Jump Right In!

Easy instructions that show you how to Twitter. You already know what Twitter is, and you want to get up to speed quickly. Here we go, let’s jump right in and learn how to twitter!

 

Setup your Twitter Account

In order to use Twitter you must have an account set up. If you haven’t already got one, go to their website at: www.twitter.com and enter your full name, email address, and password.

On the next page, select a username to use and you’re done! (remember this username is what people will see when they review your tweets. Make it something pertinent and unique to you or your company)

 

Following Others

Twitter, as you know, allows you to send messages – 140 characters maximum including spaces, to the Twitter information network. You can also follow other twitterers, read their tweets and keep up to date on what they are doing.
Let’s start with Following. Following other people will give you an idea of what people say and how people use Twitter.
At the top of your twitter page you’ll see a search box. Enter a word of something you are interested in.

For instance, type in coffee and press Enter. The results will turn up below for any tweet using the word Coffee. If you scroll down the list you’ll also see that some tweets have links that you can click on and will take to you a website page.
You’ll also notice on the right-hand side a selection of people who have the word coffee in their name. These people on the right have a little “follow” link. Click on that link and you will now see all the tweets from that person in your twitter stream when you login to Twitter. Here’s an example of the “follow” link:

Back to the left-hand side, if you click on the highlighted name of any of the tweets they appear on the right-hand side with a big Follow button. Go ahead and review their tweets over the past little while and if you like them – follow them.
In order to see people’s tweets you will need to login to twitter, much like other social web sites, or use some desktop or smartphone based Twitter utility software. These tweets will not come to your email.

 

Your Twitter Home Page

Ok, now that we know how to follow (and following others is a great way to get Twitter people to follow you) let’s write some tweets!

Lets start by reviewing your Twitter Home Page. On the top Twitter bar, click Home. You’ll now see the “What’s Happening?” Twitter box where you can enter your tweet.

Take a look around. On the right shows how many tweets you’ve done, how many people you are following, and how many are following you. If you’re using Twitter for business then these numbers are probably important. More followers means more people exposed to your business on Twitter.

 

Hashtags / Trends

You’ll also see some suggestions of who to follow, and below that a list of trending words on Twitter. See how they have a hashtag (#) at the front? You can search hashtag words for a significant news word or event and then all tweets regarding that subject will appear. In this way Twitter becomes a news source that’s very close to live. Make sure you include the hashtag when you search. For example:

 

Tweeting

Click in the text box to start typing and you’ll see the number 140 appear at the bottom right of the box. As you type this number will decrease to zero, after which it will show negative numbers (too much text!) and that text will be truncated.
You can include links to your website, blog, etc but keep in mind that with Twitter you only have so many characters. I suggest using a link shortener like Bit.ly to keep your links as short as possible. For example: http://bit.ly/h2twit is a bit.ly link that points to this blog page. It’s 19 characters compared to 49 characters for the full length version!

Tweeting by Smartphone

If you have a smartphone you can also use the Twitter application for it and tweet wherever you are. You can also see tweets from others you are following. If the GPS is turned on with your phone then your tweets will also show your location. This might be good if you want to tweet your friends to tell them where you are.

This Twitter Download link will take you to the Twitter download page where you can select the app for your phone. There are other apps out there as well, produced by third-party companies. Apps exist for the iPhone, Android phones, the iPad, the Blackberry, and the Windows Phone 7.

 

Twitter Shortcuts

Twitter also has some Shortcuts you can use on this page. Click anywhere outside the text box and enter one of these letter combinations:
“sp” = Search Photos
“sv” = Search Videos
“n” = New Tweet
“r” = Reply to Tweet
“m” = Send a Direct Message

Change Your Twitter profile

Now that you understand how to Twiter. Let’s customize what people see about you. If you’re a new user then your icon for your account will be an egg – not a good thing. Here’s how to change your twitter page preferences:

Click your username at the top right and select Settings

Here you can change your account username, change your password, set your email notifications, etc. We want to click on the Profile tab.

Here you can upload a picture of yourself so that people recognize you – or your dog, or cat, or whatever.

You can even get more fancy by going to the Design tab and playing with the settings there. If this is for business you’ll probably want to upload a personalized background, like we did for our company: FCI Twitter Page

Twitter’s help for customizing your background page

 

Link to your Twitter Page

You may want to point people (by email, web link, etc) to you Home page on Twitter so that they can see you tweets. Your twitter page link would be www.twitter.com/{your username}. For example the home page for this FCI Tech Blog is: www.twitter.com/technicalguy (go ahead and Follow us). Try it and you’ll see that it takes you directly to our tweets.
You can use this web link in your emails or on your website to promote your tweets and give people another way to stay in touch with you.

 

Link to a Tweet

You can also link to one of your specific tweets. If you highlight a tweet on the left, you’ll see how old the tweet is (2 minutes ago, 22 hours ago, etc) Click on this timestamp and the tweet will appear all by itself. You can then copy/paste that URL from your browser to email, website, whatever you like!

 

Other Twitter Links:

Hungry for more Twitter details? Here’s links to other websites that have more information.

– Send this page as a tweet to your Twitter followers: Read this page!
– Learn more about Twitter with a book from Amazon: The Twitter Book
– Twitter’s Help Page
– Article: 50 Ideas on using Twitter for Business
– Article: How to use Bit.ly to shorten links in Twitter (video)
– Article: Customize your Twitter background

Twitter Tools:

– Tweetdeck works with Android and iPhone, plus has a nice desktop utility. It allows you to follow threads and submit updates to multiple twitter accounts plus Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and Foursquare.
– Twaitter allows you to schedule tweets at designated times. You can repeat that tweet every week or month automatically.
– Twitpic lets you easily add Photos or Videos to your Twitter stream.