twitter 101

We talked a little about Twitter at the first session of What’s Your Story: Personal Branding, PR and New Media for Artists, and I know a couple of you have already given it a peek.

Twitter can be a little confusing to the uninitiated, so I’m posting a few guides here to get you started.

First, watch this short and very informative video:

So the first thing to do is go to Twitter.com and set up an account. This takes two seconds, and only requires you to give your name, email address, and password. No long and complicated account set-up.

I recommend leaving your updates public. This will help people of similar interests find you. It’s really hard to meet new people when you “protect” your updates.

Now you’ll need to start following some people. This means that you’ll be able to “see” their updates. They won’t “see” your updates until they follow you back.

First, why not follow me? Just go to www.twitter.com/bethdunn and click “follow.” Now go back to “home” and you will see my “twitter stream.” Now choose some other people to follow.

Here are a few very friendly artists I have met on Twitter who would be delighted to meet you:

tina_m

msholin

fenwayart

keithburtis

eve11

artbyskym

And here are some of the featured presenters in the What’s Your Story class:

jimhill (Jim Hill, our first speaker, on personal branding)

JessicaBurko (Jessica Burko, an artist and artist marketing expert)

LenEdgerly (our podcasting and videocasting expert, also serves on the board of NEFA)

panache (Dave Caolo,who will present on blogging)

genevate (Chris Corriveau, part of the team who will present on social networking)

genevangelist (Leslie Fishlock, part of the team who will present on social networking)

It’s like a dinner party — in order to have a conversation, you need to invite people in to your living room. Otherwise, you can’t hear them and they can’t hear you.

Most people will follow you back pretty soon after you start following them.

Another good way to find people to follow (which is the only way to make this Twitter thing work) is to go to TwitterPack. Just click on a topic of interest to you, click on the user’s name, and follow them.

Then, say hello.

If you want to say hello (or anything else) directly to somebody, just type the @ symbol directly in front of their twitter name (no space).

That should get you started — have fun and explore!