At the Blog Book Tours class, the next assignments for the month focus on the social marketing groups we all know... and maybe hate. These include Facebook, MySpace, Goodreads, and Twitter.

We're starting with Twitter because it's the fastest, easiest, and most powerful for marketing your other websites. It's also less of a time-suck than the more complex social forums. There are other added benefits about Twitter networking that I'll point out later.

In a nutshell, Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows snappy posts of 140 characters. To participate, you follow other Twitter users and this allows you to see their updates.

You, in turn, are followed by others and those people can read what you have to say. Keep this scenario in mind, because it's the key to how Twitter works, or how it doesn't if you don't "get it". Believe me, many people don't, and consequently feel it's a waste of time.

Let me repeat:

You must follow people to see their updates.
Only your followers can see your updates.

It's crucial you understand this. If you are enthusiastically following thousands of people, but only a fraction are following you back, then only that small fraction sees what you write. Therefore, it's important you spend your efforts offering information that is of value to others, so they will want to follow and read you.

Now, to get started, and before the following and socializing begins, you need a few things upfront:

1. An email account that is acceptable on Twitter like yahoo or hotmail


2. A name that coordinates with your other website efforts if possible - I use blogbooktours everywhere I can
   
3. A small photo for your homepage and post icon


4. A well-written short bio


5. The website link you will send readers to for more information
   

Now you're ready to set up your Twitter account. Go to http://twitter.com/ and follow the directions, plugging in the information above.

Once you've gotten this far, you're ready to practice entering some updates. Introduce yourself in one, leave a blog link in another, tell us what you're doing today in a third. Do this several times more, perhaps throughout the day, to get Twitter into your conciousness and just to practice writing concise but meaningful messages. Be sure to bookmark your Twitter page to make it one of your regular stops several times during the day, much like checking your email.

Now you're ready to start following people and have them follow you back. We'll talk about how to do that in the next post.

And then you can follow me @twitter!

Tomorrow I'll also post helpful links picked up at Twitter to help you even more. One of my favorites is TwiTip for ongoing updates and tips.

Twitter Confusion

We are in Day 4 of Twitter practice in our Blog Book Tours class. A few folks are getting themselves very confused. That's not uncommon, and the only suggestion I have is to keep plugging away, and eventually you will "get it" by rote. Post and read three times a day as described in previous lessons. Get a sense of the interaction for a few days and it will sink in. Twitter is deceptively simple, and this sometimes adds to the confusion. Don't make it more complicated than it really is.

One important point. When you go to Twitter, make sure you are signed in. You should get a sign-up window if you are not. Obviously, until you are signed into your account with your password, you cannot read your timeline, which means all the updates of the people you are following and your own posts.

And start reading http://www.twitip.com on a regular basis. Think of it as Twitter Berlitz. The more you immerse yourself in this foreign language, the more quickly you will understand what everyone is talking about.