How to Twitter - Part One Why Twitter ? Get signed up.
How to Twitter - Part Two Setting up your Profile

Part Three is time to start getting some people to listen to (Following) and people who want to listen to you (Followers).

Just jump in here, ok? It's very hard to comprehend the madness until you just jump in.  It'll all make a little more sense once you get going with it.

Sign into your Twitter account.

I'll be your Guinea Pig and hostess..... Go to my Twitter Webpage: http://Twitter.com/KimWood.  Click FOLLOW. (I apologize in advance if I'm not quick to refollow, but I will, it's been madness lately).

In the sidebar, you'll see the Following box with a bunch of mugshots... look below my beautiful friends and click View All. That will take you to a list of the people I follow.

Look through the list and you'll be bound to find some familiar names that you know from the Real Estate Industry and/or ActiveRain.  Be selective. It's not all about the numbers!!!  (Although Bob Carney & Linda Davis came up with an e-twit certification for people with 100 followers and 1000 updates.)  Don't follow everyone I follow (you don't want to - trust me :).  Click on their username to be taken to their main page, you will see what types of things they talk about and you can read their bio. If you like what you see, click Follow. If not - keep looking :)

Some people if you follow them will shout out a "Hello and Welcome!" - some won't. There isn't a right or wrong way to that.

You can also click on the names in my conversation stream which is shown right below the "What are you Doing" box.  

Another way to find people is to search for them. If you've seen them mention Twitter- go search for them on the Twitter website! Or randomly enter some names in the search box.

I recommend you chose 25 active follows to start with. (Active means they've said something in the last couple of days).  Don't start with too many, it gets very overwhelming - trust me.

Once you have your list of about 25 people to follow - they'll start to look at your profile and quite possibly will start to follow you. They'll want to see some conversation - so guess what it's time for?

Use the "What are you Doing" box!!! 

The only restriction is that it has to be 140 characters or less. That's it!  Here are some samples:

• I'm not sure what I'm doing, but trying to learn Twitter.
• Time for lunch..... what to have?
• What do you think of my new profile picture?
• Hello, hello? Anyone out here?
• Are there any other Real Estate Agents on Twitter?

See? You can say whatever..... the only tip I will give you is don't shout out a salesy pitch if you want to make connections, or throw out a URL address yet.

More about following/followers:
People will try to follow you that you do not want or care about what they have to say. If they are painless (no spam) I usually leave them. They can't hurt me by watching what I say. If they are spam, you'll see a "block" or "remove" when you look at their profile if you are signed in.
Most of us that are experienced on twitter will not follow someone if they have a gazillion more Follows then Followers. Why aren't people following them? Must be a reason.

Part Four - How to converse, reply, direct (private) message.