The Twitterverse (as the Land Of Twitter - http://twitter.com - is known) is pretty much like any other "social media" site/community - i.e. Facebook, MySpace, and even RedGage. They are all places on the internet to hangout and interact with other people. Social media communities are the cyberworld equivalent of the coffee klatch, the water cooler, church potluck dinner, the neighborhood pub , and other places where people come together in real-life to chit-chat, gossip, tell jokes, share secrets, show off pics of their kids/grandkids ... and basically just "socialize".

A person fits into, becomes accepted by, a social media community much the same way as they would fit into any of the communities or groups they belong to in real-life - you stumble through the door and say "Hi!" From there it's all downhill. You bump into people, make a friend, get introduced to some other people, you seek out folks that have similar interests, hobbies and values as you have; but, you also like meeting people who are somewhat different from you that have new perspectives to share. And when you first arrive in a new town, you typically make a new friend quickly who becomes your local guide and social secretary, getting you acquainted with and meeting all the "right" people. In the social media world this is called "following", and on Twitter people follow each other!

How to get the Natives to Follow You on Twitter :

1 - Most people don't go around with a bag over their head in real-life ...so... don't do it online either! Post an icon/avatar/mugshot of yourself! Don't be one of those "eggheads" on Twitter that is afraid to show their face and still has the Twit-Egg default-image as their profile pic! People nuch more readily accept other people when they can make eye contact, or at least see some sort of likeness online they can relate to. Posting a pic of your kid, pet, flower or anything other than yourself really is a cop-out, post something that is somewhat of a representation of yourself.

2 - Your "Profile". Fill out some of the profile info some people can get to know you. A meaningful name/nickname, your location, some little tidbit about who you are. DON'T post your full name, street address, phone number, email, and mother's maiden name!!! Be a little open but don't give away your SSN and so much info that anyone can steal your identity! Noting a few of your interests, vocation/job, some hobbies helps other like-minded people find and meet you.

3 - Now that you joined a social media community - get out there and be social! People like to associate with other active people. On Twitter you socialize by "tweeting". Tweets are like posting up to 140 character long emails to the Twitterverse. Or like speaking one complete sentence in a conversation. A "tweet" goes out to anybody and everybody on Twitter, but mostly it goes out to the people that "follow" you and who will see it listed in their timeline. The timeline is a listing of tweets of the people they follow. Almost everyone on Twitter can view your basic tweets, so only tweet (say) things that you don't mind everyone knowing. You can tweet more private messages directly to someone that follows you by using the DM - direct message - which is like whispering in their ear. DM's do not post to your public timeline.

4 - While you can tweet to the whole Twitterverse, or tweet to no one in particular, much of the time you will want to tweet at a certain someone but it doesn't need to be completely private. In this case you draw their attention by tweeting at "@" them. Using the "@" plus their Twitter-name means the tweet/conversation within the group is directed at them - ie @FriendSally I really liked the movie last night - Sally knows you are speaking directly to her and that it is OK for her to answer publicly if she wants. It is easy to answer an "@" tweet by clicking the "reply" link at the right-side of the tweet which will insert the "@theirname" at the beginning of your reply tweet. It's common courtesy to reply/respond to people talking to you both in real-life and online - conversation/interaction is what this is about!

5 - Now you got the basics of how Twitter works and the need to have a good basic profile that includes your pic. Let's go meet the Natives! To get followers on Twitter the first step is to "follow" some other people and as above to post some tweets. To "follow" someone just go to their Twitter profile and click on the big "Follow" button. That will add them to the people you follow. Pretty simple! Some of the first people you will want to follow on Twitter are the the people you already know from real-life or from other internet places. Connect with people you already know, it's more comfortable, easy, and natural to follow them first. Also they are most likely to "followback"!

6 - The natural state of being is to have a close balance of who you follow on Twitter and who follows you. Following someone who follows you is called "followback". You should regularly look at your list of Followers (click the "Followers" link on your Twitter profile to see everyone that follows you). The followers list also will show if you followback your followers displaying the note "following" next to them in the list. It is polite to followback most of the people that follow you. The exceptions for Followback are people that you don't know. You will have to visit their Twitter profile and decide if you want to followback. There might be some people that will follow you, but you are not interested in following them and their tweets. Some people try to build their "followers" by following strangers in hopes that they will get followbacks from them. Be wary of strangers that unfollow soon after you followback, they just want followers and are not interested in you or your tweets. Don't feel obligated to followback corporate accounts, faceless/nameless eggheads, or other strangers you don't share any similar interests with. It is OK to follow strangers if you are interested in them and their tweets regardless of whether they followback, it's your choice who to follow/followback.

