It’s easy to get started.

Sign up for Twitter here.

After you do, make a short post. People will want to see something when they check you out.

When you’re done, why not follow me on Twitter?

That’s all there is to getting started on Twitter.

After you sign up for Twitter, be sure to make a few posts to your account. You want to make them interesting.

You ask, “I have no followers. Why make posts that no one will read?

I say, “Twitter is a social network. Long term you want to attract followers. When people you follow check your posts out – and they almost always will – having something interesting in your Twitter profile makes them much more likely to follow you back.”

After you sign up for Twitter, write some posts before you go out and start following a flock of people.  Then when they look at your profile, they’ll have a reason – or not lol – to follow you.

The easiest way to pick your Twitter name is just to use your real name. But the catch is someone might already be using it. Like if you are John Smith your real name probably isn’t going to work.

But still, there may be some combo of intials and your name that may work. A prefix or suffix might help. You could be TheJohn Smith. Maybe you have an online “handle” you’ve used for years.

Maybe it can be your company name. Maybe it could be JohnFitnessGuy, or PhotoJohn or whatever it is you like to do or that you want to associate your profile with. The main idea is to make it memorable.

You’ve got 15 characters for your Twitter user name and you can associate your real name of up to 20 characters along with it.

Another thing to think about is that you should be transparent across all the social networks you are hooked into now or in the future. So if you already have a myspace, facebook, youtube, or other popular social networking site username, use that at Twitter if at all possible.

And if you pick a name you end up not liking, down the road there is a way to change it. An if you think you are going to need more than one name, now is the time. Twitter names are going to disappear just as eBay user names and short keyword and personal name domains have.

Jump over to Twitter right now and get your unique username reserved. If you’re already on twitter, why not follow me on twitter?

You may ask why you would want to write some posts (tweets) before you start following anyone on Twitter.  It’s a fair question, and answered by the fact that most non-newbie tweeple (which is Twitter talk for people) will want to check you out before they follow you back.

So post some interesting things about yourself. Not just one interesting thing, but at least four or five Tweets that will give someone who looks at your profile a good idea of why they might want to follow you on Twitter.

Ideas for your first posts -

• what’s happening where you live
• what you’re up to online
• a link to your blog or website
• something relevant to your favorite hobby or pastime
• a link to an online photo of yours
• something going on at work

From this list you should get the drift. And be able to come up with some other ideas of things to Tweet (post) about. And if it takes a day or two, no big deal.

Writing some worthwhile posts before following anyone on Twitter is one way to make sure you have something of quality for potential followers to see. This is one of the ways you’ll be evaluated by others in their follow/no follow decision. Make it easy for them.

Other Twitter people are much more likely to follow you if you start out with some interesting posts on your Twitter profile.

Another thing you should do before you start following anyone on Twitter is get your Twitter profile looking good.  Here’s how to do that:

Go to your Twitter home page and click on “Settings.” You’ll first see an “Account” screen where you can edit or add information to your profile (some of this will already be filled in from your signup information.) In the account screen you’ll be able to add or edit:

• Your real name
• Account email address (only you see this)
• Time Zone
• More Info URL (your website, blog, online profile, etc)
• One Line Bio (make it interesting)
• Location
• Language

Also you can choose whether to protect your updates or not. Unless you have an extremely good reason, don’t check this box.

Now save your new settings by hitting the “save” button at the bottom of the page. Now check how they look in your profile. If OK, you’re all set. If not, go back to “Settings” | “Account and fix what you don’t like.

Cycle through the other menu choices in the “Settings” tab. You can change your password, set up mobile devices, set your notification preferences, change your theme and colors, and most important, upload a photo.

If you do nothing else, make sure you have a recognizable photo or graphic to upload to your profile. It is something potential followers will want to see.

Trust me on this one, you need a photo or graphic to get your Twitter profile looking really good.

If you followed the above steps, you’ve got your Twitter profile

The first people you should follow at Twitter are the people you already know. They’re in your Instant Messenger contacts, perhaps your Skype, your email, at  other social networks like MySpace or FaceBook.

