The Anatomy of Twitter: Part 3 (Glossary and Best Practices)

The last of the three-part series, today we will have a short discussion on how you can best build your network, reputation and create customer trust. Plus, we will also take a look at the common Twitter words you encounter every now and then.

To get more Twitter followers, here are some simple tips to help you. Sharing is cute so make sure to share photos or quick glimpses about your service, project, or product. Offer people real-time updates and they will be coming back for more. Remember to listen to what other people are saying about your company or brand by monitoring tweets.  Let your network know that you value their opinions by asking them questions on how to improve your brand or product. Ask people to offer you insights and remember to respond to them by sending feedbacks and compliments.  Offer people rewards or gifts. You can offer your followers special promo or discounts and other freebies.

Now, let’s talk about Twitter vocabulary.  The“@” sign is for usernames, example: @ladygaga or @JustDemi.  Automatically the username becomes a link when it is preceded by an @ sign when mentioned in a Tweet. When people “mention” you, it means that a Twitter update has your username on it like when somebody replies to your Tweet.  Check out your Mention’s tab (found on the Connect page) to see who’s been talking about you on Twitter.  To “block” someone means that they won’t be able to follow you on Twitter. A “Follower” is someone who follows another Twitter user while “Following” is the number of Twitters that users have chosen to follow. Trending topics are subjects that are deemed to be the most popular on Twitter at the moment.  A “#” symbol is called a hashtag. Hashtags are used in tweets to mark them as related to a topic. Clicking on a hashtag will show you all the other Tweets in that category.