Twitter 101
What's Twitter?
Twitter is a communication platform that lets you write and read messages of up to 140 characters.
Huh? What does that mean?
It means that on Twitter, you can spew out brief thoughts for the world to see, and read what others have to say. It's kind of like a constant Facebook status stream, but you can follow whoever you want! Love a celebrity? See their deep thoughts. Follow your favorite foodies to read what they're cooking in real time. Keep in touch with friends and colleagues. The opportunities are endless! It's totally addictive and a much better use of your time than folding laundry. Or at least more fun!
What you need to know:
Followers: People who are subscribed to your updates.
Following: People you are subscribed to.
Direct Message (DM): A private message between two people who follow each other.
At (@): The @ symbol is used to get a user's attention. You can see all tweets from those you are following or just tweets to your attention, with an @ in front.
Re-Tweet (RT): By putting RT and @ if front of someone else's tweet, you can repeat - word for word - what they had to say. Kinda like a big DITTO!
Hash (#): A way of grouping together themed tweets. Put the # in front of a word and it will come up when others search the same term.
bit.ly: A site that shortens any url. When you only have 140 characters, you don't want to waste them on a long url! bit.ly also tracks how many hits you get from each url created on the site.
Following: People you are subscribed to.
Direct Message (DM): A private message between two people who follow each other.
At (@): The @ symbol is used to get a user's attention. You can see all tweets from those you are following or just tweets to your attention, with an @ in front.
Re-Tweet (RT): By putting RT and @ if front of someone else's tweet, you can repeat - word for word - what they had to say. Kinda like a big DITTO!
Hash (#): A way of grouping together themed tweets. Put the # in front of a word and it will come up when others search the same term.
bit.ly: A site that shortens any url. When you only have 140 characters, you don't want to waste them on a long url! bit.ly also tracks how many hits you get from each url created on the site.
Getting started:
1. Start at Twitter.com. Set up your Twitter profile with a unique background, bio, location, URL and photo.
2. Post a couple of Tweets to fill up your page.
3. Find people to follow.
4. Interact! That's the way to gain followers and make Twitter FUN!
report abuse2. Post a couple of Tweets to fill up your page.
3. Find people to follow.
4. Interact! That's the way to gain followers and make Twitter FUN!
Submit!
