What the tweet?

Are you new to Twitter?  Thinking about joining?  Wondering what all the fuss is about?  Here's a quick glimpse at what Twitter is and how it can work for you!

http://bit.ly/dJHvPj

Tweets are essentially bite sized blips of information that you want to share (tiny bites - you have to keep your tweets to only 140 characters)... 

• Your goal should be to share things that you care about with other people that are interested.
• Twitter's great for making announcements, hyping promotions/give aways, posting photos tracking your progress/what you're doing (twitpics) in real time, sharing articles or news stories, talking about things you're interested in or learning from (documentaries, helpful websites, etc.). 
• Keep it fun and engaging!  Target your tweets to the audience you want to attract. 
• The way to get followers is to follow and reach out!  Look for people that are interested in or are tweeting about similar things and make contact.  This can happen in three ways.  
1. Direct your followers to other people's pages (check out @arttherapytech for info on this, this, and this!).  People appreciate when you mention them!  Also, who doesn't love learning about something new and fabulous?
   
2. Make contact directly (Hey @arttherapytech!  I love your blog, you are doing great things!). 
   
3. Thank your followers as soon as they sign up to get your tweets...you should get an email letting you know.  (Thanks for the follow @arttherapytech, we are so grateful for the support!  Please spread the word!).
• Try to pick up on the Twitter jargon.  For instance, if someone puts your username in a post be sure to thank them for the "mention".  If they copy and paste what you said and put a "RT" in front, that's a Re-tweet which has been posted for all of their followers (which also deserves a thanks)!  Lastly, if someone puts a (#) in front of a word it means that other people are talking about it.  If you see "I love #arttherapy" you can click on #arttherapy to see all of the other tweets that mention that particular phrase.

With any new medium the best thing to do is just poke around and see how things work.  Take a look at how other folks use their Twitter accounts.  You'll quickly learn what you do and do not like about Twitter - and hopefully you'll find your Tweeple!  And remember, always think before you tweet!  Don't forget that online etiquette!

Good luck!  Follow @arttherapytech for fun tweets!