Twitter 101 guide reviewed

To help businesses establish themselves on Twitter, the service has released a free guide to show companies how to use it, to help them build relationships, along with some of the best practice tips and case studies.

Twitter 101 opens with a basic description of the service and illustrates how Twitter can be used by businesses, most of which we’ve discussed previously. There are also a few cute stories, such as ice-cream-deprived workers in the empire State Building sending out tweets to a delivery service.

Having established what Twitter can do for your business, the next page goes through the set up process.

One important flag they raise is how they don’t support name squatting and supply a contact link to report people who are trying to hog names, so if you find your business or trade name has been pinched by someone who doesn’t have a valid claim to the name, you can take action.

Once online, Twitter 101 takes you to the basic terminology. If you wanted to know what a hashtag, trending topic or Tweetup is, this is the page to visit.

Probably the most valuable page is the Best Practices section, which details the good, the bad and the spammy. It also provides a link to report spammers and other dills who abuse the service.

If you are going to only read one section, Best Practices is the bit to read. You’ll avoid many mistakes and get more from the service, both as an individual and a business.

Finally, the site finishes up with some case studies. Along with the well-known Dell and JetBlue stories, is the description of how Dave Brookes of Teusner Wines in the Barossa Valley started using Twitter after watching Lance Armstrong in the Tour Down Under.

Finally, there’s some links to useful resources on using Twitter.

The guide continually emphasises how it is all about building relationships. Twitter may not be the right tool for you or your business, but the Twitter 101 guide will certainly help you decide one way or the other.

Paul Wallbank is a writer, speaker and broadcaster on technology issues. He founded national support organisation PC Rescue in 1995 and has spent over 14 years helping businesses get the most from their IT investment. His PC Rescue and IT Queries websites provide free advice to business computer users and his monthly newsletter has over 3000 subscribers.

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