Your Twitter World by Using Clients
        1. 9.2.1. Desktop clients
        2. 9.2.2. Mobile clients
      3. 9.3. Keeping Your Tweets Short with URL Shorteners
      4. 9.4. Getting All Your Online Activity in One Place by Using Aggregators
      5. 9.5. Using Trending Topics to Stay on the Twitter Cutting-Edge
      6. 9.6. Playing with Twitter Games and Memes
      7. 9.7. Tag Clouds
      8. 9.8. Keeping in Contact with Visualization and Listening Tools
        1. 9.8.1. Google Alerts
        2. 9.8.2. BLVDStatus
        3. 9.8.3. Twitter Search
        4. 9.8.4. Radian6
      9. 9.9. Knowing Your Network with Follower and Following Tools
  10. IV. Knowing Why We Twitter
    1. 10. Finding Your Tweet Voice
      1. 10.1. Finding Your Voice, Whether for Business or Pleasure
        1. 10.1.1. Your business on Twitter
        2. 10.1.2. You as you on Twitter
        3. 10.1.3. Mixing business with pleasure
          1. 10.1.3.1. It's all about balance
          2. 10.1.3.2. Be yourself
      2. 10.2. Identifying Your Audience
        1. 10.2.1. Viewing your network
        2. 10.2.2. Diversifying your network
        3. 10.2.3. Targeting specific networks
        4. 10.2.4. Measuring influence
        5. 10.2.5. Understanding your extended network
      3. 10.3. Keeping Your Tweets Authentic
        1. 10.3.1. Joining the conversation
        2. 10.3.2. Sharing links
        3. 10.3.3. Image is everything
        4. 10.3.4. Being genuine
        5. 10.3.5. Evangelizing your causes
      4. 10.4. Keeping Twitter Personal ... but Not Too Personal
        1. 10.4.1. Protecting personal details
        2. 10.4.2. Maximizing privacy and safety
    2. 11. Twitter for Business
      1. 11.1. The Business of Twitter
      2. 11.2. Putting Your Best Face Forward
        1. 11.2.1. Public relations
        2. 11.2.2. Customer service
      3. 11.3. Networking on Twitter
      4. 11.4. Offering Promotions and Products
      5. 11.5. Promoting Bands and Artists
      6. 11.6. Sharing Company Updates
      7. 11.7. Building Community
      8. 11.8. Conducting Research
      9. 11.9. Going Transparent
      10. 11.10. But, What If My Employees ...
      11. 11.11. Sharing Knowledge
    3. 12. The Social Side of Twitter
      1. 12.1. Using Twitter as a Support System
      2. 12.2. Connecting with People
      3. 12.3. Making New Friends
        1. 12.3.1. Searching for topics of interest
        2. 12.3.2. Twitter-based events
      4. 12.4. To Follow or Not to Follow?
      5. 12.5. Getting Quick Answers
        1. 12.5.1. Accessing the experts
        2. 12.5.2. Information about breaking news
        3. 12.5.3. Getting recommendations
      6. 12.6. Sharing Information
    4. 13. Changing the World, One Tweet at a Time
      1. 13.1. Twittering the Globe for Change
        1. 13.1.1. Charity events
        2. 13.1.2. Politics
        3. 13.1.3. Natural disasters
        4. 13.1.4. Helping others
      2. 13.2. Organizing People Online and in Real Life
        1. 13.2.1. Organizing on a small scale
        2. 13.2.2. Banding together for creative purposes
        3. 13.2.3. Planning an event
      3. 13.3. Engaging in Citizen Journalism
        1. 13.3.1. Citizen journalism hits the mainstream
        2. 13.3.2. Being a Twitter journalist
        3. 13.3.3. Tweeting accurate info
        4. 13.3.4. Gathering your journalistic tools
  11. V. The Part of Tens
    1. 14. Ten Twitter Tools
      1. 14.1. TweetDeck: Connecting with Many
      2. 14.2. Seesmic Desktop/Twhirl: Managing Multiple Accounts
      3. 14.3. CoTweet: Corporate Tweeting
      4. 14.4. Smartphone Clients Tweetie, PocketTwit, and TwitterBerry
      5. 14.5. Twellow: Finding People to Follow
      6. 14.6. FriendorFollow: Managing Followers and Followings
      7. 14.7. TwtVite: Event Planning
      8. 14.8. Twitterfeed: Getting Your Blog Posts to Twitter
      9. 14.9. TwitPic
      10. 14.10. Xpenser: Keeping Track of Your Expenses
    2. 15. Ten Useful Twitter-Based Services
      1. 15.1. BreakingNews
      2. 15.2. StockTwits
      3. 15.3. Tweecious: Use Delicious to Organize the Links You Tweet
      4. 15.4. TipJoy
      5. 15.5. ExecTweets
      6. 15.6. EpicTweet
      7. 15.7. Link Bunch
      8. 15.8. Tweetree
      9. 15.9. TwitterGrader
      10. 15.10. Blip.fm
    3. 16. Ten Cool Ways to Use Twitter
      1. 16.1. Plain Old Networking
      2. 16.2. Breaking News
      3. 16.3. Travel
      4. 16.4. Finance
      5. 16.5. Food, Wine, and Spirits
      6. 16.6. Books
      7. 16.7. Music
      8. 16.8. Education
      9. 16.9. Charities and Causes
      10. 16.10. Event Planning
  12. Glossary

Product information

  • Title: Twitter™ for Dummies®
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: July 2009
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9780470479919