It’s Twitterrific!
We want to welcome you to the wonderful world of Twitter. It really is Twitterrific! Let me tell you why…
Twitter is one of the fastest growing ’social networks’ on the internet today. It’s a great way to meet some fantastic, like-minded people, AND it’s also a great platform for you to encourage people to visit your Zibbet shop and as a result, see an increase in your sales.
Today I’m going to show you the RIGHT way to use Twitter, because there is a very WRONG way, which only leads to frustration and a waste of your time.
I wouldn’t say this guide is “the definitive guide to Twitter”, but it does contain A LOT of information, which is why I’ve broken it up into 2 parts: ‘Getting Started’ and ‘Making it Happen’. If you’re already using Twitter and are familiar with it, you may want to skip down to the ‘Making it Happen’ section.
PART 1: GETTING STARTED
Lets start with the basics…”Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers).” ~ Wikipedia (Couldn’t have said it better myself! 
)
Once you have set up your Twitter account, it’s important to upload a good profile picture and background. I’m not going to delve too far into this, but if you’re struggling with it you’ll find some great tips here.
It’s also important that you fill in your bio. People will read this to see if you’re worth following! In the ‘links’ section (on the same page), be sure to link to your Zibbet shop!
You can then write your very first tweet! You may write something like… ‘Getting my Twitter on for the first time! Looking forward to meeting some great people that LOVE handmade as much as I do! ‘ Feel free to use it if you can’t think of anything else to say!
Now you need to start finding some relevant people to follow! A great place to start is http://www.twellow.com/. It’s the ‘Yellow Pages of Twitter’. Here you can search for terms like: handmade, fine art, vintage, craft etc etc, and it will produce a whole list of people that you can follow.
Another option is to go to, http://search.twitter.com and you can search for specific keywords and see what other Twitterers are saying about it. See what they’re saying about Zibbet right now on Twitter.
It’s important that you start slowly and don’t try to add too many friends at once. People won’t follow you back if you are following 200 people and have 12 followers.
PART 2: MAKING IT HAPPEN
Once you have started following a few people, it’s time to get to know them! To have a conversation with someone on Twitter, you need to put an @ sign in front of their Twitter username and then type your message. You can also hover your mouse over a ‘tweet’ and there will be a ‘reply’ option on the right hand side of the message.
Another option (which I actually prefer), is to go to http://search.twitter.com and type in @yourusername (don’t type in @yourusername, type in @ plus whatever your username is right after it with no spaces). This way you can monitor ‘real time’ who is trying to talk with you. See below…
THE ‘RIGHT ‘ WAY TO USE TWITTER
As mentioned before, Twitter is a ’social network’. People often forget about the ’social’ aspect and focus too heavily on adding friends and promoting their stuff. It doesn’t work that way people! If you do this, you’ll honestly be wasting your time and annoying a whole bunch of people in the process. Build relationships and interact with people. That way, when you do post a link to your shop or one of your items, people will click on it (and hopefully buy it!). As an example, we have nearly 2000 people following us at the moment. When we post a link to our blog or one of your shops, we get around 50 people clicking on it in a matter of minutes! It’s powerful and it works!
Earlier today I tweeted and asked people to give me their top Twitter tips. I was impressed with what they came back with:
@blsoaps says…
Mostly make sure you’re not JUST promoting. Find interesting things to say, and INTERACT with people! I’ve made sales through twitter. I try to truly connect with the people I’m following and who follow me. It’s not a contest to see how many people I can get to follow me. I enjoy the interaction, the passing of information, etc. So while I DO use Twitter to help promote my business (I currently have 3 shops), I don’t use it ONLY for promoting. People need to remember that this is SOCIAL media. Social means you’re talking WITH people, not at them.
@KitCameo says…
Don’t tweet excessively about listings, always add some personality in there or your followers will leave!
@lindaleetritton says…
I actually had about 30 people ‘follow’ me today. Thirty. In one day. That’s how fast my list is growing… all because I take the time to ask about people, try to say funny things, and I very rarely promote my business… so that when I DO promote it– people will actually click the link.
@whskr says…
Don’t plug your goods relentlessly. Interact - be sociable. Show YOU care and THEY matter.
@craftyasparagus says:
Have real interactions with people. Don’t look for PR opportunities - look for conversations and long-lasting connections. Real networking is still required, and for sellers, that means interaction with those that can get your product out there.
@Sunshinetalia says…
Have a comprehensive bio, follow relevant people and respond to @’s. Conversations, conversations, conversations!!
@chicmommyusa says…
It’s important to not only ‘follow’ tweets or post one way… you have to learn to interact with your market and create relationships!
It’s clear to see that it’s ALL about interaction and creating relationships with people!
OTHER HELPFUL TWITTER TOOLS
http://bit.ly/ - This is a great website where you can ’shorten’ your links. With only 140 characters to get your message across, using this site becomes essential. Sign up, and you’ll also be able to track how many people click on your links.
http://tweetdeck.com/ - TweetDeck is a handy tool to help you stay organized by monitoring your tweets and conversations all in the one spot.
http://www.tweetlater.com/ - Tweet Later is a popular tool that has many time-saving features. The most popular of these is sending a ‘Direct Message’ to your new followers. You should use this to simply introduce yourself and say hello. It’s not an opportunity to sell to that person. It won’t work for the reasons already discussed. Don’t do it!
http://huitter.com/mutuality/ - Mutuality becomes important when you are following a lot of people. When you get up to following 2000 people, Twitter won’t let you follow anymore people until you reach 2000 followers. Mutuality will go in and ‘unfollow’ those that haven’t followed you back so you can start to follow more people again. You should repeat this process every so often.
