Twitter Tips , Should You Tweet?

Do u tweet? Should u tweet? And, what the heck do I mean by "tweet," and why am I using the letter 'u' instead of the actual word you?

Tweet is a new verb we may very soon see listed in the Webster Dictionary and refers to the act of posting on Twitter, a social network which is sort of a cross between myspace, instant messaging, and blogging. Members "follow" one another, and on their Twitter page they are asked "What are you doing?" They have a maximum of 140 characters available to answer this question (thus requiring tweeters to sometimes use "u" versus "you").

As you post on your Twitter page, you can also read posts from those you are following, so it is a fun way to get to know others as well as keep track of current friends and family members. It can also be very addicting because it is so quick, easy, and fun to boot. In addition to Tweeting on your computer, you can also take it mobile using your cell phone or black berry.

Other than the fact that it's fun, Twitter is a great tool to help market and promote yourself and your work:

• Have a new item just added to your Etsy shop? Tweet about it and include the link, which Twitter will automatically change into a tiny URL so you don't waste too many character spaces on it.
• Just posted a blog entry? Wait, don't add it over there just yet. Instead, create a Twitter feed so that every time you have a new blog entry published, it automatically gets fed into your Twitter page.
  
• Once you have your Twitter feed set up, pop over to your Facebook account and add Twitter as one of your feeds there as well.
  
• Finally, search for others on Twitter who have similar interests. For example, I write about jewelry making as well as make jewelry, so I searched using the keyword "jewelry" and found some great people to follow who eventually started following me.
  

Any time you have news, especially related to your business, tweet about it to help get the word out in just a matter of minute!

(If you are interested in following me at Twitter, you'll find Twitter along with my other social networks linked on my blog's About Me page.)