Twitter 101

What Is Twitter Really About?

Twitter – what is that?

Twitter is a social network with real-time communication service

Twitter is used by millions of people and organizations to quickly share and discover information

Users can access the site via the web and mobile devices to exchange frequent bite-size updates

of information called “tweets”

The messages or “tweets” are public by default and visible to all those who are following the

person who wrote the message aka the tweeter

It’s mainly run by following other users you are interested in so that you’ll see their updates and

responses on your home page, which in fact, stems from all the accounts you’re following.

Tweets can come in many different forms, containing information, photos, videos, quotes,

articles, links and more.

Each “tweet” can be replied from other people creating a real-time conversations around hot

topics, breaking news, and interesting new content

History of Twitter

Originally started off as a Podcasting company called Odeo before pivoting the mircoblogging

service we know and love today. If Apple didn’t release podcasts via iTunes and shifting Odeo’s

work into obscurity, we might of never got Twitter

Key Terminology

Knowing these terms is important of mastering the lingo. Twitter can be complicated if you don’t know

of understand these terms; it has its own vocabulary flying around in tweets

Tweet

A standard message on Twitter containing 140 characters or less

Retweet

A tweet or message that has been reshared to all of the users’ followers

Hashtag

The # (number pound) symbol is used to tag keywords, phrases, or topics in a tweet to make it

easily identifiable for search purposes

Mention

Tweets can include replies and mentions of other users by preceding their usernames with the

@ sign

Handle

This designates your username and accompanying URL at http://twitter.com/handle (another

way of saying who you are – how someone can find you

Feed

The stream of tweets on your Twitter homepage comprised of all the accounts you follow

Lists

Twitter provides a mechanism to list users you follow into groups or curated lists showing

tweets of all the users in the list

Direct Message

Also called a DM, this represents Twitter’s direct messaging system for private communication

amongst users.

How to get started on Twitter

1. Signing Up

First off, pick a username for your twitter ‘handle.’ Preferably some short and sweet or

something that can easily identify yourself or your business. Next you’ll want to add your bio

information with a little bit about who you are and your interests to help people get to know

you better and decide whether to follow you or not. You can also include your location, website

link (if this is for business purposes), and an avatar image (which is a picture that will appear

next to your profile and next to all your tweets.

2. Follow Sources

After you sign up for Twitter you’ll be given some suggestions of popular users to follow. This is

the first step in using Twitter as a discovery engine so start following interesting new people and

sources. Some of the followers may even end up following you back (it’s a beautiful cycle). At

first, Twitter won’t know much about so find familiar friends and brands to follow too, and

overtime Twitter will make better suggestions to suite you. You can always unfollow people too

that seem to be clogging up you stream with useless posts.

3. How to Post a Tweet

You can post tweets of up to 140 characters. These tweets can also have media embedded like

photos, videos, or rich snippets from articles. Media can make your tweets more engaging,

where photos generally get double the engagement compared to just text.

4. Retweets

A retweet is the action of sharing another tweet again. People and businesses post messages on

Twitter in hopes of getting as many retweets as possible to reach out to new audiences.

5. Connecting and Mentions

Twitter provides a great way to connect with other users and monitor your interactions and

mentions. You can also communicate privately with other users via Direct Messages if the other

person follows you. Twitter also provides you suggestions on who to follow and other options to

find friends.

6. Twitter Search and Discovery

See what’s happening right now tailored just for you. Use the Discover tab to keep up with

tweets, activity, and another source for new people to follow, find friends and browse through

interesting categories like music, sports, entertainment, humour, technology and more.

7. Twitter for Mobile

Twitter’s mobile website allows you to have consistent experience using Twitter on any

smartphone or tablet device.

8. Twitter for Business

Businesses of all kinds also use Twitter to market their products and services, and to engage in

dialogue with their customers.

With over 400 million tweets a day and 200 million active users, people tune into Twitter to

bring them closer to the things they care about. Having a personal profile and a business profile

is a great idea. Having a business profile gives your brand credibility on social media. Some of

the best practices for businesses are writing good tweets, sharing relevant and interesting

content as well as sharing other people’s stuff. Twitter can be a platform of getting fan exposure

to your business by promotions and advertising.

Video about Twitter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AN4_N5N52U

Twitter Connect – Closing

People use Twitter to learn about topics they care about and to share their thoughts with other

people--in other words, to both send and receive messages.

Celebrities and media professionals are big Twitter users, sending tweets out to legions of

followers. Politicians and government officials also send many tweets, which often are quoted in

the media as sources of news. Now you can join the world… so go on…tweet.