Fearless guide to Twitter

There are still the holdouts who refuse to jump on the Twitter bandwagon.

Then there are those who are starting to come around. Even some "old school" types are considering it. On May 15, PBS' Bill Moyers said, "Finally this week, to Twitter or not to Twitter? To this immortal question, I surrender, and finally answer, unequivocally: Maybe." He's saying maybe mainly to keep up with his teen-age grandchildren who are on Twitter. "On second thought," he added, "perhaps it's better not to tweet and be thought a fool than to tweet and remove all doubt." Ahahaha. Good one Bill!

And then there are the people who finally give in to their curiosity and sign up for Twitter. Unfortunately, of those individuals, more than 60 percent don't return to use it the month after they sign up, according to a study released last month by Nielsen Online. Only 40 percent of the people who sign up for Twitter actually come back, "indicating an 'I don't get it factor' among new users, according to Mediaweek.

We here at mediamusing don't want to see that to happen to you, so we're offering up some Twitter tips for newbies. Actually the tips are compliments of DePaul University's very own Craig Kanalley. We interviewed Kanalley recently for an article on social media for the College of Communication's alumni publication, Conversations. (We'll share the article with you when it's published in a month or so.)

Kanalley (who is @ckanal on Twitter) is the founder of Breaking Tweets, which brings you "world news twitter-style." BTW, we love that tagline. Check out the site. If you are addicted to breaking news, you will love it. Kanalley, who started Breaking Tweets in January 2009, is a journalism graduate student at DePaul, focusing in online and new media.

Here are his tips:

1. Tweet, tweet, tweet - While the site may seem intimidating at first, or not make much sense, the only way to truly find your niche and reap the benefits of Twitter are to use it as much as you can. Messages only take seconds to send, so there really aren't any excuses.
2. Follow anybody you find interesting - Don't just look for your friends, subscribe to the Twitter feeds for your favorite news services, some of Twitter's "recommended users," and a few of the many celebrities, athletes and politicians who use the service.
3. Spend some time on your profile - It's the first thing people see when they click through to your page. Personalize it: post a picture of yourself and summarize your background and interests in your bio blurb.
4. Post interesting links - Don't just tweet about what you ate for lunch today or what you're doing tonight; one of the best uses of Twitter is posting links to sites or articles you find interesting. It's a great way to personalize your feed and catch the attention of those with similar interests.
5. Interact with the community - Send replies to people "@(user name)" and retweet messages you particularly enjoy ("RT"). Don't just send messages to people you know either; browse the public timeline and start a conversation or use http://search.twitter.com to find people talking about subjects you're interested in. Keep this up and in no time you'll be gaining followers and establishing new relationships.

We hope these tips help you feel more comfortable with Twitter. Thanks Craig for sharing them!