To tweet or not to tweet?

Af Online Communicator Lara Mulady, Designit

Yes, today it’s a question often heard. Those who do it, can’t get enough. Those who don’t, think it’s either outrageously geeky or totally pointless. Or both. God only knows how many times I’ve had to explain to friends that yes, I did meet this person on Twitter, and yes, we are now friends in the real world, and no, they’re not an overweight, balding, creepy guy who lives in his Mum’s basement. It’s time to shake off the stereotyping and take the big step in to the Twitosphere. We don’t bite. We peck. I’m only joking.

Denmark is particularly shy of the little blue bird. Despite our high Facebook penetration (about half the population), when it comes to Twitter, we’re really not that adventurous. But there are good reasons, even I’ll admit that. It’s hard to figure out how to use it, how to tweet, how to react, what to say, and who to follow.

In April 2011, it was estimated by ‘experts’ that there are 60,000 Danes on Twitter. In February, there were 30,000, so I’m not sure how accurate these experts are, and Twitter hasn’t released official figures yet, so let’s say 45,000, just for argument’s sake. But how many of these are dead accounts? I’m guessing a lot. While the small figure does have a downside, it also has a rather excellent and exclusive upside. Most Danes on Twitter really want to be there. They’re not just tweeting about their cats, the dinner, who saw who kissing who last Friday night and OMG did you see that dress she was wearing? We’re lucky enough to have a rather select group of people who are employed in communications, media, government, marketing, advertising and film, and who tweet to network, to share knowledge, to seek help, and to inform (OK, OK, sometimes we tweet total crap too).

In a nutshell, Danes on Twitter are (mostly) there for professional reasons, not social (this isn’t strictly true. Every two months Twedagsbar is held – currently in Vesterbro. The idea is for all those people who communicate daily on Twitter, to meet in real life and share a drink or 5. Not only do you make friends, but you can also hire, and be hired. Trust me on that one).

Just take a look at Kvidr, a site that can help you find people to follow. The top 10 categories are; social media, communication, music, web, web development, digital media, politics, creativity, web design and photography. Followed closely by marketing, journalism, and networking, to name a few. Sounds pretty good.

Opening an account is simple. Head to Twitter, choose a handle (username), upload a profile image and badabing badaboom, you’re good to go. You can set your profile to private, which means that your tweets will only be seen by those you give permission to, although in my opinion, it kind of defeats the purpose of networking. In your bio, it’s a good idea to write something interesting. Less family, more profession – indicate what you can offer people. Why should they follow you?

You only have 140 characters, so you have to be precise in what you say. Think, ‘ultimate elevator speech’. A useful tool to use is bitly. This is a URL shortening service, which turns long links into around 20 characters. It’s a bit of a life saver, to be honest.

The first, the worst, and probably the last hurdle you’ll face on Twitter is who to follow. Where do you start? A safe bet would be to search for any friends you have on Twitter (you can do this via names, emails, or Twitter handles, e.g. @LaraMulady). You can browse who they follow, and see if they grab your interest. Twitter has a built in function ‘Who to follow’ at the top of your profile – based on your profile and who you follow, Twitter suggests accounts.

You can head over to the aforementioned Kvidr, add your profile, and then search for Danish users who have similar interests to yourself.

 

If you’re headed to kom-dag´11 on Wednesday, perform a search for each of the speakers, and ask those you meet if they’re on Twitter. Even better – search for the ‘hashtag’ #komdag.

A hashtag is a ‘#’ followed by a term, a sentence (with no spaces), or any other word. They’re used as a way to sum things up without using up your precious 140 characters. For example, instead of writing, ‘I’ve just started using Twitter and don’t really know what I’m doing’ you could write, ‘#twitternewbie’. You’ll see them popping up in tweets, and if you click on them, Twitter will perform a search of that hashtag.

The other very useful way of using a hashtag is at events. For example, the official hashtag for kom-dag is #komdag. People at the event can tweet nuggets of information from the sessions, use the hashtag, and others can then follow the hashtag by searching for it (as in the image above). Another benefit is that all those using the hashtag are probably either at the event, or interested in it, and therefore interested in communication. More people to follow!

Another hashtag to keep an eye on in regards to who to follow, is #FF, which stands for Follow Friday. Every Friday, people suggest people to follow. Some go a bit overboard, but others do it well.

You can of course always ‘unfollow’ people if it turns out they’re boring, and don’t forget that in order for them to see your tweets, they have to follow you back.

You’ll see a ‘@Mentions’ on your profile. If you click here, you’ll see tweets that have your handle in it. If someone tweets you directly, it’s common courtesy to reply. All you have to do is hit ‘reply’ and write. If you want to start the conversation, just write their handle. All handles always start with @. Chances are they’ll reply.

There’s actually a Twedagsbar (#twedagsbar) just around the corner. On Friday at Von Fressen on Vesterbrogade, Cph. People show up around 17, and it can get pretty late, and pretty messy. You have to wear a badge with your handle, so people who know who you are, and it’s a great way of meeting new people. There’s a similar event in Aarhus (#twaarhusbar) for those of you over there. 

If you see a tweet you find particularly interesting and would like to share, you can ‘retweet’ it. This is shown via a ‘RT’ in the tweet. The tweet itself has a retweet option, which will automatically retweet it through your stream, so you followers will see it. Alternatively, you can copy/paste the tweet, and add something to it. Just remember to add an RT to give the credit to the original tweeter.

Here you can see that I’ve retweeted a tweet that @mikewenoe retweeted. You can see who has retweeted your tweets under @Mentions.

 

Those are the basics. Of course there is more, but most of it you pick up as you go along. The most important things to remember are to be nice, be interesting, be polite, and be yourself. Would you follow you?

The Danes on Twitter are a happy, interesting and helpful bunch. If you’re in doubt, just ask. I’d go as far to say that I hope Twitter never becomes mainstream in Denmark. Of course there are those who tweet personal things, things that might be considered noise to some, but on the whole, it’s a highly informative professional forum.

Go tweet! Share knowledge, gain knowledge, and have fun.

@LaraMulady