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Whether you’re a retailer, manufacturer, journalist, distributor, PR/marketing pro or guest, you can use Twitter to boost your results at this week’s Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009.

Chances are you’ve already heard about Twitter – especially if you’ve seen any of the recent stories about the Twitter phenomenon in such mainstream media outlets as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times or CNN.

However, if you’ve not become one of the millions of people around the world already using this micro-blogging service to stay connected and informed – while also creating, building, maintaining and supporting networks of people and organizations you “Follow” – let me tell you that it’s quite easy to become an active participant in the world of Twitter.

And because each Twitter post is limited to a mere 140 total characters, you’ll find that by becoming a Twitter user, it will be increasingly easier to

• track the buzz and pulse of OR-related events this week in SLC,
• contribute to the on-the-fly online conversation of all things OR-related at this week’s events, and
• stay on top of OR- and outdoor/recreation industry-related news and information throughout the year.

In addition, once you begin to take part of the Twitter world (especially as it relates to the outdoor and recreation markets), you’ll find it especially easy to stay up-to-the-minute on all things related to the outdoor/rec industries after Winter Market 2009 is done.

Anyway. Enough selling for now.

Enclosed below are six simple steps you can take to begin your journey into the Twitterverse (aka, the Twitter Universe) immediately.

A. Create Your First Twitter Account.

The first thing you should do is watch the two-minute Twitter overview video on the Twitter homepage. (Watch it by clicking on the red box on the upper righthand corner of the Twitter homepage or just watch this embedded version here.)

Then click on the Green box at the bottom of the homepage that says “Join the conversation!” This takes you to the new account page.

Next, follow the simple instructions on the page:

• Enter your full name,
• Enter a screen name (one of mine is PoppaP4SOAR),
• Enter a password,
• Enter an email address (Note: This will need to be a real email address.),
• Type in the words shown in the reCAPTCHA box,
• Then click on the Green box that reads “Create my account.”

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NOTE: The Twitter service will offer to see if your friends are on Twitter. If you enter in your password, the software will search through your databases on your computer to see if any of your contacts are in Twitter. You can bypass this step however.

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If you choose to bypass this step, click on the word Home at the top of the page and it will take you to your personal homepage within Twitter.

Either way, voilà. Your first Twitter account is now created!

B. An Overview of What’s Found on Your Personal Twitter Homepage.

Once you are on your own personal Twitter homepage, you will find the simplistic and spartan layout of the barebones Twitter homepage.

It has a light, sky blue background highlighted with cartoon-like fluffy clouds. In the center of the page is a white and seagreen rectangle that covers roughly half of the space on the screen.

The majority of the rectangle (approximately 70 percent) is taken up by white space.

At the top of this white space is the question “What are you doing?” and to the right of this question is a gray bolded number 140 found at the edge of the white area.

Below the question and the 140 is a text box where you can write your Twitter microblog posts. These are known as “tweets” in the world of Twitter.

As you write your tweets, you will note that as you type within the text box the number begins to count-down toward zero, meaning that the number is actually a “live” online counter and will help you keep track of how many characters you have written. [RECOMMENDATION: Don't write anything yet. You'll want to conduct some housekeeping first.]

The right side of the rectangle on this page is made up of a seagreen column that takes up about 30 percent of the rectangle, and in this column you’ll see the following:

1. At the top of the column there will be a small brown box with your username to the right of the box. (The brown box is where your photo or image will go.)
2. Immediately below this box and username is a list of the number of people you are Following, the number of people that are your Followers, and the number of Twitter Updates you’ve posted. Each of these should be 0 (zero) right now.
3. Below this list of figures, you will see seven links:

• Home,
• @Replies,
• Direct Messages,
• Favorites,
• Everyone,
• Following, and
• Device Updates.

Finally, the other key items to note on your personal Twitter homepage are found on the right side at the very top of the page.

Here you’ll see six light-blue links centered a long and skinny white rectangle. These links are

• Home,
• Profile,
• Find People,
• Settings,
• Help, and
• Sign Out.

C. Update Your Personal Settings.

Once you’ve created your first Twitter account, I believe the next most important step to take is to update your personal settings.

To do this, click on the link at the top of the page titled “Settings.”

Within the Settings section are six subsections:

• Account,
• Password,
• Devices,
• Notices,
• Picture, and
• Design,

When you enter the Settings section, you will find yourself on the Account subsection page. The two most important steps to take on this page are

1. Insert a Web address (URL) for yourself or your company into the “More Info URL” text box, and
2. Write a “One Line Bio.”

Note that you are limited to 160 characters for the “One Line Bio,” but this text box does NOT include a character counter. (You will not be able to type any additional characters after reaching the 160-character limit.) There is, however, no such character length limitation for the “More Info URL” text box.

In addition, you can also enter a “Location” for you or your company in a separate text box on this Account subsection page.

