Since 2006 Twitter allows people to post 140 characters as a Tweet.

Its like opening the daily paper and only reading the headlines.  This is amazing.  In a few short minutes of scanning my twitter feed on my mobile, I know exactly whats going on in the world.  Most tweets have short links in them, should you need to read more about the subject.  We often use tiny URL which is a website that shortens your long URL to give you more space to say your say (instead of the URL taking up your whole tweet and leaves you with nothing to say)

For example: If your URL that you wish to share looks like this:   http://www.pethealthcare.co.za/pet-friendly-accommodation/add-your-venue-for-free  you will be able to shorten it on tiny URL to http://tiny.cc/jwjeww.  Sometimes Twitter can do this for you, but I prefer to know before I tweet.

Your main aim on Twitter is to:
1.    Get followers.  How do you do that? Read on...
2.    To start off, you need to follow as many people as you can – that interest you. Each Twitter user has the option to "follow" others, from family and friends to celebrities, news organisations and sportsmen they've never personally met.  (A good tip here is to follow a few people from a Twitter User that you admire or are really interested in to know more about) From here you also follow the mainstream media channels to keep you in the know.  Because those who you follow will end up in your News Feed, and trust me, you want your News Feed (like your personalised newspaper) to be interesting.  Following just random people will clog up your newsfeed with the wrong (-but what needs to be important) information.
3.    Post Tweets (140 characters of information about your business and what you are up to today). You can add a photo or share a link, this will take up about 10 characters of your 140.
4.    Retweet others tweets if you think what they tweet about is relevant for your followers.  You want to keep your followers happy and interested in your information that you tweet about.
5.    Never, as in ever, lose it in your social media posts.  Don’t banter or rant.  Keep it factual.  People do not like moaners either.  If all you ever do is rant over things, people will start to un-follow you.
Twitter users create a handle for themselves, which starts with the @ sign. For example, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Twitter handle is @NSPCA.

Not important, but good for branding:  Customise your Homepage with your brand.   Click on Settings, Design and choose a back ground.  If you are a animal shelter or a advertiser on Pet Health Care, send us an email if you need help to get your profile on your main page looking good.

Often the tweets will include a # symbol, called a hash tag, which is used to designate keywords or topics. Users can then click on any hash tag to see other tweets on the same topic eg #PetFriendly or #WelfareWednesday will show all the tweets with that keyword in it.  Be daring and create your own #Keywords, there is nothing nicer than creating a hashtag keyword that starts to trend.  Also use trending hashtags in your tweets if you think they are relevant to your profile.

All your tweets are public for anyone to see.  Often people set their profiles to “followers only”, but if you are a business, its best you keep your tweets public.   The site also offers direct messages, which are private posts sent between two people who are mutually following each other.

Twitter is a leading search engine and has increasingly become more popular among businesses, which are using the social networking site to communicate with customers, hold contests and announce news about their organisations. Users are also posting reviews of products and services, giving businesses a quick snapshot at what its customers are thinking.

Twitter is accessible online, at www.Twitter.com, as well as through a number of mobile apps, and a Twitter mobile app comes highly recommended for you to load on your mobile if you work out in the field.  Today, Twitter reports 340 million Tweets a day from its more than 140 million users worldwide.

For those who would like to get a little bit more technical, another website that I love to use is called Social Oomph .  Register on their site, and it allows your to post date tweets.  This tool comes in super handy when you might want to remind followers about events, functions, or important notices on a special day.  The options are endless.

Remember the key to Social Media is "to be social".  Interact with those who interact with you.  Thank them, comment and be social, if and when you can.

Follow Pet Health Care on Twitter, we would love to have you on board.