As a mom, I absolutely love Twitter! I first discovered Twitter in October, while looking for ways to market a new blog. I quickly learned that Twitter is a hotbed of great information for moms.
To get started finding other Twitter moms, it’s a good idea to join a community. My first group was TwitterMoms. Later, I joined MomLogic and The WiiMommies. These all-important Twitter groups allow you to find other moms on Twitter with similar interests. Their sites have forums where you can join and enter conversation with people, create a blog, or make friends.
At Twitter search, you can check for the name of your group and you’re sure to come up with some good tweets. Also note that groups or people often hold events, like the ever-popular "girl’s night out." You can find specific events by entering the proper code for the event, which always starts with a pound sign: "#gno" is for girl’s night out.
You can also find topics that are popular for the day or do a Twitter search on any topic you’re interested in. The first topic I learned about was couponing. I had no idea that so many valuable coupons could be downloaded for free! I follow moms who specialize in couponing to find great deals the minute they come out. There is a deal, promotion or coupon code out there for just about anything. Remember to follow your favorite stores too. For example, BabiesRUs is on Twitter and lets you know about special in-store or online deals and coupons.
Next I got into giveaways, another word you can search. Since December, I’ve already won two giveaways… and I haven’t even entered that many contests (not yet, anyway). If you are following moms on Twitter, you will find all kinds of giveaways specifically targeted to moms, parenting, kids, toys, etc.
As my followers reached 1000, I needed better tools for replying and sending messages. I use Twitter search, TweetDeck, which allows lets you set up different columns for tweets. You can create groups, such as "parents," and add followers to the column with that group. You can do a search for a term like "special needs," everyone who tweets those words will show up in your "special needs" column.
Another thing I do is look for Twitter handles with the word "mom" in them. If you are interested in people who are interested in moms following you, make sure to put "mom" in your bio, or the kind of mom you are in your bio as well ("mom of twins", "green mom", etc). Because of this technique, I’ve been asked to do some reviews. Thanks to Twitter, I joined a product review group and have been asked to review several books by their authors.
The key to successful Tweeting? A good bio with a link to your website if you have one, using "RT" to retweet posts you find useful or interesting, tweeting to people and getting involved in the conversation. Twitter is like one great big mixer party – you have to jump in and make friends to have any fun.
I hope this has convinced you that Twitter is a great tool for moms. And you can Twitter on your mobile phone or device. I don’t have one so I can’t speak to this, but a lot of my friends Tweet while they’re online or out of the house. So join Twitter and start meeting friends, finding deals, and having a lot of fun. Twitter search, See you there!