Cheers!

Matt

Also, @jasontryfon has just launched tweepular.com today (4/1): a new web-based app with similar functionality to tweetdeck that bypasses the resource-hogging problems.

And Hubspot has a very helpful step-by-step whitepaper on Twitter for beginners that may provide some additional ideas.

I look forward to your webinar!

@wvpmc

I totally see value in the hashtag and $ but think that may be too challenging for beginners. Perhaps its worth a mention.

Soon moving this 90-minute crash course into a webinar…stay tuned!

Thanks again for everyone’s comments!

Matt

@allanschoenberg

I do think, though, that it would be worth at least mentioning hashtags. Things like #followfriday can be really helpful to newbies; when I first joined Twitter, I was a bit confused by what all those #s meant! More complicated uses of hashtags, like scheduled convos, definitely are the 201 level, as you say in one of the comments.

Here’s something you might consider. A colleague and I recently gave a similar introduction to Twitter for our team and found that one of the most compelling ways to earn immediate buy-in was to personalize the conversation by:

- Doing a search.twitter.com query for each participants’ business name or industry, showing them the conversation that’s *already happening*(in real-time) around that key term.

- Showing a competitor’s Twitter page, illustrating that their industry peers are already using the tool effectively and building up a community.

Using tactics such as those helped to dispel the misconceptions you described above and set the stage for the rest of the presentation.

Keep up the great work!

@mikepilarz

I think we need a better Twitter elevator speech though. I’ve found myself in situations recently where I could have used a 30 second description of Twitter and its benefits. World’s Largest Cocktail Party is accurate, yes, but it may not help promote the perception we’re hoping for at this point.

I’ve given this concept some thought, too, over the last few weeks and what I think is most important based on what I’ve seen my from my PR colleagues and business partners is more of a hands-on session. It sounds like that’s what your recommending, but I would literally sit down with people and help them set up an account, show them how to find and follow folks with common interests, follow a hash tag conversation, things like that. Again, probably where you were going with this…

Finally, to your resources list, I’d add two: http://www.tweetchat.com (to follow hash tag convos) and http://www.tweetgrid.com.

@arikhanson

If your course is for companies/brands, it would be helpful to educate companies on how to be part of the conversation on Twitter and how to find their angle/voice on Twitter. What do they want to say — it’s more than just pushing out advertising and marketing messages. What do they want to learn from their audience and potential clients?

@redinthecity, @MStarAdvisor

We considered the hashtag scheduled conversations/event on Twitter but felt that might be for the Twitter 201 level:).

Let me know if you’d be interested in teaching such a course in your market…I’d love to have you!

Matt

It may be useful to include a bit or two about how Twitter can be used as a monitoring tool for brands serve customers immediately and throw in a quick case study or two (@comcastcares, for example: http://tinyurl.com/7qcr2u).

Brian Solis also has an excellent list that he updates frequently highlighting Twitter apps and resources: http://www.briansolis.com/2008/10/twitter-tools-for-community-and.html

I’d also consider touching upon hashtags and scheduled Twitter conversations like #journchat, for example. It’s a little more “advanced” but definitely can be valuable for people who are trying to figure out how to use Twitter effectively and learn from the people on it.

Good luck with the course!

@amymengel