An Introduction to Twitter: What It Is and Why You Should Use It

Social media is EVERYWHERE! And for those of you who haven’t yet jumped on the bandwagon—or for those of you who have—here’s a good place to start: Twitter.

Twitter is a micro-blogging/public instant messaging platform where a person has 140 characters (about the length of a text message) to get their message across.

Here are some Twitter terms you need to be familiar with:

• Tweet—a “tweet” is essentially anything you post on your Twitter page. The Twitter name for a post is a “tweet.”
• Retweet—a “retweet” happens when someone reposts something you posted, either by copying and pasting your message into their message box and adding: “RT @username” or by writing their own version of your message and then adding: (via @username).
• Followers—when someone finds your page on Twitter, they can choose to “follow you,” which means all your posts will show up on their Twitter home page so they can keep up with what you’re posting. “Following” someone on Twitter is very similar to subscribing to a blog using an RSS feed.

Here are some reasons you need to join Twitter:

1. State of the Twittersphere Report.
2. You can get direct access to high-profile people you would normally never have access to (such as CEOs, company presidents, etc).
3. You get great insights from your followers when you pose questions.
4. Traffic to your Web site!!
5. You can build a network of followers who like your company and/or use your products/services. This helps with getting positive third-party testimonials, as well.
6. You can share information about your company, your brand, new products, contests you’re running, specials you’re running, sales you’re running…the possibilities are endless.
7. People will spread your thoughts/ideas/products to new places by “retweeting” your posts.

To get you started, here are some HR and business people that you should consider following:

• The Society for Human Resources Management
• The HRToolsWriter
• HRTools 
• Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh 
• HR Magazine
• HR Connector

There are millions of HR and business people using Twitter. You may even know some of them. To find people on Twitter, use the Twitter search tool and type in either the person’s name, company or just a generic topic, such as human resources. 

Social media is EVERYWHERE! And for those of you who haven’t yet jumped on the bandwagon—or for those of you who have—here’s a good place to start: Twitter.