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Different social media have different uses, strengths, and advantages. Twitter[1] could be called a ‘real time social networking’ site, a place for sharing information as it happens and for connecting with others in real time, often making lasting friendships and contacts.
Learning how to use this fun, free, and useful tool can be a bit intimidating for the beginner, but don’t be put off – with a little effort and a lot of innate feeling your way through, being able to use Twitter well can make you ‘digitally’ famous!

Steps

1. Go to Twitter.com[2] and sign up for a free account.
2. Work on your pithy ‘bio‘. Make it eye-catching and interesting. Do it just right and it will help you build up followers; people thinking of following you do read the bios to see if they have reason to follow you. Bear in mind that a bio can be up to 160 characters long, so you’ll have to keep it short and to the point. Don’t worry about typing your real name or website URL here. That information can be typed into separate fields under ‘Settings’.
3. Figure out who to follow. You will probably find that you know quite a few people on Twitter. Using the menu tab on your page click on ‘Who to Follow’, and there are several ways to find people on Twitter, as follows:
   • Use the ‘Find Friends’ link to find people you know through your various Gmail, AOL, MSN, Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts.
   • Use the ‘View suggestions’ link for a wide range of possibilities that may, or may not, connect with your interests. (Twitter is also working on personalizing lists of suggested followers, so keep an eye out for the feature.)
   • Use the ‘Browse Interests’ tab to find people by interest.
4. Tweet. If you want to let your followers know what you are doing, type it in the ‘What’s happening’ text box and then click on the ‘Tweet’ button. Note that tweets are limited to 140 characters or less; otherwise, the “Tweet” button will go into a minus.
   • As you type, a countdown is offered to help you keep track of the character count of your tweets. The allowed characters are in gray, then the last 10 go red, and then a red minus symbol appears when you are past the zero (0) indicator.
5. Check the replies from your followers that are directed at you. Click ‘@Mentions’ to see if there are any replies to any of your ‘tweets’. When tweeting, using ‘@’ followed by a username (with no spaces) in your tweet will send a mention to the user you choose. For example, ‘@username’ will send a mention to ‘username’, and the entire tweet will show up in his ‘@mentions’ section.
6. Send DMs. DMs are Direct Messages. They go straight to the intended person that you are messaging. The DM feature utilizes an inbox and outbox system, but you are still limited to using 140 characters; you are also limited to sending DMs to only those users who follow you. DMs cannot be seen by anyone other than yourself and the chosen recipient, and are thus more personal. To send a DM, go to the page of the follower you’re sending one to, and click on the “Message” box.
   • Be aware that some people really dislike DMs on Twitter because they reason that Twitter is an open conversation and a fast one, not a disguise for sending each other private messages. Also, DMs are not appreciated when they involve marketing or advertising.
7. Use hashtags. Prefacing a word with a ‘#’ will create a hashtag. A hashtag makes a certain word easily searchable. For more info on hashtags see the WikiHow article on How to use Hashtags with Twitter.
   • Some Trending Topics will include hashtags, thus making it easier for users to tap into a Twitter-wide conversation regarding a single matter of interest.
   • A prime example of the usage of hashtags can be seen with Major League Baseball, which uses team-name hashtags (#Mets, for example) to pull together lists of in-game tweets, which they display on their website.
8. Learn the Twitter lingo and use it appropriately.[3]
   • Retweet or “RT” – taking a tweet from one user and posting it yourself, automatically crediting the source, so that all of your followers can see the tweet. The original Retweeting style would take a tweet and re-post it via your own account in the following format: ‘RT @(username of person who originally tweeted the tweet you’re retweeting): (contents of tweet)’. The current system does away with this format, and instead directly re-posts the tweet, crediting the origin underneath. For example, ‘retweeted from @username’.
   • Tweet – a Twitter single update of 140 characters or less, which include @Mentions to other users, hashtags, external links, or simply regular text.
   • TweetUps – Using Twitter to meet with other Twitter folks.
   • Trending Topics (TTs) – Trending Topics are a range of subjects which many users across Twitter are talking about simultaneously. Initially, Trending Topics would include the matters of interest people across Twitter had been talking about throughout the entire week, but the refined algorithms made it easier to keep up to date with the latest most-talked-about subject, by only displaying Trending Topics related to things thousands of people across the whole of Twitter are discussing at any one time. Clicking on a Trending Topic in the list will bring up a range of tweets mentioning the matter of interest, and for each Trending Topics, there will be up to three ‘Top Tweets’. These are tweets which are relevant to the Trending Topic, that have been Retweeted more than 150 times.
   • Lists – Users can organize the people they follow into ‘Lists’ of businesses or personalities which are related in some way. For example, a user could list all of the NPOs and charities they follow into a single List, for easy reference.
   • Promoted Tweets – A single Trending Topic which a company or organization can pay to ‘trend’, as to gain attention and traffic from Twitter users worldwide.
9. Use third-party applications for ease of mobility and account sharing. Third-party applications such as TweetDeck and Twhirl (desktop), Twitter for iPhone (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad), or Twidroid (Android) can help you to manage your Twitter account(s) better, especially if you have lots of followers and if you follow lots of people, at which point it can be difficult to keep up with everything on Twitter’s official website.
10. Look for people from organizations that you are in or for those that share a common interest. There are many business, companies, celebrities, and non-profit organizations on Twitter, ranging from Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) to Greenpeace (@greenpeace).
11. Decide your own style and times for tweeting. Twitter, like many social media applications, can become addicting and time-sucking. Make a decision early on about how much time you will devote to it and about how big your “tribe” of followers will be. Avoid worrying about getting heaps of followers; that’s competitive rather than relating and it will end up wearing you out. Instead, focus on quality connections and information-sharing and don’t get too upset when someone unfollows you; it happens and you can’t change it. If you feel Twitter is overwhelming at any time, simply take a break from it and come back later, refreshed.
    • Anthropological and sociological studies have claimed time and again that we can only cope with being part of a tribe of 150 to 200 people.[4] Anything more than that and we get confused and lose the intimacy of connection. Keep that in mind when aiming for too many follows!
    • Read How to avoid a Twitter addiction and How to defeat a Twitter addiction if relevant!

