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23 Jul, 2012

Twitter Basics and Guidelines for Publications.

Publications should get started with the popular social network

Since its debut a short time ago in July of 2006, microblogging service Twitter has become ubiquitous and mainstream. It is now commonplace for not only advertisers but publications to ask people to follow them for a subscription to short notifications (known as Tweets) through the site. They may also alternately promote hashtags so that users could follow what others are saying about a certain topic online.

With the introduction of Twitter's new logo, the site posted a set of guidelines for its use. The likes of magazines, newspapers, websites and advertisers who would like their presence on the site to be known should follow suit.

To notify your readers or potential customers about your presence on Twitter, head over to the site for several downloadable logos for use in your publication or advertisement. Twitter asks that you use their official logo to signify that you're on Twitter and avoiding any alterations to the logo which may include changing the colour, rotating it, using speech bubbles or duplicating it.

If your publication or company is already notifying others about your company or publication’s presence on Twitter, you should ensure that they are using the latest logo. Twitter is encouraging the phasing out of previous logos including earlier variations which included the letter "t" or their name spelt out, as well as earlier incarnations of the Twitter bird.

When promoting your Twitter feed in print, Twitter suggests using one of their latest Twitter birds along with your Twitter user name (which always starts with an at symbol). If for whatever reason you're unable to use the Twitter logo, the company suggests that you simply say "Follow us on Twitter" followed by your user name to signify your presence on Twitter.

When doing this online, Twitter suggests the use of one of their Twitter buttons which will link to your Twitter account on its site. These Twitter buttons come in several variations which include a Share A Link button which when clicked will allow visitors to your site to share a link from your site with their own followers, a Follow button which will allow your visitor to follow you on Twitter, a Hashtag button which allows your visitors to follow a particular topic on Twitter and see what other Twitter uses are saying about it and a Mention button which allows your visitors to mention you in one of their Tweets.

When promoting your Twitter feed in either print or online Twitter asks that you do not use any other imagery from their site including the verified badge, which is used on their site to allow visitors to know that the feed they are viewing is from the actual company, publication or celebrity it says it is from and not an impostor.

Twitter also asks that you use the bird in front of your mention of your promoted hashtag or username and that the Twitter bird you use is no larger or smaller than the text of your username or hashtag.

If you're planning on using Tweets in your publication or advertisement, Twitter asks that you show all the relevant information about that Tweet which includes the person or company who wrote the Tweet, the username, the time and date when the Tweet was posted as well as a Twitter bird nearby. Also the site asks that you ensure that the Tweets are real and that you have permission to republish the tweet from the author.

With these steps in place you'll be sure to clearly let the world know you're company or publication is on the cutting edge of social media, or at least on Twitter.