Social networking has been one of the largest trends to appear on the stage the last several years.  It has given rise to sites such as FaceBook and MySpace, and now much attention has turned to Twitter, the newest icon of the digital age.  Since Twitter came on the scene in 2006, it has grown to be the third most trafficked social networking site with an estimated 55 million monthly visits.  Twitter’s rise to fame is nothing short of spectacular and awe inspiring, a recent post from Neilson.com showed Twitter as having a growth rate during the month of February 2009 at 1382%.  There is really only one major issue darkening the massive success story of Twitter, it has a terrible retention rate.   By all accounts coming from the self proclaimed Twitterati, who have bee using the service for over a month, Twitter is amazing.  They say that Twitter is a powerful marketing tool, a great networking medium, and even provides valuable perspective into your own life.  So, with such positive claims and reviews why do 60% of new users abandon the service within a month of joining?  That is a question that Twitter is surely grappling with right now, but while they are busy hashing out that issue, here are some tips to make the most of Twitter so that you can get past that initial problem (whatever it may be) and start sharing the boons of the service along with the millions who have come before you.

1.    Setting up your Twitter Account and Finding Friends

Getting you account started is as simple as most free online services just hop on over to twitter.com and get started.  Once you have your new Twitter screen name in place it is time to start finding the people you may know or find interesting to “follow”, which is sort of a one-way friendship.  There are several tools you can take advantage of to do this; the first two are on the Twitter site itself. Twitter’s friend finder will let you search for people you may know by name, email, or location.  Twitter also now provides a real time search of “tweets” you can use this to search for topics that you are interested in and follow their writers.  If you would like to get more in depth with your friend search there are some third-party sites set up to help you with your task.  TwitterGrader.com rates peoples twitter profiles; after you have rated yourself or others the site will provide suggestions to you of people you may be interested in following.  Another of the most popular third-party sites is Twubble. Twubble cross references the folks you follow and the folks those folks follow, the end result is a list of people that you do not yet follow but perhaps would like to.  This provides a very organic way to expand your network.

2.    Getting Set Up With Twitter Clients

I would wager that most of the twitterati, even the most prolific, rarely go to the site itself on their browser.  Most of us use desktop or mobile phone clients to post and read tweets.  The SMS style of Twitter’s service leaves no love lost between its site and mobile phones.  The list of mobile clients is enormous and somewhat dependent on your phone and carrier but rest assured that there is one out there for you.  For your computer there are likewise many options, but two clients have risen to the top.  These two clients are Twhirl and Tweetdeck.  Which one is for you is really a matter of preference and I encourage you to check them both out, as they are both great applications.

After you have these basic steps done and out of the way you are poised to receive the many benefits of Twitter.  Take some time to get a feel for Twitter, day by day you will see your network grow, and in time you will be able to really harness Twitter’s energy for marketing, networking, and branding, more to come on how to make the most of each of these.