Twitter: The Microblogging Platform That Is Deceptively Simple

Reprinted from Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s blog posts at the LA Internet Business Examiner.

On side-by-side treadmills at the gym today I tried once again to explain to my exercise partner how she can use Twitter to promote her new children’s picture book Too Many Visitors for One Little House.

The problem is that Twitter is deceptively simple. How did you learn all this? she asked me. It took me months, I told her, and I could probably teach a 10-week course at UCLA Extension on this.

And the truth is that I’m still learning about Twitter. I continue to read every blog post on Twitter that I can and have bought special reports and a book about Twitter. In addition, I’ve written special reports on using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for marketing books, businesses and films.

So what can I possibly write here that can help you get started on Twitter for business (with additional posts later to add more information)?

My top Twitter rules:

Sign up for Twitter only when you are ready to do this:

1. Post a photo with your brief bio.
2. Choose a good Twitter username (can be your name or business name or brand but not something goofy – try to avoid using an underline and numbers; whatever capitalization you enter the username with is the way your username will show up although people can type it with or without the capitalization).
3. Put your real name in the NAME box in the settings/account info. (Your Twitter username goes in the username box.)
4. Start slowly watching what other people tweet instead of trying to amass 1,000 followers in one day and getting kicked off Twitter for “spamming.”
5. Include a URL if you have a website.
6. Write something interesting in your brief bio instead of something goofy.
7. Tweet at least two updates as soon as you upload your photo and write your brief bio (160 characters).
8. Include your Twitter username in your email signature.

Of course there are lots more tips for using Twitter successively, but this will get you started. You can follow me to see what I do – www.twitter.com/ZimblerMiller. (If you’re a blogger, notice that some of my blogs feed automatically into my Twitter account and some of my blog posts I enter myself in the update box.)

If you have a specific Twitter question, leave it below and I’ll try to answer it in upcoming blog posts.

And no matter what anybody says (and I’ve read the naysayers, too), if – and I mean if – you learn to use Twitter correctly and effectively, you’ll come to appreciate what a genius online tool it is.

And learn more about the children’s picture book www.TooManyVisitorsforOneLittleHouse.com (website built by my company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com ).