You can choose two sides when it comes to getting people on Twitter:
You drink the noob hatorade: You claim that you’ve used Twitter since the dawn of 2006 and you don’t necessarily want Twitter to become the next MySpace.
or
You invite your mom to Twitter: You think Twitter is the best thing since AOL and want to know the exact doings of everyone you care about, at all times (in 140 characters or less).
If your stance is the latter, then you know how hard it is to convince someone to join, never mind use Twitter. If your stance is the former, well this article is probably just going to irritate the crap out of you.
For everyone else, here’s how to get your mom, friends, and colleagues on Twitter:
1. Find them some valuable people to follow
If you’re dedicated to the cause, you’ll find people of interest to your subjects who are on Twitter. If your subject is already into social media, then this task is easy. There are dozens of social media mavens on Twitter, which you probably already know. If they’re not, then you’re going to have to do some more digging. Here are some suggestions:
Parenting types – Moms love other moms and dads like to give the ‘ol punch-in-the-shoulder to other dads, so give them some mommy twitterers or daddy twitterers to follow.
Political types – While I’m sure that political candidates have their interns running like mice on wheels, you can count on the fact that politics thrive on Twitter. @BarackObama and @HillaryClinton are on there; John McCain doesn’t have an official account, but his followers have made a few including @JohnMcCain2008 and @McCainNews. Even @RonPaul2008 is on there, which is said to be the official account but has a whopping 2 followers and some hardly relevant content. @JohnEdwards has a more impressive following.
Celebrity gossip types – There aren’t many real celebrities on Twitter, but I did find @MCHammer, and there are plenty of other minor celebrities on Twitter. Worse case scenario they can just follow @RSS_PerezHilton.
You’ve got the idea. If worse comes to worse, just point them to Twits Like Me and let them find people to follow. Also, don’t forget to tell them who is on Twitter that they already know.
2. Get them a desktop or mobile app
This is important, because using Twitter.com to tweet, respond and message is downright painful. Point them to a list of cellphone Twitter apps or other Twitter tools. Once they have an app that makes it as easy as instant messaging, it’ll stick.
3. Respond to their Tweets
Twitter is going to get really boring, really fast if no one is responding to them. I mean really, if a tweet falls in the Twitterverse and nobody hears it, does it make a tweet? Again, make it look and feel like an instant messenger. Once they make their own friends, they won’t be so dependent on your responses.
One way to force them onto Twitter is to tell them that you can’t talk on IM but if they want to tweet you during the day, that’ll be easier for you. Trickery always works.
4. Introduce them to Twitter Lingo
Twitter lingo isn’t completely right-brained, but if there was ever a Twitter Lingo FAQ, these items would be on it:
Tweet – A tweet is a message of 140 characters or less, sent through Twitter.
@ - Use this symbol before the name of the person you want to respond to. When you do, the person you’re sending it to will see it as a reply them instead of just a regular tweet in their feed.Hashtag – A predetermined phrase that starts with a # sign that Twitterers use to categorize tweets. When someone want to talk to a particular group of people, they’ll use the hashtag after their message. Everyone else will still get the message, but anyone who searches that hashtag later on will only follow the designated tweets.
TweetUp – A gathering of Twitter users; normally a luncheon or a casual meetup. Stormhoek has infamously contributed wine to these types of gatherings.
Fail Whale – The Fail Whale is the symbol of twitter down-time. When twitter is down, the page displays a whale being carried by birds. Common phrases referring to the whale include “whale sighting” and “launch your harpoons”.DM – A DM is a direct message sent from one Twitter user to the next. Only the recipient and the DMer can see this message, as opposed to the rest of the Twitterverse.
Twitterverse – The universe of Twitter users; everyone who “tweets.”
Plurk – the service that Twitter users swear they are switching to every time there is a whale sighting.
FWIW – A common acronym meaning, “for what it’s worth.” Hey you’ve got 140 characters to talk, and I’m surprised Twitter users haven’t come up with an entire tweet made of acronyms.
5. Invite them to a social media event
There’s no better way to feel out of place than to show up to a social media event like PodCamp or SummerMash without an answer to the “what’s your twitter name” question. Once your subject makes real-life friends, they’ll feel comfortable chatting in what is now their earned social space.
6. Remind them of how Twitter is good for business
Just look at @comcastcares; that guy recently got into the New York Times for using his Twitter account at work. It’s good for marketing, it’s good for customer care; it’s probably even good for teachers and police officers and public officials if you want to go nitty gritty with it.
7. Don’t give up
Trust me, nobody gets tired of hearing in real life what you Twittered about today. Wait, do they? Why didn’t anybody tell me?
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