Twitter is a great tool for business to connect and share information. Twitter is classed as a micro-blogging service in that you “Tweet” (which means post) a short text message to the Twitter network. You are allowed 140 characters for your “Tweet”. The tweet is sent out to all the people who “follow” you. In a way it works like SMS but instead of the text message being sent to just one recipient the message is sent to many people.

Follow the steps below to setup a Twitter account:

1. Go to Twitter.com



2. In the middle of the web page you will see the “Sign Up Now” button. Click the button.
3. The sign up page will be displayed. Fill in the required details. The “Username” will be your “Twitter Profile” name which people can find you by. You may have seen references to “@BusinessTalk” or “@RWW” – some people use this format to pass on their Twitter profile name. “BusinessTalk” is the Twitter profile name. If you see the a red box next to the “Username” field after you have entered in your selected username that means that the username has already been taken by someone else. Keep trying other usernames you would like until you see a green box next to the “Username” field. The green box means that the username is available and will be assigned to you.




4. Click the “Create my Account” button to have Twitter create your account.
5. The next page is titled “See if your friends are on Twitter”. If you have a Gmail, Yahoo and/or an AOL account Twitter can search the address books for any contacts that are already on Twitter using the contacts email address. You will be able to select any contacts to “follow” on Twitter. “Follow” means that when the contact “Tweets” the message will appear within your Twitter profile. Your followers will also be allow to send you a private tweet that only you can see – called a “Direct Message” – also known as “DM”. If you do not want Twitter to search your accounts then click the “Skip this step” link at the bottom of the page to continue the setup process.



6. The next form to be displayed is titled “Look who else is here. Start following them!”. Twitter has provided a list of high profile people already on Twitter. You can “follow” them if you want or unselect the ones you do not want to follow.



7. Click the “Finish” button so Twitter can create your account.
8. Thats it! You now have your very own Twitter account! I recommend you click on the “Settings” link to update your options including the “One Line Bio” section. The “One Line Bio” section is for you to write a brief statement about yourself. When people locate your profile most will look at the “One Line Bio” section to see what you are about.

Twitter Resources

4 YouTube Videos for Using Twitter – Click here
Recommended Social Media Resources – Click here
Twitter & Defamation – a timely reminder – Click here