Hm.

Well, my first thought – not on Twitter.  Here’s the question I got (with slight revisions):

Hey Katrina,

Thanks so much for your time. So,  I am helping a company run their live Tweet from a conference. We are going to hold 3 Tweet Up’s over the course of the day where we will do a ten minute Twitter 101 presentation to help people get started tweeting, join the conference conversation and learn some of the uses for Twitter.

I need to schedule some Tweets to go out during the day about our Tweet Up’s and using the hashtag to join the conversation. I was wondering if you had any suggestions of types of Tweets I should send, frequency (I don’t want to Tweet too much!) or if you had anything that worked really well for you to make an impact and get people to join the conversation.

I’m sure you are swamped so if you can’t respond right away that’s no problem. I just figured I would tap into the expert to get some ideas on best practices.

Thanks so much!

Here’s what I wrote back. Yes, I’m always this direct.

Hi -

Ideas for tweets:

• Join the (hashtag) Tweetup sponsored by (company name) at (time) in the (place)
• (Insert two popular twitter names that will be in attendance) will be at our (hashtag) Tweetup- will you?
• Know someone who needs a Twitter 101 and networking? Come to the (hashtag) Tweetup

Other Ideas:

• If possible, create some small flyers. Remember, you’re trying to reach people who aren’t Twitter savvy and aren’t sure what to do with the medium so tweets may not be the best way to reach them.
• Judge frequency based on how many people are tweeting. If there are a lot of tweets, you can tweet as much as you want.
• As for content, interject your sponsored tweets between RT’s of popular comments from the day. You can find those by following the hashtag at search.twitter.com.
• The most important thing to remember: make sure you’re asking questions and using the hashtag! People have to a) know how to find you and b) have something to say.
• Last important tip, leave room for the RT! That means your tweets should be no longer than 115 characters.

How did I do? What would you add?

Side note: A great tweet/speaking point to go with any Twitter 101

RT @itsgoodell: LinkedIn is your Rolodex. Facebook is your scrapbook. Twitter is your lifestream idea generator. I get it now.

One of the topics we discussed is a concept of social networking tiers – who do you connect with online and how? Do you only connect with specific people on certain networks?

I’ve done this but I doubt many others are as selective considering I’ve seen so many people with a personal and public Facebook page.  I only have 1 page per account but connect selectively because I share different opinions and information on different sites.

Here’s how I organize the different sites and contacts into 2 tiers:

Tier 1: LinkedIn and Twitter

If I meet you at a networking event and get your business card, I’ll send you a LinkedIn invite and check out your Twitter account. If I see you speak, I’ll seek you out on Twitter.  I also find it crucial to my sanity to follow people I think are really hysterical or really smart (ideally both).

Tier 2: Facebook

My fellow Geekend panelist Hal Thomas said it best in Savannah: “Facebook is like 3rd base – we’re not going there on the first date.”  I have a similar understanding of Facebook friends. The Facebook friends that can view all elements of my page (pics, posts) are only my real life friends. People I’d recognize in any real life setting without trying to remember an avatar.  I’ve created lists with custom privacy settings for certain large groups of people I connect with  like coworkers.  It’s good to organize your friends via list even if you’re not associating different privacy settings because it will help you manage messaging if you’re using Facebook for business.

So where are you connecting with people? How selective are you?