Video

Tips

• Try to use just one tweet to get your point across. If it carries on to another tweet it should be shortened.
• URL shorteners are sites you’ll learn to love as a Tweeter: it shortens your long URLs into things that will easily fit into the 140 character limit.
• If you’re looking for big follower totals, find a niche for your Twitter account. Tweet about politics, or hockey, or fashion, whatever interests you.
• Look on websites you frequent for Twitter accounts; this can help you populate your Twitterverse with people whose opinions and insights interest you the most.
• If privacy is a concern, Twitter offers an option to make your tweets only visible to followers whom you have previously approved of (this can be changed in Settings > Account > Tweet Privacy).
• You can download Twitter onto smart phones.

Warnings

• As with any social network, be wary of the information you share with others.
• Particularly excessive tweeting (100+ tweets in an hour or 1000+ tweets in a day) can send you temporarily to “Twitter jail” for a couple of hours. While in the proverbial “jail”, you can access your profile but cannot tweet.

Things You’ll Need

• Twitter account, internet access
• Third-party applications (optional but helpful)
• Interesting tweets

Related wikiHows

• How to Use TweetDeck
• How to Be a Twitter Celebrity
• How to Synchronize Your Facebook Status and Twitter Using Only Facebook Apps
• How to Add wikiHow Featured Articles to Your Twitter Updates
• How to Stop Spending Too Much Time Online
• How to Be a Social Networker
• How to Change Your Background on Twitter

Sources and Citations

1. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
2. ? http://www.twitter.com
3. ? http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Twitter+Glossary
4. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

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