How to Use Twitter

by DoItYourself Staff

How to Use Twitter

Twitter is a free online, social networking site, were people with common interest, chat or gossip. Twitter is a tool that combines micro-blogging with MySpace and it is a fantastic way to build relationships and track your friends. You can post and receive messages from a whole network of friends. In a nutshell here is how it works; instead of sending a dozen e-mails you can send a single message to your Twitter account and it will be distributed to your contacts.

How to Get Started

Go to Twitter.com, and click on the big green button that says ‘Get Started’. To sign up, enter your name, username, password and e-mail address. Consider using your real name so your friends can easily identity you.

Once you have signed up, log into your account with your username and password. Locate the box at the top of the screen that asks, ‘What are you doing?’ Type your text within the box, but remember you only have 140 characters to get your point across.

Twitter messages, are often referred to as Tweets, or micro-blogging. Tweets contain text only; you cannot upload videos, photos or other computer files.

Finding People or Messages

To locate a friend or contact, click on the ‘Find People’ link next to the Settings tab. You can search Twitter for friends, or have it scan your e-mail account for Twitter members. Once you located someone, click on the username or photo to go to their page and click the follow button. If you do not know where to begin, consider the ‘Suggested Users’ link on the ‘Find Peoples’ page.

Another way to search for contacts is to go to search.twitter.com; this webpage lets you search text messages. There is also an advanced search tool options, that will allow you to narrow your search.

Decoding Twitter Gibberish

Here are some special characters and abbreviations that appear in Twitter messages:

@johndoe

The @ symbol denotes a username, for example, John Doe would be written as @johndoe. The complete address would be Twitter.com/johndoe. A text message would appear as, @johndoe did you see the latest Harry Potter movie?

#your text writen here

A # sign is used to tag important messages or phrases, and is called a hashtag. For example, “did you see the touchdown by the #Rams”.

DM is short for direct message and is intended to be a private message to a specific contact. To use this option, click ‘message johndoe’ under a user’s name to send a direct message. Remember, Twitter is open to the world, and do not DM anything that you do not want seen on the internet.

RT is short for ‘retweet’, this is how messages are copies and pasted into Twitter. For example, you receive the following tweet:

@johndoe: Did you get a new blackberry?”

You retweet:

RT @johndoe: Did you get a new blackberry? Mary how is Paul?

So sign up, and stay in touch with your friends. Twitter away!