By way of example (as mentioned above), for my work for SOAR Communications, my main Twitter account is @PoppaP4SOAR.

On the Account subsection of the Settings for my personal Twitter homepage,

• My “More Info URL” shows our agency’s Web address as http://www.soarcomm.com,
• My “One Line Bio” reads: “Founder/CEO, SOAR Communications: PR/marketing agency for Sports, Outdoor, Athletics & Recreation clients. Bio = http://tinyurl.com/8j6gal,” and
• In the “Location” text box, I entered: “Draper, UT (20 mi. So. of SLC).”

Once you’ve updated your Account subsection with your “More Info URL” and “One Line Bio” data, you HAVE TO do one more thing – upload a photo. [NOTE: Nothing screams Twitter newbie (first-time user) more than not inserting your own photo/image into your Twitter account.]

To do this, click on the “Picture” link at the top of the white rectangle on the Settings page.

Note: This photo will need to be on your computer or server before it can be uploaded into Twitter.

Twitter includes helpful tips on this page in the seagreen column on the righthand side of the rectangle, and I agree with Twitter’s suggestions that headshots are best.

Although there is more you can do within the Settings section of Twitter, if you have AT LEAST

1. Uploaded your photo (or image) into Twitter,
2. Inserted a URL into Twitter, and
3. Written your “One Line Bio” for Twitter,

I feel you are now ready to begin using Twitter in earnest.

D. Begin Writing Microblog Posts Within Twitter (aka, Start “Tweeting”)

Now that you have

• created your first Twitter account,
• an understanding of the basics of Twitter, and have
• updated your Settings on your personal Twitter homepage,

you are now ready to start contributing to and benefiting from Twitter.

Assuming that you’re either headed to Salt Lake City this week to attend the Outdoor Retailer trade show (or you wish you were on your way to SLC) because you’re an active participant in the outdoor/recreation marketplace, the first thing to do is begin writing tweets.

Almost everyone starts off by writing something like this: “Just started using Twitter and trying to figure it out.”

Nothing wrong with that.

Your second Twitter post, however, should tell people in the Twitterverse whether or not your headed to Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009.

If you are going to ORWM09, tell us. If you’re not, tell us you’re not, and maybe why you won’t be there.

As you begin to Follow people and organizations within Twitter (and they begin to follow you), you’ll start to get a sense of your own voice, your own tone (as it were) to use within the Twitterverse. In particular, you’ll start to see threads (or lines) of thought and/or discussion that are of special interest to you.

In some cases you may want to just follow those online conversations; in other instances, you’ll want to become an active participant. Either is appropriate depending upon your personal style, and your goals and objectives in using Twitter.

E. Start “Following” People Within Twitter

Because you are interested in Outdoor Retailer, chances are you’ll want to start Following people and organizations that work and participate in the outdoor and recreation markets, right? Of course.

Ergo, one of the first people you’ll want to begin following is Kenji Haroutunian, Show Director for Outdoor Retailer. Not surprisingly, Kenji’s Twitter username is OutdoorRetailer.

There are a couple of ways to add Kenji/OutdoorRetailer as someone you are Following within Twitter. In the case of Kenji/OutdoorRetailer, you can simply

1. Click on the “Find People” link at the top of your personal Twitter homepage, and then
2. Enter OutdoorRetailer into the “Search” text box that appears on the “Find people. Follow them.” search page.

Once you have done this, an OutdoorRetailer summary box will appear on the Search page, with

• A photo/image on the lefthand side of the summary box,
• An OutdoorRetailer link that will take you to the Kenji/OutdoorRetailer personal Twitter homepage,
• The “One Line Bio” description of OutdoorRetailer, and
• A Follow button on the righthand side of the summary box.

To Follow Kenji/OutdoorRetailer, simply click on the Follow button.

If you are interested in finding others within Twitter to Follow that are also involved in the outdoor/recreation markets, a good place to start is to

1. See who/what others in your industry are Following,
2. Determine who their Followers are, and
3. Selectively begin to Follow some of these people/organizations yourself.

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NOTE: When anyone is just getting started in Twitter, it is easy to go crazy and begin Following tons and tons of people all at once. BE CAREFUL ABOUT DOING THIS! Twitter’s automated software is designed to prevent people and companies from creating Twitter spam (or Twam), and it is fairly easy to get Banned By Twitter if the number of people you are Following gets too big too fast and the software doesn’t don’t see a similar growth in people who become your Followers in return.

Bottom line? Be cautious in this endeavor.

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Notwithstanding this word of caution, however, it is a relatively simple act to click on the personal Twitter homepage for Kenji/OutdoorRetailer and see that as of this writing he is Following more than 55 people and 200+ people are OutdoorRetailers Followers.

If you start within your own personal Twitter homepage, then visit anyone else’s personal Twitter homepage and click on their Followers or Following links, you will be able to see and Follow any of their “friends” simply by clicking the Follow button beside their username.

