This article will introduce the basics of twitter to the interested newbie: creating an account, following people or companies of interest, and using the web, desktop or a mobile phone to receive twitter updates. A companion article will delve into more detail on twitter for personal and business use.
Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations.
In other words, it's a social networking communication tool that uses short, cellphone text-message size updates, sometimes called microblogs or tweets. Every user can have their own Twitter account, and deliver their tweets to their subscribers, also known as followers. Following a Twitter user will allow you to be instantly updated when they post a new message. If you are familiar with Facebook Status Updates, then you basically know Twitter.
Twitter started as a small project in March 2006, but has grown to approximately 95 million tweets per day and has been ranked as the 3rd most popular social network, garnering over 4 billion tweets per quarter in 2010. Various events have helped boost Twitter's recognition and popularity, including widespread usage during film and music festivals like SXSW, at times of crisis such as the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 and the protests following the election in Iran in 2009, and the 2008 Presidential Election.
KMBC-TV broadcasted this news story on Twitter, which contains a good description of the service:
In addition to keeping in touch with friends and family - and following the updates of celebrities and politicians and marketing - Twitter has become increasingly used for networking, and client communication.
Terminology
Tweet: A single posted message within Twitter, maximum size 140 characters.
Following: The act of subscribing to another's twitter feed, allowing you to receive updates whenever they post a new tweet. The list of subscribers for any given feed are referred to as followers.
Retweet: Repeating a tweet from one twitter account that you follow to your own subscribers. For example, if Shaquille O'Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) posts some tidbit of wisdom that you would like to pass on to your own followers, you would retweet his message into your feed. The common abbreviation for retweeting is RT, example:
@twitteruser: Use of the @ sign in front of a twitter username inside of a message will make that message a public tweet, or reply, to that user. It will appear highlighted in that users feed so that they can respond to you (usually publicly, by including @yourname in their reply.) Example:
DirectMessage: A private tweet, frequently referred to by the abbreviation DM. These tweets can only be seen by the user to whom it is addressed, and one caveat is that they can only be sent to users who are following you. Use of the special keyword "d" marks the message as a DM, and confusingly the @ is not included in the targeted username. For example: "d MarthaStewart great show today."
#Hashtag: Tagging a keyword within your tweet to mark it within a specific topic, to make it easier to find for others who are interested in the same topic. For example: "What did you think of #GreenZone?" Note that the first space after the hashtag marks the end of the topic keyword, so words are typically run together or made into acronyms. Multiple seperate topics can be defined for a single tweet, such as: "How was #MattDamon in the #GreenZone?" Example:
Both the twitter.com website and most desktop or mobile applications provide the ability to search for the latest tweets on any #topic, and remember topics that interest you.
#FF: Commonly used hashtag to designate that the tweet is related to "Follow Friday", where on Fridays(natch), folks post a list of twitter @usernames of several people they follow and encourage you to do so as well.
Signing Up
To make full use of twitter, you have to sign up for a twitter account so that you can save the list of people and businesses that you wish to follow, and to be able to send tweets.
They will ask for your first and last name, email address, and for you to choose your own unique @twitterusername. From there, you can configure whether or not to have your account be private (only approved users can see your tweets), and are able to update your public profile with a photo and other customizations.
Follow a Few
Use Twitter's search to find the profiles of people and organizations that you may be interested in, and click the button to Follow them. It is common for those you follow to reciprocate by Following you in return (which is required for you to share a private DirectMessage.) The Twitter website or Twitterholic displays popular people or groups to follow. I recommend only following folks whom you are truly interested in what they have to say or in what they are doing as many of the most popular tweeters are quite prolific.
@bearmcreary: Composer for TV shows and video games, including Battlestar Galactica.
Sports
@Lakers: Official LA Lakers (provides live score updates)
@THE_REAL_SHAQ: Shaquille O'Neal, one of the early popular tweeters
Technology
@firefox: Excellent web browser.
@androinica: Android cellphone news blog
@slashdot: News for Nerds - technology blog
@guyzero: My personal twitter - I post links to articles related to web development, apps, mobile smartphones, and random stuff.
Politics
@BarackObama: The President of the United States
@HomeBoyInd: HomeBoy Industries, the largest gang intervention program in the US, based in East LA, headed by Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ.
Culture
@cnnbrk: CNN Breaking News.
@ladolceliving: Assisted living, nursing home, and senior care directory. Articles, tools, and discussions of interest to baby boomers and their families.
Accessing Twitter
After registering and selecting a few people or businesses to follow, you have a variety of great options when it comes to keeping track of your twitter subscriptions and posting new tweets.
twitter.com
Even if you plan to follow twitter solely from a desktop or mobile app, it is a good idea to at least set up your twitter profile, privacy options, and upload a photo at the twitter.com website.
After registering and following a few profiles, the twitter.com homepage will display your Twitter feed, the latest tweets from those you have followed, a list of currently trending #topics, and suggestions of other profiles that may interest you.
A "# new tweets" button appears when new tweets arrive from your subscriptions while viewing the page, with the count of new tweets updating in real time. Clicking the button will display the new tweets.
You can display all tweets posted by a specific profile (their "timeline") by clicking on their name in your feed.
You can post a new tweet in the "What's happening" box at the top of the twitter.com homepage.
An alternate web-based twitter application is FriendFeed, which also integrates Facebook updates, YouTube channels and a host of other online social content into a single real time feed.
Desktop Software
Running one of these applications on your desktop give you additional features such as receiving pop-up notifications upon receiving new tweets, integration with other social networking tools such as Facebook or Linkedin, customized views, automatically using URL shortners, etc. All of these packages should run on Windows, MacOS and Linux:
Seesmic: Facebook, LinkedIn, URL shortners, clean interface and easy to use. May need to install Adobe AIR or Microsoft Silverlight if not already present.
Twhirl: Adobe AIR app, minimalist yet feature complete.
Hootsuite: Geared towards users who work heavily in social media. Requires a Hootsuite account.
Plus many others.
Mobile Apps
My preference in receiving twitter updates is by using a smartphone application. Especially when reading less than 50 tweets per day, the 140 character text-message sized limit is just perfect for reading on a mobile device. Using a mobile app also allows you to post new tweets on-the-go and contain many of the same features as their desktop counterparts, such as Facebook integration, automatic URL shortening, and groups.
Twitter has released beautiful and easy to use apps for Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows 7.
TweetDeck: comes in iPhone, iPad and Android flavors, supports some basic Facebook features, customizable views, for intermediate/advanced users.
Plus many others. Try out several apps to see which has the best mix of features and design for you.
Additionally, the mobile version of the twitter website can be accessed from any phone at http://m.twitter.com
Try it out
Remember that you don't have to tweet to use twitter, you can just follow some folks and treat twitter as a useful or entertaining information stream. Hopefully this article has somewhat demystified twitter and you're ready to register and give it a try. Future articles will delve into greater detail on using twitter for personal communication and business marketing, networking and client relations.
Please Contact Us if Bartoli Tech can offer you or your business personalized support in connecting to or using Twitter.