TWITTER GLOSSARY
Tweet - The message that you post on Twitter is called a ‘Tweet’.
RT or Retweet (same thing) - If someone says something interesting that you would like to share with your followers, you can ‘Retweet’ it. Set it out as follows:
RT: @theirusername: This is their post - add a comment if you wish
‘RT’ means you are retweeting and using @theirusername gives credit to the original Tweeter. If there is room you can then add your own comment to the tweet if you wish.
DM or Direct Message - There is the option to send a ‘Direct Message’ to someone if you don’t want it to appear in the public timeline.
#Hashtags - Hashtags are a way to ‘tag’ your tweets. Tagging your tweets allows people you follow particular topics to see your tweet. You can use tags at the end of your tweet or within your tweet to save space. For example: Have you had a chance to check out #Zibbet? It’s a great new place to #buyhandmade
We look forward to seeing you on Twitter! Make sure you follow @zibbet! We promise we’ll follow you back!
If you like this article please share it with your friends. And if you would be so kind, please take the time to ‘digg’ it or ’stumble’ it using the ‘Share This’ button below. We want everyone to learn how to use Twitter the RIGHT way!!
Tags: popular posts, promoting shop, promoting your shop with Twitter, Twitter, Twitter tips
This is tremendous information. Thank you for taking the time to explain everything in plain English. I’m new to all of this and I teach social media etiquette so to have this information to clear is amazing. Thank you again for taking the time to make me a better tweeter.
Merry Lynch
Good article. I was never sure how to reply to a user.
Also there is tinyUrl.com that shortens your URLs and makes them a hyperlink.
You use it when you wants to put a link to an item in your store.They click on the tiny url and it sends them directly to that item.Took me a while to figure out that one.
There’s also the twitter business directory at http://www.twibs.com add your shop to this.
another twitter directory is http;//www.ifollowback.com/index.php
you can see your twitter score and analyze what kind of user you are at http://twitalyzer.com/twitalyzer/index.asp
for more twitter tools go to http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps
This is a great article! I love how you broke it all down. I’ve seen MANY articles about how to use Twitter, and so many of them just focus on how to get more and more followers. Not how to get the most out of the followers that you DO have. Quality is better than quantity. Thanks again!!!
Lindsay Goodwin
Body Language Soaps
Hey,
Thanks for this great article. I’m just getting ready on Twitter.
Looking forward to the next articles and tips on how to promote effectively our shops.
Best regards
Chris, CDRart
Thank you for this information. I am a new twitter and it is very frustrating to understand. This breaks it down for me and very helpful.
Thank you
Marie Parker
Designs by Marie Julie
Thanks so much for your positive feedback! I’m glad you found it so helpful.
People are loving it on Twitter, with so many people ‘Retweeting’ it to their followers!
What does everyone else think?
I’m so glad you’re on Twitter!!
Okay, you convinced me. Where do I find my zibbet address?
Hi Tetelestai,
Your unique web address for your shop is: http://www.zibbet.com/Tetelestai
Use this when sending people to your shop!
Another excellent article!
I actually found out about Zibbet through my Twitter followers. So that’s been a big bonus for me!
I had been putting of doing Twitter for a while but kept coming across more & more articles on the web about how useful it can be for not only connecting with like minded people but also promoting your business. It’s not that I didn’t like Twitter but more looked at it like another online activity to take up my precious time. But I was wrong! It doesn’t take long & you can always use something like TweetDeck to help you keep track of everything.
I’ve already learnt new things & met so many talented people in the short amount of time I’m on Twitter.
Don’t wait…sign up now!
Jules
Just want to add one more twitter resource, Twitpic. This is FREE and uses your Twitter login.
Twitpic allows to tweet a photo–it also auto-creates a short url for the photo and for your zibbet shop url. Twitpic keeps a counter–so you know how many views you’ve had. Here’s my photostream:
http://twitpic.com/photos/lelija
Happy Tweets!
aka zibbet/palmeta and aka zibbet/wearableart
and while you’re there–follow me @lelija
Thanks for sharing the extra resource ‘Palmeta’.
If anyone else would like to share any extra resources, please feel free to. Also, if you would like to share your Twitter username, you can feel free to do so here as well!
Hello everyone! So glad to be part of the Zibbet community. We just opened here this week. If you like to keep up to date with jewelry making supplies you can tweet with us at http://twitter.com/rougeriverbeads or follow along with our jewelry/gift shop at http://twitter.com/bijouxdesigns
Happy Tweeting!
April & Glenda
Thanks for all the Twitter info! I had to figure most of this stuff out the hard way…which was no fun.
You can follow me at:
http://twitter.com/bodaciousbutton
I’ll follow you too
Wow! This sounds so easy that even I could do it! So, I will! Thanks again for all the easy to understand information on Twitter.
Happy New Year,
My twitter link is http://twitter.com/AndreaDesigns1 .
Andrea Designs
I’ve been applying the tips I read on here for a while now and they have really helped! Thx! http://twitter.com/LilYorkieFruFru - I follow all Zibbeters!
Thanks for the tips! Very helpful. Newbies need all the help they can get.
Hello everybody.
http://twitter.com/selecta6..
Thank you so much for the tutorial on Twitter. I was so lost in the Twitter world, now u feel more comfortable using it as a tool for my business. I greatly appreciate your help. Thank you!!
Hi there! Great article. I agree completely with the advice to not constantly post promotions. I love to follow people that make handmade items, but also have something interesting to say!!
Thanks!!