Twitter : Tweeting with a Difference

A Tweet is a powerful tool. Every week billions of Tweets flow through Twitter about every imaginable subject. A wide variety of people, organizations,  businesses — big and small, local and international — all use Twitter to make their  presence known. This guide is intended to help small business owners understand how to use Twitter better. Twitter can help your company connect with customers, amplify  your message, and ultimately, grow your business.
1. GET STARTED
Your customers are already on Twitter. Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of the conversation. Learn how to use Twitter effectively to meet your business goals.
2. ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE
Make sure your voice shapes the online identity of your business. Tweet about the ideas, principles and value of your business. Share links and pictures with your customers. Let them see what happens behind the scenes.
3. AMPLIFY YOUR IMPACT
The more people who talk about your business on Twitter, the more followers (and customers) you’ll get. Focus on activities that promote your @username and expand your business.
Anatomy of a Tweet
Tweets are the building blocks of your communications on Twitter.
You’ll be surprised by how much you can say with 140 characters or less.

1. HASHTAG
A hashtag is any word beginning with the # sign. People use hashtags to organize conversations around a specific topic. Clicking on a hashtag takes you  to search results for that term.
2. MENTION
Sometimes you want to bring a Tweet to someone’s attention, but you still want all of your followers to see the message. So instead of a reply, use a mention. Include the @username of whomever you want to mention in your Tweet, and it will appear in the Mentions section (in the Connect tab). All @username mentions are clickable and link back to the mentioned individual’s profile.
3. REPLY
You can respond to a Tweet by hitting the reply button. When you reply, your response is public, and will show up in your home timeline and the timeline of the person to whom you are responding. The reply will also be visible in the home timelines of people who follow both you and the person to whom you sent the
reply. Meaning, someone not in the conversation has to follow both of the people  replying to be able to read both sides of the conversation.
4. RETWEET
You can pass along someone’s Tweet by retweeting it. Just hit the retweet button to send the original message to all of your followers.
5. LINKS
Twitter’s link-shortening feature allows you to paste a link of any length into the Tweet box and it will automatically be shortened to 19 characters. This makes it easier to fit long URLs into the 140 character limit

A direct message (DM) is
a private message. You
can only send a DM to
individuals you follow
who also follow you.