Twitter has become one of the hottest online tools for social networking. But what exactly is behind the buzz and how can you use Twitter to build and expand your community? In this newsletter, we will help you to understand what Twitter is, and how you may be able to make it a useful tool in your arsenal for building and maintaining contact with your online community.


What is Twitter?

According to Wikipedia.com: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates, also known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (aka. followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS or Text Messages) or applications such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, Twitterfon, TweetDeck and feedalizr. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur fees specific to wireless providers and services.

A February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranks Twitter as the third most used social network (Facebook being the largest, followed by MySpace), which puts the number of unique monthly visitors at roughly 6 million and the number of monthly visits at 55 million. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009 with an over all growth of 1382%.




How Do I Build a Community on Twitter?

Content is the key to building any online community, and Twitter is no different. One of the best articles I have read about how to build a Twitter community is found on Mashable.com; written by the director of communications at Elgin Community College and author of a PR and Social Media blog, Sarah Evans. She gives 10 tips on how to effectively start and build your own Twitter community. Click here to view this helpful article now!

Learning to use Twitter effectively may seem like a great task, but just like most things in life, it becomes easier with familiarity and practice. So, the best way to learn is to just dive right in and give it a shot! You may find that you develop your own voice and personal style more quickly and easily than you had expected. Using Twitter to help grow your brand and community can be very beneficial, so start to plant your Twitter seeds now and see what sort of benefits it has in store for you. I look forward to learning with you, and you can check out our Twitter at www.twitter.com/michaelbrickman.

Enjoy the Ride!
Michael