I have been receiving many questions about twitter. Here are some of the most frequent questions received.

What is the big deal about Twitter?

Great Question!

Why should you use Twitter if you already have an account on Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn or other social media networks? You may be saying, I’m already spending too much time on these other networking sites, how can I have time for Twitter?!?!

First, you must understand the differences between Twitter vs. all the other social networks.

5 things that Twitter can do and other social media sites cannot:

1. The most powerful thing with twitter is that an unlimited number of people can
follow your messages (tweets) without the need to accept them or follow
them back. For some, this is scary, don’t worry there is also the option to lock
your twitter feed from everyone until you accept him or her as a follower. There
is also the option to block people from seeing your picture and tweets in their
feed as well.

2. You choose whomever you want to follow (follow means their tweets will show up in your twitter feed). You may follow an unlimited number of people. (I would recommend following only people that have similar interests as you and topics you are interested in knowing more about.) Please don’t be one of those people that follows 10,000 and has 4,000 followers, why? I will explain further in the post. The best way to find people in your interests would be to search their bio’s using tweepsearch or searching key terms in real time using tweetgrid.

3. Instant communication with your whole twitter community through you twitter feed, @ replies and direct messages. The conversations in twitter are live and ongoing all the time…the community responses and messages are faster than both facebook and myspace.

*Imagine that you have 90,000 followers and you have a question that you feel your community will be able to answer, or you would like to share the blog post you just wrote. You can potentially have 90,000 people see that message in their feeds, in which some will answer your question or click the link to your new post. How powerful!

4. Can use tweetdeck as an application of twitter to sort, search, and tweet effectively and quickly. A tool that, once learned, can be greatly beneficial.

5. It is a catalyst to fun, high energy, business and networking events where people that are connected on twitter meet face to face in a social setting. These usually lead to great connections, both business and friendship. Tweetups can be found by searching #tweetup.

What Can Twitter Do For You?

3 things Twitter can do for you if used properly:

1. Twitter is used for branding either yourself or your business. It is very effective in this if you use twitter correctly and it’s FREE!

2. Twitter can be a great resource for companies and individuals to research a specific topic or trend. Companies can see what the community is saying about them.

*Some big companies on Twitter Whole Foods, Meijer, Ford, GM, Zappos, Starbucks, ComCast, HomeDepot, Dell, JetBlue

3. A loyal community that you can build your trust with by interacting through tweets, @ replies and direct messages. You may be answering questions, writing blog posts, or tweeting helpful information and links to do this.

I was once told that LinkedIn is like a business conference or career fair, where, Facebook and Myspace are like hallway conversations (converse with people briefly about general information and check back every now and then), while Twitter is like a Cocktail Party (converse with an unlimited amount of people instantly, going from one conversation to another on a consistent basis, like real conversations).

Twitter takes social media to a whole new level. All the others are trying to implement what Twitter is doing, but aren’t close to its simplicity and social power.

What is social power you ask?

Twitter is an application you don’t just go on once a week or once a month. In order to use Twitter effectively for yourself or for your business you must be involved in your community and respond on a daily basis. Be helpful, by answering your follower’s questions and comments. Contribute to the community and be a resource of great information.

Why do this?

Think about how you fell upon some of the jobs you have had in your life. Were some through friends? close relationships? business contacts? or social connections?

These are the types of relationships that can be created using Twitter combined with Tweetups (face to face social gatherings) How awesome!

You now have the ability to gain insight on topics by learning from others you are following. You will also expand your influence and knowledge to an endless growing community by immersing yourself in the twitter community.

Don’t you want to be a part of that? I do.

How Much Time Do You Need To Spend On Twitter?

This is a tough question to answer. Like I said above, twitter is something you should use on a daily basis. The more you use twitter and tweet good useful information the bigger your community of followers will get. The more helpful and relevant your information is on twitter the greater your level of influence will be within your twitter community. From this you will have more followers checking your tweets more often. The amount of time you spend on twitter is totally up to you. I personally spend at least an hour a day using twitter. Again, I would like to mention, the more you are involved in your twitter community the more loyal following you will build. The more time you put in the greater your community will become.

Twitter is not only about building a huge following (anyone can do this), it’s about having a quality following that cares, shares, and interacts with the overall twitter community.

Have you received any twitter questions? Or do you have one that was not covered here? Please Comment below.

Comments are much appreciated! I would love to hear your thoughts and input.

Make it a great day!

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body,but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming — WOW– What a Ride!” -Unknown

A couple Past Twitter Posts: Basics of Twitter also Using HootSuite For Twitter