If you click on the “Find People” link in your Twitter profile, Twitter will want you to allow it to use your email account. Don’t. If you do so you will likely generate as much ill will as the few potential followers you might get. Technically you’re not, but people will take it that you are spamming them. At least that’s my take on it.

Twitter can interface with Gmail, Yahoo mail, AOL, Hotmail, and MSN mail. But again, I don’t think it is a good idea to let it, for the above reason. But there is a way you can send an individual email to people who you choose, by entering their email address into the box in the “invite by email” tab. So use the “invite by email” tab for friends you think might be or would want to be on Twitter.

So what else can a potential follower finder to do? Just use the “Find On Twitter” tab and just put your friends or contacts names into it. You’re bound to turn up someone you know. And you won’t be spamming them.

For grins Twitter also has a “Suggested Users” tab. When I clicked on it I got some rather large corporate Twitterers, and people like Britney Spears, Al Gore, and Lance Armstrong. Somehow I don’t think any of them are going to pay much attention to what I say.

And of course if you’re reading this, and interested in what I am, which is primarily internet marketing, social media and marketing, books of all sorts, and photography, you can start by following LowellRieger on Twitter.

Hey, if you’re reading this you already know me! So let me know when you follow me. Then check out who I follow and who follows me. You’re bound to find some interesting people to follow. And you are bound to get some who will follow you back.

After you’ve already found your first group of people to follow at Twitter, and you have actually followed them, some of them will have followed you back. When you get the email notice that they have, click through to their profile and check out the people they follow and the other people following them.

The people who follow you have lists of both followers and people who follow them, which are both great sources for new people you may want to follow, and who in turn may want to follow you. So every time you glean a new follower, go back and check their profiles and look through their followers and those they follow for more people that you might want to follow.

Warning. The Twitter rumor mill is rife with warnings about following too many people at once, a favorite Twitter spammer tactic, which can cause your account to be shut down. So stick to a reasonable number per session or day. How many is too many? I doubt you’ll get into trouble following forty or fifty new people a day. But you might if you’re immediately following hundreds, especially with no one following you back.

The goal is to find people who will follow you back, who have common interests, people you’ll want to carry on an online conversation with for years.

And don’t forget to do your part: quality tweets and an interesting profile will help your potential followers make the decision to follow you.

At this beginning stage of the Twitter game concentrate on finding quality people to follow. The quantity will follow quickly – if you choose the people you follow wisely.

In a previous post we talked about ways to generate followers for new Twitter users. If you’ve taken that advice you should get a nice core group of people with common interests that you are following. Many will have followed you back.

Now it is time to expand your followers by using Twitter search. They don’t make this easy to find from your home page or profile, but the link can be found at the very bottom of Twitter pages.

Enter a topic you are interested in. I entered the word photography into the search box and immediately got pages of results and many potential interesting people to follow.

You can do this with any topic. Then apply what you learned in Part 1 and you’ll soon have a bunch more Tweeple in your circle of Twitter friends.

Now that you’ve got some great people following you on Twitter, what are you going to do?

How about communicating with them? Yes that’s right, you can actually send messages to people on Twitter using the @ symbol directly in front of their Twitter user name. So for instance to send me a message in the Twitter interface you’d put @LowellRieger into the body of it somewhere that makes sense.

You can even send a direct message to someone who both follows you and that you follow. Just click on the direct messages text in the sidebar anywhere in Twitter.

Warning, use manners, understand your followers didn’t sign up to Twitter to constantly be sold, and don’t use these messaging functions to Spam anyone. While Twitter condones commercial use of their system they don’t condone spamming.

It’s almost too cute at first, and using it is optional, but Twitter has its own special language, created spontaneously by its users.

People on Twitter can be Tweeple or Tweople, posts are called Tweets, people who Tweet incessantly about themselves are egotwistical, etc. There’s a great and I’m sure incomplete – cause it seems there’s a new Twitter term every day – list at Twictionary. Yeah, there’s another Twitter term.

You’ll pick up the special language of Twitter as you Tweet along. Using it is optional, but you’ve got to know it to understand what some people say.