7 - What topics you tweet about plays a major roll in who you want to follow and who wants to follow you. If you want to tweet about your blog or things you do on other websites/communities and have people look at those things, you will want to include URL links in your tweets to those items. You should also have a description with keywords in the tweet so people know what the link is about. And to draw attention to those keywords you should turn them into a HashTag by adding the hashmark "#" character at the beginning of the  keyword. HashTags help identify and index topics of interest on Twitter. People can search by HashTag for recent tweets about that topic. Both Links and HashTags are highlighted in tweets and can be clicked on to go to those sources. When posting a link, it is good to include at least one HashTag/keyword in the description. Do not HashTag all the words in a tweet, especially tweets with links, as the link become hidden in all the #hashtags, and make it hard for people to find your link to click on it and view your content. HashTags make it easy to find people that tweet thing that are of interest to you and that you might want to follow on Twitter. People can find you more easily through putting relative HashTags in your tweets.

8 - Now you are a Twitter Pro ... or almost a pro! You are tweeting, following, and having people follow you, what's next? You have to maintain your connections and friendships with people. If all you do is tweet (and especially tweet links) to no one in particular your followers may get bored and seek other friends to talk to on Twitter. So be sure you actually are interacting with people - talking @ them, replying to them. Good ways to maintain your followers (and grow your number of followers) is to "mention" them - give them a shout out - and to "RT" (retweet) some of their tweets, especially some of their interests by RTing some of their tweets that contain links to things they are most interested in - ie they tweet about their blog. Again this type of activity is generally reciprocated by friends/followers and they will mention you from time to time and RT some of your tweets to their other followers. This is sort of like making introductions at a party or some other real-life gathering. So if you like your friends/followers introduce them to others. You all will make more friends!

9 - One of the best ways to keep track of your followers is to use "Lists". Twitter supports the creation of up to 20 lists that you can use to categorize your friends. You can also use a list to follow celebrities or favourite corporate products without actually "following" them on Twitter. Lists make it easy to see just your friends that share a common interest, like people from RedGage, people from your town, or people that all like Rocky Road ice cream ... you choose the topic and add those people to that list. From your list Twitter will create a unique timeline of only those people on that list and their tweets. This makes it easy to see what only those people are doing on Twitter. Good lists also help you manage and interact better with your special followers so they do not get lost in the shuffle of your main timeline, especially as the number of people you follow grows larger. Good lists make it easy for you to find your BFF's and mention "@", reply, RT, and follow their tweets.

10 - Lastly, besides doing all the things above, the best way to get the Natives to Follow you on Twitter ... is be real, be yourself, be polite, share something with the followers you do have, and be interested in the things they share with you. Talk, chit-chat, discuss, debate, joke, laugh, cry, console, flirt, tease, announce, share, whisper ... and all the other things you would do in a face to face meeting with other people. People are social-beings and they like to congregate around other people who are socializing! Now, Go have FUN!!!

Recap: Build a good profile with your pic. Make some friends - follow, followback. Tweet something - almost anything! Mention your friends, reply to them, retweet them. Use the tools available on Twitter to make your tweets better - #HashTags and links - and use lists to help keep you closer to your favourite people. Remember, it's supposed to be social, and FUN!

P.S. Hey Folks! After you follow me on Twitter, give me a tweet that you are a RedGager so I can add you to some of my special lists. Being on my RG list makes you eligible to have your tweets and content featured in the #RedGage Daily Paper that I publish on Twitter - http://redgage.com/c-hefddb

Oh, and don't panic, I will followback! It may take a day or two, but I will. And I will stay connected with you as long as you continue to be active on twitter (don't go more than a month without tweeting or I might think you aren't using twitter anymore) and for as long as you stay connected to me.
Cheers! MrBill (-;

Note: While this is specifically oriented towards Twitter, some of the above list is applicable to most social media communities, and also for meeting and befriending people in general.