Twitter for Dummies - Laura Fitton [16]
Twellow (www.twellow.com) is another handy tool for widening the scope of your Twitter universe (which, yes, some call a twitterverse). Twellow sorts Twitter users by categories based on keywords found in the Bio sections of their profiles. Users can also claim Twellow profiles for any Twitter usernames that belong to them, by proving who they are. Claiming lets you edit the entry to add more categories or remove incorrect categories. Twellow is searchable by name, location, or category, similar to an online yellow pages for Twitter (hence the name Twellow).
Part III explores more of these third-party tools.
Searching by using Twitter Search
Twitter also has its own search engine, known as Twitter Search, which you can access by clicking Search at the bottom of any Twitter page or by going to http://search.twitter.com. You can enter any keyword of your choice into the Twitter Search text box and click the Search button, and Twitter not only brings you results in chronological order (with the most recent at the top), but also lets you know when people have made new tweets that match your search criteria and gives you the option to refresh the search results page.
Everything in moderation: Making sure you don’t follow too many people
Be cautious when following new people. You can easily get excited and start following a ton of random people, but this approach has some potentially negative consequences. It takes time and genuine interaction to build relationships on Twitter, so many of the initial people you follow (who don’t personally know you) may not opt to follow you back immediately. As a result, you may at first find that you’re following many more people than are following you, and your follower/following ratio is skewed heavily to the following side.
To some Twitter users, an account that’s following 500 people with only 1 or 2 people following it back is a warning sign that it may be a spam account — and you don’t want people to think that you’re a spammer. Take a relaxed approach, following a few people at a time, talking to them, and giving them time to follow you back before increasing your follower circle. Over time, your numbers swell on their own just because you’re building a network and interacting with it.
Twitter users are often interested in meeting and talking with new people and want to hear fresh voices. If you talk about your passions, interact with people in and out of your network, and are genuine, you’ll have no trouble finding people to follow and getting them to follow you back.
If you have a blog or Web site, create a friendly “Hello, Twitter people!” Twitter landing page that introduces yourself to people you follow or who may want to follow you, and link to that page on your Twitter profile so that it directly welcomes curious new people. Companies that tweet should definitely mention it on their own website so that it is clear whether or not their account is authentic. Todd Defren of SHIFT Communications (@tdefren) has pointed out that it’s a particularly good idea for businesses to use a Twitter landing page to explain how they are using Twitter and offer ways to opt-out of any connections or communications.
You can use Twitter Search to find new people on Twitter by typing keywords connected to your interests or profession in the text box. Bonus: Because Twitter Search sorts results based on how recent they are, the people you discover through this search are likely very active Twitter users.
Twitter Search was originally built by another Web startup called Summize, which had earned special privilege and access to Twitter’s application program interface (API) to create a search engine for the microsharing service. Although Twitter officially acquired Summize and has since renamed it Twitter Search, Summize is still known to many (and affectionately referred to) by its original name.