From the category archives:

Twitter Basics

The one simple thing businesses must know about using Twitter

November 15, 2011

You wouldn’t go to a party and ask people to leave with you to go to your store, right? Yet I see businesses join Twitter all the time and do nothing but promote their business. Yes, you CAN use things like contests, specials, exclusive content (particularly effective on Twitter), events, etc. to drive people to [...]

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Misunderstanding Twitter, “The Semi-Colon of Social Media”

July 18, 2011

Quote in headline is from @JenniferLockett Why do so many people swear by Twitter, while other swear they will never try it because it doesn’t make sense? “In no other walk of life have people bashed something so fervently that they haven’t tried as Twitter.” – @DarrenRovell Years ago I came across an argument in a [...]

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What Is A “Fake” Retweet? What Can You Do About It?

December 28, 2010

A question from a person new to Twitter: What is it with retweets? On many accounts they seem of no value at all and look nearly random. Plus, I’ve retweeted others but get no reciprocation. Am I missing something? Fake and semi-fake accounts often use retweets as a means to look real, or to promote/validate [...]

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Please come back to Twitter!

November 21, 2010

UPDATE: We have just learned from her daughter that “Mom had tears in her eyes watching the video and watched it several times.” I wrote her back “Now *I’ve* got tears in my eyes! It’s all about love, isn’t it? I’m so glad we were able to help!! ))” Earlier this year, a new Twitter [...]

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Is learning Twitter really that hard? Yes, yes it is

November 19, 2010

How hard is Twitter? The CEO thinks you have to crash and burn and struggle before you can even learn how to use it! “When you sign up for Twitter, you fly into this cliff and you catch fire and you, if you’re a brave soul, you can climb back up the cliff and look [...]

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What REALLY happens when you use “@” in Tweets?

July 12, 2010

The short version: You only see @replies from people you follow to people you follow (except for—obviously—@replies sent directly to your own username). Twitter made this change years ago. It was controversial at the time! For more details, imagine a fictional family where everyone follows each other on Twitter: @Mom, @Dad, @Brother and @Sister. The most [...]

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