I intend for this to be the most basic Twitter tutorial I can craft. I am not writing it for marketers, public relations professionals, developers, web designers or the myriad others who use Twitter for business. I am writing this for average folk who want to speak with their friends through Twitter, make new friends, and keep up with current trends, news and art. This is not to say there are not professionals who might not benefit from reading this. I’ve seen some business accounts that make me wince but from what I can tell, they won’t read this because they already know it all.
When setting up a profile, chose a user name that is catchy and easy to remember. I realize this is easier said than done because many good names have already been taken by the millions of twitter subscribers already enrolled. Just keep in mind, in order to experience Twitter to its fullest, you want people to be able to communicate easily with you. A bizarrely spelled name followed by random numbers is not going to be easy to remember and further, people are likely to think your account is spam. The shorter the name is, the easier it will be for others to remember, though if your actual name is available and you feel comfortable using it on Twitter, people will remember it once they get to know you. Look at other people’s profiles to get an idea what is effective in a user name.
Under the settings section, account tab where it asks for your name, put your real name. If you do not feel comfortable putting your first and last name, just put your first name. People want to know there is a person behind your profile.
Where it asks for “More info URL” put the web address of your web page or blog. Some people put their My Space, Facebook or LinkedIn address in here if they have no web page and this is fine. There are Twitter snobs who look down on that because they don’t think you should be on Twitter if you have not made the effort to put together something so that people can get to know you better but feel free to ignore them as you would ignore snobs you encounter in real life. If you have no other web address, leave this space blank. My only word of advice regarding this field is, if you want people to visit your site, do not use an URL shorter such as bit.ly or tinyURL to shorten the address. People want to know where they are being directed to and likely won’t click on one of these shortened addresses for fear of being routed to a site which contains viruses.
Where it asks for your location enter where you live. If you don’t want to be specific because of security concerns, put your state or region such as Metro Boston, Southern New Hampshire, New England, Mid West, New South Wales, or Rhine Valley. People want a sense of where someone is from when they are communicating with them. The phrases “here, there and everywhere” and “somewhere over the rainbow” are no where near as clever as you think.
At the settings section, picture tab where it asks you to upload a picture upload a picture of yourself. If you don’t like any pictures of yourself or are self conscious of your looks, be creative. You can take a picture of a portion of your face, your face in shadow or wearing sunglasses. Do not use a logo unless you are on Twitter to do business and it is your logo. It is wise to not use cartoons or a well known person’s likeness as this could get you sued and, unless you have a verified account, you'll come off as false. If you really, really do not want to post your photograph, upload a picture of something which represents who you are. A marine biologist could post a starfish. A writer could post a computer or typewriter. A baseball enthusiast could post a baseball or bat. Whatever you do, DO NOT leave the default twitter avatar as your picture. People will think you are spam and will block you.
The devices tab is where you can arrange for your friends’ updates to forward to your mobile phone. I would not recommend this for anyone who does not have an unlimited text plan. Turning updates “on” forwards ALL the tweets from the people you follow to your phone. Unless you intend Twitter to be your entire life, don’t turn this on. You will be bombarded with messages. Another option is to set the drop down box to “direct message.” In this instance the only messages sent to your phone are private direct messages. I know many people who chose this option but if you follow many people, this too could be overwhelming. You will have to make this decision for yourself.
If you are going to toy around under the design tab, make sure whatever you choose is easy to read. No one will be able to read navy letters on a black background so your profile will be ignored by everyone but spammers and marketers trying to sell you enemas. If you choose something other than the default cloud background people will see you at least made an effort to be an individual. If you want to make a greater effort choose a background photo that shows where you come from or part of your personality - just make sure it is not too busy or distracting. Checking “tile background” will make sure the image covers the entire background of your profile.
