A few days ago, I wrote about my own introduction to Twitter, and why it is different than all of the other social networks out there. Today, I want to share a few simple steps for getting started.

I share these ideas from the perspective of one newcomer to another.

Although I have found Twitter to be a very welcoming place, one can easily get the feeling that there’s some sort Twitter cult, and unless you go through the rites of passage, you just won’t get it. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Rest assured, Twitter is exceedingly easy to use and highly addictive for information and people junkies like myself.

There is a plethora of great material out there on how to use Twitter, and in all sorts of interesting ways. However, if you are just now considering joining, all of the “twitterspeak” can be a bit overwhelming.

This post is aimed at simply getting you up and running, so let’s get started:

1. Sign up, and create your profile

The key word here is create. Spending a few minutes on this step in the beginning will serve you well as you reach out and meet new people.

In the utilitarian style of Twitter, you won’t have too many choices or too many things to fill in, so what you *DO* say about yourself here is important.

The reason this is important is because Twitter is all about people. You will be far more successful at connecting with people that share your interests if you put yourself out there in a unique and authentic way.

Be yourself, and be real.

You will get out of this experience what you put into it. Trust me.

2. Tweet, Reply, and Tweet again

After you have signed up, it’s time to tweet. No real rules here, just tell the twitterverse what you’re up to. Don’t over think it, and don’t over do it…

Tweeting is how people will find you and get to know you.

Take a look at the conversation that is going on, jump in where you feel comfortable. Trust your gut here. Replying to others is maybe even more important than tweeting. Offer something of value. A link, an insight, or support.

For more tips about Twitiquette– take a look here.

* Update: CIO.com published this today too… great read:  Twitter Etiquette: Five Dos and Don’ts

(Thx to problogger for the pointer :)

3. Follow and be followed

You may have followers right away after the sign up process, if you opted to allow Twitter to scan your email contact list.

If not, worry not. Followers will come.

You may wonder how this happens. It seems that some folks will follow you simply because they want to follow as many people as they can, and may quite honestly assume you will follow them back. Whether or not you decide to follow back, is of course, your choice entirely. One which thankfully is not written in stone.

What is far more interesting and valuable is when someone actually reads your profile and/or your Tweets and connects with you because of a common interest.

As an example, I made this Tweet about a WordPress question, and not only received a valuable reply, but made a connection with a like minded guy that I look forward to learning more about.

You’ll likely come across many strong opinions and great ideas on this “follow and be followed” topic… and even though I am only one week into this, I definitely believe you will benefit from trying to actually connect with as many of your followers as possible. Even a simple thank you, or compliment about their profile will help make this a much more positive experience for everyone.

4. Install TweetDeck

This application is so good that I am guessing that some folks might place this at number one on the list!

TweetDeck is an Adobe Air application that makes using Twitter a whole lot easier and more fun. Although Twitter is a fully functioning website as-is, there are any number of a growing list of applications for all sorts of clients that use Twitter services.

I won’t go into all of the details of TweetDeck here, but here are just a few things you can do from one intuitive interface:

* Tweet
* Retweet
* Reply
* Search
* View profiles
* Set up groups for your friends

I have only been on Twitter for one week now, but now when I log into my laptop, I launch TweetDeck first, and *then* launch my browser.

5. Put it all together and shake it all about

Make friends, discuss topics that are important to you, share, follow, be followed, and of course… Tweet!

If you sign up after reading this article, send me a Tweet and let me know!

Other resources:

• A great blog for tips and tricks for using Twitter – http://www.twitip.com
  
• Whether you are on Twitter or not, this is a cool way to track what is going on across several topics all at once: http://www.tweetgrid.com – for an example, here’s a fun grid to check out
• A nice list of Twitter Apps is being aggregated here – http://twitterapps.pbwiki.com

And many, many more!

Maybe you are already familiar with Twitter and can recall what was helpful to you when you were just getting started? If so, I would love to read your comments!

Yesterday, I posted a piece titled “Web travelogue from a twitter neophyte – it’s all about the people“, which described a few of the people I have met on Twitter since signing up a few days ago, and why Twitter seems different to me than other social networks.

In what is starting to look like a week of Twitter posts, I wanted to share this article from Wired:

Twitter Fast Growing Beyond Its Messaging Roots | Epicenter from Wired.com

It describes a whole host of other creative ways in which the Twitter platform is being used… ways that go far beyond connecting people to people.

While I am fascinated by some of the possibilities here, I have to say that I have continued to meet some really interesting people there. For now… I’ll keep my tweeting between me and what I believe to be other real people.

It’s only been a day or so, but OHHDL has 5,686 followers on twitter at the time of this netfxcafe post, myself included.

Actually, the O seems to stand for Office, as in "Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama", but none the less, it will be very interesting to watch how they use twitter to communicate with their followers.

I have a life long interest in spirituality, and a long standing professional background in technology. This is fascinating to me on both fronts, especially as I am just now looking for ways to merge these two interests into one career.

More to come on this topic, for sure.

* Update: It’s been, ohhh, about 20 or so minutes since I first posted this, and OHHDL now has 6,229 followers. I would love to see a graph of how the followers number grows for His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

I think there is a common misconception that spiritual people are somehow behind the times, or that the folks that are out front in terms of technology somehow don’t care about such things. What I am finding more and more is that this is far from the case. There is a much better story to tell here, but it is 8 AM on a Sunday here for me… not quite the pondering hour for me.

** Update as of 02/09/2009

According to this news article, Twitter has suspended the OHHDL account “because it violated our Terms of Use regarding impersonation”. Would be interesting to know more about this story.

In a bit of smart but slightly deceiving marketing, this item seems to be hitting the hive mind –>

LeapFrog launches ‘BlackBerry for children’ – Telegraph

After taking a closer look, here are two salient info bits to consider:

• It’s targeted at kids as young as THREE years old.
• It doesn’t connect to the web… from which I gather, it doesn’t connect to ANYTHING.

Seems to me that there was a time, not too long ago, when parents looked for toys for their tots that harkened back to simpler times, sparked the imagination a bit, … toys that brought back fond memories, and that kind of thing.

This is a big step away from that kind of thinking.

Nothing says I love you kid like “welcome to the busy busy world of information overload”.

Or maybe it’s just a way for workaholic parents to reduce their guilt.

I can see it now – Johnathon the father sits at the dinner table pecking away on his BlackBerry, while little Johnny lets his chicken nuggets get cold while playing with his LeapFrom pseudo BlackBerry, just like good ol’ dad.