Using Twitter to Promote BuildUpZion.org

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Monday, 08 March 2010 00:08 Written by John Hellein

Using Twitter to Promote BuildUpZion.org

Whatever Twitter is or is not, I have found that among those who are not already twitter-ers a lot of strong opinions and a lot of disinformation. Whether you have never heard about Twitter before or just never seen yourself as a "bird of a twitter feather" let me just take a moment to say that Twitter represents a medium through which you (yes you who thought, until now, that the DVD/CD unit on your computer was really a convenient coffer mug holder) can easily help to promote BuildUpZion.org and the ideas it represents. In that way, it is kind of like the word of God: if you are reading this, it applies to you.

The rest of this post will be dedicated to showing you:

How to sign up for a Twitter account on your computer or using your cell phone; and,
How to use that Twitter account to easily promote BuildUpZion.org (without ever visiting Twitter.com again if you don't want to).

Now that I have ever-so-eloquently convinced you that you should be using Twitter to help us promote BuildUpZion.org, let's get started.

Step One: Sign Up for a Twitter Account

Method One, Signing Up Using Your Computer

If you prefer to use your cell phone instead of a computer to sign-up and use Twitter you can skip this step and scroll down.

In talking to people, I have come to realize that there is a (false) assumption that in order to use Twitter you have to have a cell phone; you don't. To sign up for a Twitter using your computer:

Click on the following link: Twitter.com. You should see something like:

Notice the button labelled "Sign up now" (green in the above graphic. I cleverly added a red oval to make it easier to locate.) On the Twitter.com page (not on the graphic above) click on that green "Sign up now" button.

The screen at which you arrive at next asks you for some basic information (no social security or credit card numbers):

From the top:

(First red box) Full Name (this is your first and last name)

(Second red box) Username (don't get carried away with the power, but you get to make this up yourself as long as it is under 15 characters, not already taken and uses only letters, numbers or the underscore _ character). If the name has already been taken, a message will appear next to the box and you can try a new name. Just a word about usernames. It doesn't hurt to pick a name related to what you would like to promote. In the case of BuildUpZion.org, this could mean inclusing one of the following words (or others that occur to you): Israel, Jerusalem, Zion, Judea, Samaria, etc. etc.

(Third red box) Password (make this up too but don't make it obvious and don't forget it)

(Fourth red box) Email (your email address goes here). You can leave the small checkbox checked if you like or uncheck it if you like. It shouldn't affect your eternal destiny.

(Fifth red box) In the box labelled "Type the words above", you need to enter the two distorted words that appear. This helps Twitter to know that you are human and not some computer in the Ukraine or Mainland China. If you passed Second Grade and are having trouble reading the two words, you can click on "Get two new words" ad infinitum until you are served something more legible.

Almost there. Now you need to make a decision that could determine your eternal fate, or at least the number of emails that you receive. If you do not want to receive emails from the Twitter company (these have nothing directly to do with promoting BuildUpZion.org but may help you understand the inner workings of Twitter), then uncheck the box located under the "Create my account" button (sixth red box). If you want these emails from Twitter, then you're good to go, just click the "Create my account" button.

That's it! If you followed the above directions, you should now have a Twitter account. The pages that follow after you click on the "Create my account" button are non-essential but can help you find people of interest who you can "follow" (or who might be interested in you and are potential "followers"). You should receive an email from Twitter.com asking you to confirm your Twitter account. Click on the link in this email and your account will be confirmed.

As a final step in the account creation process, you can visit http://Twitter.com/buildupzion (make sure you are still signed in to your account) and click on the "Follow" link. You will then get Tweets from buildupzion when you visit your account at Twitter.com.

Method Two, Using Your Cell Phone to Create a Twitter Account

It is just as easy to set up a Twitter account using the text message function of your cell phone. You need to be aware that your cell phone company (Verizon, T-Mobile etc) may charge you for each text message you send or receive on your cell phone. If you have a texting account that lets you send unlimited text or, say 2,000 texts a month or something like that, then using Twitter from your cell phone may not cost you anything more than you are already paying.

Sidenote: Paying Less for Quality Cell Phone Service

If you would like to find a decently priced voice/text phone service, I recommend PagePlus Cellular. They use the excellent Verizon network but charge significantly less: a 1200 min voice/1200 text per month account runs just under $30 a month (including all taxes and fees); an unlimited voice/unlimited text plan runs just under $40/month out the door. No contracts, pay-as-you-go. You will need a phone that works on the Verizon network. Basic Verizon pre-pay phones are available at Target and I think Wal-Mart for around $20.

