How to Use Twitter Effectively – What Makes a Good Tweet?
What to tweet:
A lot of people don’t really understand the purpose of twitter. Twitter can be used several ways. One, it can be a method of sharing news quickly to a lot of people at once. CNN uses twitter to break stories before they even air on TV. Other people use it as a way to stay in touch with friends and family, and to know what they are up to. Still others use twitter for business, giving updates on new products to their followers. Most people use twitter to follow friends, family, and the occasional celebrity or politician. If that is your case, you can “tweet” (update) about anything going on in your life. The best tweets are to the point and specific. Compare: “Eating lunch” as an update to “Enjoying some tomato soup at Cafe Itzo.” The second, being more specific, is more interesting to see and gives your followers a better idea of what is going on in your life. People can tweet about anything. Being stuck in traffic, opinions on current events, how they feel, future plans for the weekend, taking Sparky to the vet for shots, etc. Generally speaking, if someone cares enough to follow you, they just want to know what’s going on in your life, whether you think it’s interesting or not.
Getting started:
1. Enter your username and your password on www.twitter.com.
2. You are automatically brought to your home page where eventually you see everyone you follow’s tweets in chronological order. Right now you are not following anyone yet, but we’ll get to that soon. Everyone’s home page looks different based on who they follow. You only receive updates from people you follow, and vice versa. If someone is not following you, they will not receive your updates.
3. At the top in the “What are you doing?” box, you enter your updates. There is a size limit of 140 characters. It can be anything from what you’re doing, to something you’re working on, to a random thought of the day. Just type it in and click “update” and it will appear on the home pages of people who follow you.
4. No matter what page you’re on, to get to your homepage just click “Home” up at the top of the screen.
Finding more people to follow:
5. Twitter is more fun the more people you follow. To find people to follow, there are two methods:
A. At the top of the page click on “Find People.” On this page you can search for people you know, celebrities, or anything/anyone you think might have a twitter page. After you hit “Search,” you receive a list of people with matching names. Just click the “follow” button next to the ones you want to receive updates from, and they will begin to appear in your home page chronological feed.
B. A way to browse (especially to find people you know personally) is to click on a name of someone you’re already following. Let’s say you click on your friend “JaneDoe” on your homepage. This takes you to her profile, where you see only her updates. On the right hand side you’ll see the statistics of the number of people she is following (who she receives updates from), as well as the number of people following her (who receives hers). Click on either of those numbers, and you see a list of people you might know as well. You can scroll through her followers/following to see if you know them, and then can follow them yourself.
6. If you’re tired of following someone, just click on their name and under their user picture you see a box that says: “Follow.” Click that box, then click “remove” when it gives you the option to. You will no longer receive their updates.
Explaining the info bar on the right side:
7. On your homepage, you see the numbers for your followers/following, as well as the number of updates you have sent.
8. Near the bottom, there is a list of 10 random words, “trending topics.” These words are being used so much in the twitter universe that twitter is tracking what people are saying about it (right now the top three are “Andy Roddick,” “Wimbledon,” and “Michael Jackson.” Clicking on the word shows what everyone around the world is saying about it.
9. Above the “trending topics” you see “@(your twitter user name).” People can mention you in their updates, and you can do the same for others. Let’s say you want to send a message directed at your friend JaneDoe. In the update box, you’ll type in an @ symbol and her twitter name: “@JaneDoe Want to get lunch tomorrow?” That way, when she signs onto her homepage, she knows you were thinking of her when you sent that update. So if you click on “@(your twitter user name)” you can see a list of all of the other people’s updates that mention you. Jane will see the update, and anyone that follows you AND Jane will also see your “@JaneDoe” message. People that follow you but not Jane will not see it. Also-just remember there is no space between the @ and your friends’ twitter names, otherwise it won’t work.
10. “Direct Messages” are a way to send a message to one person, visible only to them. Think of updates as writing on a wall, and direct messages as facebook messages. If you click on “Direct Messages” you see your inbox/outbox, and a box to type a message into. You can only direct message someone that you follow and follows you back. You select their name, type it in, and click send, and it will show up only to that person in their inbox. No one else sees it.
Security and settings:
11. Privacy settings can be turned on so that your twitter updates are “protected,” and so that you have to approve anyone that wants to follow you. Some people prefer this option, other people think twitter should be open to everyone in the world. If you wanted to change that you could do so under “settings” at the top of the page.
12. Under “Settings” you can also change your background image or picture. Most people use their faces as their picture, and be advised that a square-shaped head shot picture works best. Your background image is specific only to you. You can change the color schemes and backgrounds under settings. Some people prefer automatic themes available from twitter, other people use their own images. If using your own picture for a background image and it is small, it is best to click on “tile” so that it acts more as a wallpaper mosaic instead of one small picture.
13. You can change your user name, real name, and password at anytime under “settings” as well. Most people use their full name as their real name, but user names can be anything. Some people use something simple like first name last name no spaces (such as JaneDoe), or other more creative user names such as “RunningShoe123,” it doesn’t matter. If using twitter for a professional work audience, it is best to keep your user name simple and toned down. If for fun, then the sky is the limit. Also your user name can be changed at anytime. Same goes for your password.
Conclusion:
The main point of twitter is to keep people connected without having to put in the time it takes for a phone call or email. Half the day would be spent “catching up” with everyone you wish to talk to using phone or email, but with twitter you can stay in touch with many people at once, letting them know what is going on with you and seeing what’s new in their lives. Even if you travel halfway around the globe, if you have internet access you can use twitter and stay in touch.
- By Jamie Hansen | Associated Content
- Naiomi Solomon
