Although I've been on Twitter for a while (thanks to a tip from a Radar member) I only got into it once I learned my way around, installed Tweetdeck, found people I like following. Most of my own friends aren't on Twitter yet and I've been emailing them the starting tips I’ve picked up. Those emails grew into this blog post. Seeing as I'm interested in music tech and music videos, it's a guide with a slant toward musicians and music video directors.

What can Twitter do for you?…
- It gives you a very easy way to find, connect and have conversations with your fans, your community, your tribe.
- It delivers useful news, advice, tips. It connects you with people who could help you do your business better.
- Establishes your character/personality online.
- Encourages people to connect with you elsewhere, eg your website or facebook.
From a personal point of view it gives me the best route I’ve found so far to communicate with new people, I’ve met some good people in real life through Twitter, it’s the fourth biggest traffic driver to Radar and I’ve learnt a lot from links people post. I’m now slightly addicted :)

How does Twitter work?
- You follow people you’re interested in. You can read their tweets.
- People follow you, they can read your tweets. Unless you specifically write to a person (@person), only people who follow you get your tweets.

How To Get Started…
Imagine you’re coming to a party:
- Sign up at twitter.com.
- Upload an avatar, something that looks good as a 1cm square. I like pictures of people/living things - it’s difficult to feel warm about a relationship with a mixing desk.
- Complete your bio: Talk about you and give a flavour of yourself. Don’t put links here. There’s a place above ‘about me’ to enter a URL.
- Some people recommend customising your background with eg links to your website and myspace. I don’t like MySpace disease - flashing neon Esher patterns etc - although if that’s what your community are into, then of course go for it.
- Now install Tweetdeck onto your computer. It allows you to sort followers into groups and generally makes twittering a stack easier to manage..

What Do I Say?
- Imagine the party again and put interesting tweets into the conversational flow.
- You’ll have your own contenders for the Unfollow button, mine include: ‘morning everyone!’, ‘I’m eating chocolate’, ‘I keep thinking it’s Tuesday’, ‘buy our new track www.bit.ly/bdjheuhr’ 'I've 4000 emails in my inbox', 'I've got 1000 followers'.
- Stuff that works for me: Opinions are interesting, especially if you show some expertise. Insights into your particular life – we all eat & drink, but only you are writing that song, playing that gig, making that video. Adding how you feel about what you’re doing brings it life. Interesting or useful links work. Ask questions, most people like helping.
- Telling people about your website/gig/download/new video works as part of a conversation.
- One of the weirdest things for me was with talking to people I don’t know. People don’t always reply; if they keep not replying I'll unfollow. I'm getting to know people who do reply - it’s good stuff.

Twitter Mechanics
- Ordinary tweets – these come up in the feed of anyone who follows you. They can also display in your Facebook profile, increasing your readership. Google to find out how or do it via Tweetdeck.
Hover over avatars on tweetdeck to access these actions:
- @username – a public conversation directed at a specific person. This shows up in all follower feeds and to the person you @, even if they’re not following you.
- D username – a private conversation, you can only do this if you follow each other.
- RT @username – a really valuable thing to do, you are retweeting someone else’ tweet. You’re saying ‘this is good, I’m passing it on’. Massive karmic value, which happily, is worth a lot on Twitter.

Twitter Etiquette
- It makes me feel warm inside if someone I’m following follows me back. On the other hand, I realised if I tune into more than c200 people, I can’t keep up, making following pretty useless. Now I follow: people I know in real life, useful thinkers & bloggers and people I enjoy reading. I change them from time to time and had a word with myself not to get upset if people I like and follow aren’t following me back. Not everybody has this point of view – some people follow everyone who follows them.
- If someone @tweets you, it’s generally a good idea to @reply – it’s polite and it shows you’re up for conversations.
- If you want to get someone’s attention, start a conversation with them. It’s fine to @someone you haven’t met but you want to talk to.
- Getting your tweets RT or retweeted is a huge compliment. Saying thanks for the RT @people is nice.
- You can follow and unfollow all the time, it’s no big deal, though some people do this intensively to try and build followers. Some people also follow anyone they can find hoping some will follow back. It’s called follower spam and is not cool. Much better to build followers tweeting stuff people want to hear and having people opt into you because they see your conversations with others, follow a link on your email or website etc.
- Quality is infinitely better than quantity – how does it really benefit you to have 2,000 followers if all of them hide you in their facebook and tweetdeck streams?

Who to follow?
Google “wefollow”, search people by tags, eg folk, music, blogger. Check out the people you follow and see who they are following - I recommend most of the people I'm following (though I have a few 'duty' follows :) Check out recommendations on #followfriday – on Fridays people tweet recommendations. Do some yourself, it works best if you say why people are worth following.
Here’s some people I follow and recommend:
Musicians:
@Trent_reznor – whatever all bands will be doing in 18 months, he’s doing it now.
@Lilyallen – fantastic communicator, she’s very good at the art of talking in 140 characters.
@Kentonist – songwriter, good at personalising updates about his music life.

Bloggers and thinkers:
@Dubber – runs newmusicstrategies.com, he has a wealth of info on how to do the business of music.
@TerryMcbride – runs Nettwork, is clever about music marketing.
@solobasssteve – does a lot of interesting thinking about social technology and music
@jackschofield - friendly Guardian writer, often posts useful links

A few Radar Members I've seen who've got into the flow:
@smetham - a filmmaker; like kentonist, good at personalising
@glennhudson - is up for helping people get started
also @filmtruth, she isn't a MV director or member, she makes documentaries and promotes them very lightly and probably effectively through Twitter.

Recommended articles for Twitter starters:
About the conversational aspect of twitter
Twitter Tips For Musicians - solobasssteve's blog
Stacks of ‘how to’s and tips
The Ultimate Twitter Resource
9 Twitter Tips For Artists also follow @sentricmusic, the author
More advanced twitter tips
Twittercism – also follow @sheamus, the author.

Feel free to add your own recommendations in comments – if you’re on Twitter, add your @username. You can find me, Caroline, here @radarmusicvideo