Now you think you are ready to tweet? Not so fast. There is another thing you should know. EVERYTHING you tweet is forever. Sure, there is a delete icon on Twitter.com but that only erases it from the site. Once you tweet something it remains on a server and can be searched through search.twitter.com and other search engines. All it takes is someone industrious who knows it is there. I’m not saying this to scare you but just so you will be a conscious tweeter.
NOW you are ready to tweet. Don't take the directive “What's happening?” too seriously. For your first tweet, we already know what you're doing - you're tweeting. Instead think about why you've joined Twitter. (Please don't say, "Because everyone is doing it." If that is your motivation, please stop reading this and go back to Facebook.) Who do you want to connect with? If it is friends who are on Twitter, you can tweet them and follow their lead. If you want to meet people with common interests tweet something about that. "I am excited to meet people who love gardening as much as I do and with whom I can share tips.” People will find you through search.twitter.com if they search the key word “gardening.” You can find people to follow using the same search. People who ask to follow you will appear under the heading of “Followers” in the center column, right hand side. Click this heading to see who they are. Click their avatar or name to see their profile. If you would like to follow them back, you can do so from their profile (click “Follow”) or from your own Follower screen (click the head symbol with the plus sign). You will get spam followers who have no tweets, only have links to bad sites which upload viruses to your computer, don’t talk with others or have links to porn or pathetic marketing sites (the equivalent of those infomercials on TV after 2AM). Approach with caution and don’t click on something until you have a good sense that it is trustworthy. Even the link within the profile can be bad news. Take your time to look around Twitter and get an idea of what is safe and what looks fishy.
You have now looked around, followed some people and had others follow you back. (Be patient. It is slow going at first but once you develop relationships with more people, your following will increase exponentially.) You will want to reply to things people have tweeted or simply give them a greeting of welcome. To reply hover your mouse over the right hand side of the tweet. (See diagram to the left.) An arrow will appear. Click on the arrow and it will both fill in their user name in the text box at the top of the screen and link to what you reply to. Within the text box, after the person’s user name, type your comment and hit send. This message will show up under their user name tab and in their Twitter stream (provided they are following you). Even if they are not following you, don't be discouraged. Reply away! If you contribute something valuable, they will soon follow you. (This doesn't necessarily hold true for celebrities of any stripe. Unless they genuinely contribute to your tweet flow, beat feet and get them out of your way. They are only using you to stoke their egos.) Since Twitter is not instant messaging, there may be times when someone responds to something you said or asked much later. Out of context, you may not know what they are replying to. If they replied correctly (by hitting the "reply to" arrow), you can click on the gray "in reply to" text under the tweet and it will show the tweet they responded to. Clicking on the time stamp will bring up the tweet separately in its own window. Knowing this is handy if you want to forward an individual tweet to someone. Simply copy the url above the tweet. I also do this if I want to get a better look at an individual's background. Some people use services such as twitbacks to put additional information about themselves on their Twitter background.Now that you are tweeting, there are countless Twitter applications available to enhance and make your experience easier. There are also auto responder, tweet later and auto follow back applications. If you use an auto follow back system to follow back everyone who follows you, you will end up following robots and spammers in addition to actual people. I don't recommend doing this. You will grow your following numbers more quickly this way but your stream will be filled with garbage. Some people use auto direct message applications to thank people for following them. I find this disingenuous and unfollow people who send out these messages, particularly if they contain a link to their website. If someone is truly grateful to me for following them, they would not need a robot to deliver this message. Sending a link insults my intelligence because I have already checked out your website if I am following you. I'm also not a big fan of applications which send out scheduled messages. People who use Twitter successfully engage other people. If a robot is sending tweets for you, you are likely not at your computer to respond to comments and questions. I can see the value of a service like this if you are in a vastly different time zone than your audience but remember the limitations on engagement.
I hope I have been clear and thorough with my explanation for setting up a Twitter account and getting started. I will happily answer any other questions left for me in the comments section or you can follow @MsDevlin on Twitter. Happy tweeting!
