Biannual Blogathon Bash Mini Challenge – TWITTER

For your Biannual Blogathon Bash Mini Challenge in Social Media, start here.

Twitter is, by far, the easiest social media account to set up.

1. Go to http://twitter.com
2. Type in your full name, email address, and create an account password (not your email password). Click on the "Sign up for Twitter" yellow button. Use whatever email address you use for your blog.
3. On the next page, create a username. Ideally, this username will connect with your blog. For example, my blog's name is Bake Sew Write. My Twitter username is bakesewrite.
4. Double check all the info you entered to make sure it is correct.
5. You now have a Twitter account!

Once you create an account, Twitter will suggest people for you to follow and will guide you through filling out your profile. Include your blog address as your website in your profile, and create a little tag line that briefly describes who you are/what your blog is about. Once you have your account set up, you can begin "tweeting" all your blog posts by writing a little description (140 characters or less) and pasting the blog post URL at the end.

How can Twitter grow your blog? First, a lot of people check their Twitter accounts on their phone and when your posts pop up, they will read them. Secondly, Twitter has a "retweet" feature that allows people to share your tweets with their followers. Finally, the best way to use Twitter is to "hashtag" your tweets. What does this mean? When you create a tweet, you can tag keywords by using a hashtag -- # -- the pound sign, number sign character. For example, if you post a recipe for lasagna, you can tweet a description and at the end put "#lasagna". This links your post to any searches done for lasagna and will allow it to pop up as someone is browsing through recipes.

Leave a comment on this post once you complete the challenge!