And if you’re not sure if they’re someone you want to Follow, you can also click on the link to their personal Twitter homepage, read about them, visit their “More Info URL” and read some or all of their current or past tweets.

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[Please note that this page is designed to provide basic, get-started info on how to use Twitter, including how to find and Follow the right people within Twitter. A Google search conducted moments ago generated more than 35 million results for the words: find, people, in, Twitter. Crazy, huh?

If you want to learn more about finding and following people in Twitter, the Top 10 results on the first page of the search noted above will be a great place to start.]

In addition, as you Follow people/organizations in Twitter and read their tweets, you will start to see names and words within tweets that are followed by an @ symbol, such as @OutdoorRetailer and @PoppaP4SOAR. Twitter inserts the @ symbol in front of a name or word as the way for defining that name or word as a Twitter username, and each of these usernames is a hotlink back to the personal Twitter homepage of that person or organization.

Hence, if you read a tweet and see any word/phrase preceded by the @ symbol, you can click on the username to learn more about that person/organization and if you choose to do so, Follow that person/organization.

F. Six Steps to Take NOW Within Twitter to Make Your Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009 Experience Even More Successful!

One of the key concepts behind Twitter, is that Twitter levels the playing field for everyone. How? Because everyone only has 140 characters to work with within the Twitterverse.

Hence, at the end of the day, the more you

• Write tweets/microblog posts within Twitter,
• Comment about/reply to the tweets of others,
• Direct Message others within Twitter,

the greater and the more valuable your contribution to the online communities that you are a part of within Twitter, as well as on the World Wide Web.

So how can you translate this knowledge to help you as you attend Outdoor Retailer this week?

Here are six specific steps I recommend you take right now that I am confident will help make your ORWM09 experience even more successful.

One: Begin following OutdoorRetailer within Twitter. Sounds pretty basic since I already wrote about this above, but if you haven’t done this already, do it now.

Two: Start following others in the outdoor/recreation markets within Twitter. These can be companies, associations, individuals, reporters, media outlets, etc.

Three: Add to the ongoing conversation within Twitter about the outdoor and recreation industries. Write timely and thought-provoking tweets. Respond to the tweets of others within the industry. Call people/businesses out if you think they’re out of line or performing badly. Applaud others if you think they’re doing something worth applauding. Bottom line? Participate.

Four: If you want to reminder notices of what’s happening during the show, begin following @ORShowLive within Twitter. As the PR agency for Outdoor Retailer, we’ve partnered with show management to provide live reminder notices of events throughout the show through Twitter. If you follow ORShowLive, these notices will be delivered into your Twitter stream within your personal Twitter homepage.

Five: To get up-to-the-minute, real-time reminder notices of OR-related events, have ORShowLive updates delivered right to your cell phone. This service can be enabled for all or part of the show and for just one Twitter account or for as many as you’d like. Visit the Twitter Phone FAQ to learn more about what you can and cannot do with Twitter and a cell phone.

Six (and perhaps most important of all): Any time you tweet about anything related to Outdoor Retailer, include #OR as part of your microblog post. To make this work you need to do two things:

1. Follow ORWM09 within Twitter, and
2. Add #OR to any OR-related Tweet you write.

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NOTE: The pound sign (#) is known as a hashtag within the Twitterverse, and we have taken steps to capture every tweet within Twitter that includes the phrase “Outdoor Retailer” as well as every tweet using the #OR hashtag. These captured tweets will then be retweeted by @ORWM09, making it easy to follow OR-related discussion threads within Twitter as they occur.

(Please visit the Twitter Fan Wiki, the Hashtags personal Twitter page and www.hashtags.organd for more info about hashtags.)

CONCLUSION

Here at SOAR Communications, we have been participating in the Web 2.0 world for several years now and active Twitter users for nearly a year now. Each of us has at least one Twitter account; personally, I have three Twitter accounts so far.

Through SOAR and sister agency Politis Communications, we have also created and maintained a number of Twitter accounts for our clients. One recent example is @SchwinnTailwind, which we built and promoted through Twitter to individuals and journalists interested in cycling, technology and/or environmental issues.

Although we recognize that Twitter is still early in its developmental and acceptance cycle (as are many other social media services), we are convinced that Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter have the ability to dramatically transform the way we interact and communicate with each other and those within our respective professional and personal networks.

We believe that identifying, creating, building, maintaining and supporting online communities comprised of people and organizations with similar or related interests will be critical components in the efforts of those who want to continue to be successful in the evolving world of the Internet and the World Wide Web.

In this regard, we hope you have found this page helpful in providing useful information on how to get started with Twitter.

Additionally, as someone planning to attend Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009 this week in Salt Lake City, we hope you will find Twitter a useful tool both this week and beyond as you work, live and play with the outdoor and recreation markets.