Internet Marketing, SEO, and an extra Scoop:

#Hashtags:

Something that’s preceded with a hash tag (#) shows that it’s a trend and it’s primarily included to make the topic available to appear in search trends. You may not include # in your private conversations and in your replies, also too much of # usage may appear SPAM to your followers. So make sure you not overuse the # tags.

Somewhere I found this image, that tweet included all the latest trends at that moment but without even a single # tag. I guess it would have easily resulted in any of these trend searches.

@ Replies: you can reply to your messages from your followers using @ followed by their user id. The @ indicates that it’s a reply to that user alone and not for the group.

Retweeting:

Retweeting is how Twitter users share interesting tweets from the people they are following. They copy and paste the original tweet and send it out. To give credit to the original person, users usually put “RT” plus the originator’s username at the beginning of the tweet. Here’s an example:

- The Twitter user @benparr tweets: I just heard that Apple is releasing new iPods in July!

- You retweet by posting RT @benparr I just heard that Apple is releasing new iPods in July!

If other people retweet your tweets, make it a habit to thank them. It’s common courtesy.

• To follow somebody is to subscribing to their messages or tweets
• A tweet is an individual message sent out
• DM or a direct message is a private message shared between users on Twitter
• RT or retweet is to repost a valuable message from someone else on Twitter and give credit to them by including their user name in it
• Trending topics are the most discussed terms on Twitter at any given instant.
• @username is a public message to or about an individual on Twitter
• A hashtag—the # symbol followed by a term and included in tweets—is a way of categorizing all the posts on a topic
• Shortened URLs. To fit links into the 140 characters URLs are shortened.
• Twitter shrinks some URLs down automatically but its not in practise right now.

http://twitter.com/downloads has the list of all client applications available to download from Twitter and from various other third parties. Choose the one that suits you.

TweetDeck:

The biggest problem with the standard Twitter web application is that you have to keep an eagle eye on your replies and Direct Messages as you only see the main Tweetstream on the screen. It is also limited in that it only displays about the last 20 tweets, so if you want to see older ones, you have to keep going back pages. So what to do?

Easy, download Tweetdeck from http://www.tweetdeck.com The first thing you will probably notice is that you will need to change the settings as the default is white text on a black screen. Makes it hard to read I’ve found, but each to their own.

Tweetdeck is brilliant in that it displays the Tweetstream, your replies and your direct messages all on the one screen. The message columns allow for 500 tweets as a default, so scrolling down allows you to go back a fair way or search for tweets you may want to refer back to.

The screen has a continuous right hand scroll, so you can set up different groups and their tweets will appear in that column. You might have a group called best friends and another for gardeners for instance. That way you don’t miss important tweets from people who are more important to you than others. At the time of writing, Tweetdeck is probably the most widely used application for Twitter and I would highly recommend it to you.

Advantages of using Tweetdeck:

• Tweet directly from TweetDeck
• Respond to Tweets
• Get organized with groups
• Stay up to date with saved searches
• Update Facebook

Beginners guide to Tweetdeck is available at http://tweetdeck.com/beta/help/beginners-guide-to-tweetdeck/

Anyone and everyone! Twitter makes it very easy to follow new people – simply go to their profile page, and click on the ‘follow’ button. Equally, it’s just as easy to ‘unfollow’ anybody, which means that at no time are you risking anything. Again, Twitter isn’t like Facebook – by following somebody, or letting somebody follow you, you’re not exposing all your secrets to some random stranger. The personal information on your profile page is basic and all your Twitter friends will see is your name, location, website and bio. That’s it. There’s nothing to worry about.

There are three main ways to find new people to follow:

1. Use Twitter’s ‘Find People’ feature
2. Use Twitter’s search function
3. External services

Each of these is beneficial in very different ways.

How to Find People in Twitter:

There are several ways to find new people on Twitter itself. Twitter.com supplies you with a link called ‘Find People’. If you click on this, you’ll see a further four options or Tabs: ‘Find On Twitter’, ‘Find On Other Networks’, ‘Invite By Email’ and ‘Suggested Users’.

Find On Twitter – This is the most basic search function. You’ll be presented with a search box in which you can input the names of people you know, famous people, or pretty much anything else. Be mindful that some people don’t register under their real names so just because they don’t show up in a search doesn’t mean they don’t exist. (Personally, I think the ‘Find On Twitter’ search function is a little weak.)

Find On Other Networks – This function is very beneficial to the new user. Enter your email address and password – it’s entirely secure, and your details are not stored in any way – and Twitter will scan your address book(s) for people you know who are already on Twitter. You’ll probably be amazed how many names it will return. This is a great first step.

Invite By Email – Enter the email addresses of your friends and Twitter will send them a personal invite.
Suggested Users – The ‘Suggested Users’ page is a list of recommendations of people you should follow made by Twitter. It’s a bit hit and miss, but is worth a look

Unless you have been living in another planet, you would have probably heard the term “Twitter”. Twitter is an online microblogging service that allows a person to post updates about anything using 140 characters.Its been called microblogging because it limits the characters to 140. It helps make your conversion short and sweet.

It is a kind of your own billboard where you can “announce” to teh world and your “followers” on what is really up in your life. It ranges anything from your personal life to your social life.

Some of the tips to make your Twitter life effective are given here below:

1. Consistency is the Key: With Twitter, you must take time to build up a following of people who are interested in hearing what you have to say. Therefore, you will need to make sure you consistently update your twitter profile or in turn “tweet.”

2. Business: If you are using your Twitter, then you might need not want to give off all your personal information there in your Twitter profile. Because, those are not going to help you in your real business.

3. Make it entertaining: Just try to make your conversations entertaining. No one wants to read things like “Just wrote an article.” It’s just not very enlightening or entertaining to your followers. You want to say things like “Great new deal on my website for golf clubs!” You are probably using Twitter to create a stir..

4. Find like-minded followers: There are ways to find groups of followers on Twitter who have a similar interest. If you are in the cookie decorating niche, you may want to find some Twitter groups related to that niche and not in golf club.

5. Find gurus in your niche and follow them and their followers. You may fidn some interesting things that are common between you and your guru out there in Twitter. Some real good information can be learnt from your guru making your twitter life useful.