Setting Up a Twitter Account from Your Phone

Send a text message to 40404 with the word Start in it.

Follow the directions you receive from Twitter (40404) which will ask you first to send a text to confirm that you want to create a Twitter account and then ask you for the username that you would like to use.

Once you get a text message from Twitter (40404) confirming that your account has been created, you can start tweeting.

After you have created your Twitter account by phone, you may want to start receiving tweets from BuildUpZion on your phone. Just send a text to Twitter (40404) with the words follow buildupzion in the text message. You will receive updates throughout the day of new articles, blog posts or retweets (more on retweets below) from the BuildUpZion.org Twitter account. This could mean quite a few text messages coming to your phone so make sure that your cell phone plan covers those additional text messages or be prepared to pay for them in your next cell phone bill. You can stop updates from one or all Twitter accounts that you are following:

Send "off" to Twitter (40404) to turn off all SMS tweets to your phone.
Send "off username" to turn off SMS tweets from a specific Twitter account (where "username" is the name of the account that you want to stop following).

Click here for a full list of text commands that you can use to configure your Twitter account from your phone.

Step Two: Using Twitter to Promote BuildUpZion.org

There are two basic ways to promote BuildUpZion.org.

The first is to use the "Retweet" button located at the top of most every article, video blog post found at BuildUpZion.org.
The second is to "retweet" the tweets that you receive from the BuildUpZion Twitter account either on your computer or on your phone.

Using the "Retweet" button found at the top of most BuildUpZion.org pages means that you can promote the content found on BuildUpZion.org without ever having to visit your Twitter account (once you have set up a Twitter account using the steps discussed above.)

Find an article on BuildUpZion.org. You can start with this article!

Click on the "Retweet" button (example to the left, real thing at the top of this page to the right of the title).

The first time you do this (or if you have cleared your web browsers cookies since the last time you retweeted something), you will need to enter you Twitter username and password and give permission to the Tweetmeme system to access and update your Twitter account. Otherwise, you should immediately be taken to the screen that asks you to confirm and "tweet" your retweet.

You should leave the opening phrase of the tweet RT @buildupzion intact. That way people who see your retweet will learn about BuildUpZion on Twitter. They will also have a (shortened) link (for this article, it is http://is.gd/9VHIK) at the end of the tweet that links to the page that you send the retweet from. in other words, if you on a page about "The Gate of Heaven and the Gatekeepers" then the link in the tweet will take people to that page if they click on it – voila, promotion. You should see the number of tweets move up by one. So if there were 7 tweets before you sent your tweet, there should now be 8.

Retweeting from Twitter.com or Your Twitter-enabled Cell Phone

The second basic way to promote BuildUpZion.org requires that you are following BuildUpZion on Twitter. You may have taken this step already as outlined above. If not, it is easy to follow BuildUpZion on Twitter either from your Internet browser or from your Twitter-enabled phone. Either,

visit http://Twitter.com/buildupzion (make sure you are still signed in to your account) and click on the "Follow" link. You will then get Tweets from buildupzion; or,

Send a text to Twitter (40404) with the words "follow buildupzion" in the text message (no quotes).

Now, when you receive a tweet from BuildUpZion you just need to "retweet" it. For example, say you receive the following tweet:

buildupzion: It's easy to set up a Twitter account and help promote BuildUpZion.org. Learn how now: http://is.gd/9VHIK

You just need to prefix an RT, a space and an @ to the tweet, like so:

RT @buildupzion: It's easy to set up a Twitter account and help promote BuildUpZion.org. Learn how now: http://is.gd/9VHIK

This lets people know that the tweet that they are seeing on your twitter account originated from the Twitter account buildupzion and helps to promote BuildUpZion.org. This can be done from your phone (make sure to forward the retweet to Twitter (40404)) or in your Internet browser at Twitter.com when you are signed into your account. Make sure to limit your tweets to 140 characters (not the 160 characters that is standard for text mesages) or Twitter will truncate the message in a way that may lessen its effectiveness.

Build a Twitter Discipline

That's it. You can now help us spread the word about BuildUpZion.org. Please take one minute at least once a day to visit an article on BuildUpZion.org and use the Retweet button. Even if you don't have a single follower, it will help. If you do find friends and family who follow you on Twitter, it will prove to be an easy way to send them information that will help them understand who we are and what we are doing. Thank you.

If you have any questions or comments, be sure to leave them below.