How to Use Twitter

Other Authors posted on May 13th, 2009

My last post was about what Twitter is, so now we need to look at how it works? First step—you go to Twitter and sign up for a free account. From there, upload a picture of yourself and start searching for people you want to follow or topics that might interest you. What you’ll see in the results of your search is a whole lot of @s, RTs, tinyurls, and #s which will make absolutely no sense to you. When I first starting reading tweets, I thought something was broken. I couldn’t make heads or tails of what people were saying. Don’t get frustrated, it happens to everyone. In fact, stage one of becoming a “twitterer” is hating Twitter.

Because you are limited to 140 characters, “tweeting” has developed its own language that takes some time to decipher:

  • @ – putting this symbol before a username means you are talking directly to them. For example, if someone wrote “@bkhowland Thanks for the re-tweet” I would know they personally were telling me thank you. 
  • RT – this means “re-tweet” and is a way of passing on someone else’s tweet to your own followers. 
  • # – this is a “hashtag” and is used as a way to index, or group, topics or events. For example, when the swine flu outbreak was big news, posts relating to it added #swineflu to their tweets. This way people could search for #swineflu and get all the tweets related to the outbreak. 
  • D – put a “D” before someone’s username and you can send them a message directly, rather than a public one for all to see.

What’s next? It’s up to you. Unfortunately, many people sign on and quickly disappear. According to a Mediaweek survey, 60% of people who sign up for Twitter do not return the following month. Depending on what you are looking to get out of Twitter, this may be you, or it may not. If you are looking to keep informed, grow a business, build a network, or meet new people, Twitter can definitely help.

Also, don’t forget all of the helpful ancillary Twitter programs. While Twitter provides the main engine, these sites are providing some of the bells and whistles. Tweetdeck is an extremely popular desktop client you can download and use to better manage your Twitter account. There’s also sites like Twazzup where you can search Twitter or sites such Twitscoop that help you keep track of all the hot topics of the day on Twitter. Or simply try search.twitter.com to find people who share your interests.

Here is a list of sites and articles to help you on your way:

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