Here's a quick primer for getting started on Twitter:
- Go to http://www.twitter.com/ and register yourself with a Twitter account.
- Very important to add a photo/image and bio on your account. Your bio doesn't need to be formal, just describe what you do, why you're on Twitter, etc. (Important because most people will not follow someone who doesn't identify themselves.)
- I find it hard to use the web interface on Twitter so I use a small application on my desktop called Twhirl. It's similar to an IM client like GoogleTalk, AIM, Yahoo, etc, but it pulls in all the messages you are following. It also gives you a tone alert for new messages and a different tone for any messages where your name is mentioned. (For me, it's @chiprodgers for example.)
- You can find the Twhirl application at http://twitter.com/downloads. Just go to that page, download it, install, and then it asks you for your Twitter account name and password.
- To get started connecting with people (including SAP Mentors), here is a list of SAP-related people on Twitter. http://wiki.zsapping.com/pub:twitter:groups:sap:index
- You can use it to find people's names on Twitter, but it's a wiki, so you should also update it with your twitter names as well.
- Some people you'll recognize are very active on Twitter from SAP Community, Mentors, bloggers, analysts, and others like Mark Yolton, Craig Cmehil, Marilyn Pratt, Mark Finnern, Gail Moody, Marco ten Vaanholt, Michael Bechauf, Thomas Jung, Natascha Schuberth, Chris Horak, Dan McWeeney, Jim Spath, Dick Hirsch, Marcelo Ramos, Dennis Howlett, Jen Robinson, Anne Petteroe, Michael Koch, and more!
- You should also subscribe to some of the SAP main twitter accounts like the ones listed below.
- There are some SAP Industry Reporter/ Analysts / Bloggers on twitter like @maggiefox, @jowyang, @shelisrael, @rhappe, @monkchips, @cote, @rwang0, @dahowlett, @jonerp, @timoreilly, and others.
- You many also want to subscribe to a few general twitter accounts like @cnnbrk (CNN breaking news), @politicalticker (CNN political ticker), @NYTimes, etc.
Anyway, you can start following a few people to get an idea of how it works and start to understand the value. Get a feel for conversations happening, and then "JUMP IN, the water's warm!"
Some SAP Twitter accounts to follow:
@sapnetwork (this is an automatic RSS feed anytime a new SAP Community Network blog is posted)@sapteched (News, announcements, deadlines -- all about SAP TechEd)@sapnews (SAP Press releases, etc.)@saptv (SAP TV announcements when new video content is available.)@sapcrm (Info, annoucnements, discussions around SAP CRM solutions.)@businessobjects (same, but for BOBJ stuff)@sapbrazil (SAP Brazil sending things related to that market.)
