8 steps to getting started with Twitter

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8 steps to getting started with Twitter

Today's guest blogger is Jesse Wilkins a principal consultant with Access Sciences. For more information, contact him at jwilkins@accesssciences.com. Jesse is well-known to both AIIM and ARMA audiences. Jesse and his colleagues helped create the content for AIIM's Email Management training program, as well as our new Electronic Records Management program.

If you have an interest in making a submission to my "8 things" series, just contact me via email. If you are a user and worried about anonymity, I can deal with that -- I can give you a cool fake name.

8 steps to getting started with Twitter

1. Create an account – and use your own name if possible.

Of course there can only one @johnsmith on Twitter. If that's your name, but isn't you, try e.g. jpsmith, jsmith80249 (ZIP code), etc. And by no means should you use a Twitter username that is in any way offensive. Also - if you're Tweeting on behalf of an organization, there are two schools of thought about what handle - organizational or personal? I don't think there is a "right" answer, but it's helpful for folks to know if it's the official handle and who it is that's actually doing the posting.

2. Fill out the bio.

If your handle doesn't use your name, you might put it here (e.g. Jesse from Access Sciences). I prefer reasonably professional bios - succinct and concise to be sure, but tell me what you do. If your bio says something like, "I make stuff", that's not real helpful. Better examples: @jmancini77, @skjekkeland.

3. Upload a pic - preferably of yourself.

Note also that people will judge you on your picture - if it's a beer, a sports team, a political slogan, a cartoon, etc., consider that it may turn some folks off.

4. Follow some people.

If you have no bio, the default O_o avatar, and no followers, I assume you are a spammer and will not follow you (and in fact may actively block you). If you're just getting started with Twitter, here is a list of ECM/DM Twitter users and here is a list of RM/archives/library Twitter users.

5. But don't get out of control with the following.

Another big spammer indicator for me is someone who follows hundreds of accounts but themselves is only followed by a small handful. Try to be proportionate (say, 3-5 follows for every follower).

6. Post some updates.

Answer Twitter's question ("What are you doing?") but also "What are you thinking about?", "what resources have you found of interest?" "What are other people talking about that you think others might be interested in?" and so forth. Whatever you want to post – post something at least every couple of days.

7. Don't worry that everyone you follow doesn't follow back.

There are any number of reasons why that might happen, almost none of which have any relation to your value, friendship, professionalism, etc. Accept that Twitter is inherently asymmetrical and in fact that that is part of its value. For myself, if you have a bio, pic, reasonable proportion of following/followers, and post every once in a while, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

8. Don't spam your followers.

People that follow you do so for a reason but it's not so you can sell them stuff, whether that's your company's stuff or just your thoughts and opinions. They want to get good, real information, they want to converse, and they want to relate. A good rule of thumb is to post maybe 1 "spammy"/"sales-y"/PR post for every 10-20 posts you make on other stuff. Those other things can be retweets, links to neutral but compelling content, updates, etc.

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Other posts in my "8 things" series -- check them out! Submit one of your own.

8 steps you can take to better manage your inbox

8 things you need to know about Twitter and business

8 things vendors need to know about selling document management to small businesses

8 things you need to know to build an ECM strategy

8 things you need to know about SharePoint governance

8 things you need to know about using ECM for regulatory compliance

8 things you need to know about information risk

8 things small businesses need to know about document management

8 things you need to know to manage the explosion of information

8 things you need to know about content classification and ECM