You can also download a free twitter checklist here (external link)

Twitter Basics

Twitter is quite simply amazing for business. Networking is key to business success and this little gem of a social network will help you tremendously. The only word of warning is that a planned 10 minutes of tweeting can turn into a couple of hours of socialising so try to limit your time or you’ll never find time to actually run your business!

Social networker Jo Dewberry has produced a fabulous twitter basics guide, here’s her tops tips:

Twitter is growing fast in social media popularity.  I use it mostly for PR and business I try not to get caught up in the social aspect of it. What works best for me about twitter is the real-time aspect.  I tweet and it is replied straight away.  I find what I'm looking for quicker than google search or yellow pages. 

How to set up and use Twitter:

1.     Go to www.twitter.com and click on the 'join' button on the right hand side

2.     You will then come to a page where you type in name, password etc. and a few other key bits of information. You will be asked for a user-name. It is probably best to use something related to your business. Your direct URL will then be shown as http://twitter.com/yourbusinessname for the future. (mine is @charliemoos)

3.     Once logged in you will see a status box where you can write your 140 page update. You will also see a tab in the right hand corner that is 'profile ’here you can add a picture or logo and update what you do. There is also a tab to ‘find people’and various ways to do so.'join’ button on the right hand side.

Tip: Using a free platform like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite will make following Twitter easier to use and more manageable.

Twitter Lingo

• Tweet- the message you write using your 140 characters—it’s what twitter is all about!
• RT– Re-tweet – copy and re tweet another person’s update
• @USERNAME - Simply start a message with @username of the person you want to connect to in your update.
• DM– Direct Message is a private message channel through Twitter. 
• Hashtag #- People create ‘hashtags’ to show what a tweet is about, then when somebody searches for that hashtag, they will find all the related messages.

Tips

• Follow people suitable for your business don’t follow everyone you’ll waste your time on irrelevant information.
• Don’t tweet to much about your business interact with other peoples tweets otherwise you will look spammy and people won’t be interested
• Link to your website by adding links into your tweets or add your twitter feed or twitter logo
• ** time saving tip ** Link your fanpage or blog so that it posts tweets for you

Tweetdeck

• Tweetdeck allows you to organise your followers, mentions (@), DM's and any #hashtags in neat columns
• Every so often tweetdeck will remind you its still there and let you know if you have any @, DM or #hashtags
• If need be Tweetdeck will enable you to run more than one twitter account side by side
• To reply to people hoover over the avatar (image) and four boxes appear @, RT, DM and block

Tips for Twitter PR

• Ensure you limit your usage everyday.  Make a clear distinction between 'working' on Twitter and 'socialising'.
• Make sure your following local magazines, radio stations and newspapers they will all be on Twitter looking for local scoops. 
• Also find out if National Magazines are online many baby related ones use twitter to find items for stories they have coming up. 
• Search hashtags on twitter #journorequest (I've had some success with this) and if you do contact a journalist this way make sure you save their email into your database.

Thanks to Joanne Dewberry for these tips:
Dorset Business Mum of the Year
Highly Commended PR Comp mumsclub.co.uk 2009
Future 100 Young Entrepreneurs 2009
TGF Best Rated Awards 2009
Langtry Manor Best Green Business Finalist 2010
Nominated MADS Blog Awards 2010
Short Listed Make your Mark in the Markets 2010
Enterprise Nation Ideas 101 Winner June 2010
Short Listed mumsandworking Awards Best Parent 2010
Short Listed Business Mum of the Year 2010 Mumsclub.co.uk
Finalist Best Use of Media Mumsclub.co.uk 2010 (formally PR comp)
Nominated Whats on 4 Kids, Best Party Supplier 2011
Short Listed Langtry Manor Best PR Initiative 2011