Twitter for Absolute Newbies

UPDATE: I’ve added a new section on how to text Twitter updates on the bottom of the page. Thanks!

Tweet. Tweet. Tweet. You’ve heard of these things and this website called Twitter. It’s suppost to be bringing down Facebook, Myspace, Google, and Yahoo with these little message things called Tweets. You are skeptical, and so was I, until I tried out Twitter, one of the most awesome websites I regularly go on. Unfortunately, I had to learn Twitter by myself when it was still in its early stages. For you people out there looking to try out Twitter, this article is for you.

What is Twitter? Twitter is a social networking platform in which you display little messages (<=140 Characters) on your public ‘profile’, called ‘tweets’↑. These are called ‘updates’, and you are able to ‘follow’ other ‘tweets’ from friends and family on Twitter.

Note: Key Vocabulary is in Single Quotes ['']

What’s the difference between… Facebook statuses and Twitter tweets? When you look at this question from one side, you say that they are exactly the same thing. Although they seem the same, they actuallly aren’t. In Twitter, you can have a ‘conversation’ with other people, just using these little ‘tweets’. Facebook statuses tend to be about you, like ‘Alex is taking a shower’. With Twitter, you can communicate to the whole WORLD what you are thinking, like ‘just watched American Idol. Adam Lambert KILLED IT!!!’. I know this probably doesn’t make much sense, but you’ll see how great Twitter is later.

Let’s get started, then!:

Create a new account at twitter.com/signup.

Twitter now makes it easy for you to find followers quickly, using email contacts and real-world people that are on Twitter. Enter your username and passwords for all your services to find if you have any contacts using Twitter. [don't worry, they won't store your password].

After that, there are a TON of celebrities/famous people, websites, and even newspapers on Twitter that you might be interested in following, like CNN, Ashton Kutcher, Lance Armstrong, and even, the one and only, The Tech Advisors!

To follow anybody, click the ‘follow’ button under the picture on the top-left corner on their twitter page.

Tweeting

The main point of twitter is to inform your followers, or friends and family, about what you’re doing. To tweet something, click ‘Home’ on the top-right navigation bar. Type your tweet into the box that asks you ‘What are you doing?”

Messages

There are two ways for people to message you in Twitter. They can reply to you, in which everyone [in the WORLD] can see the message, or they can direct message you, so only you two get to see it.

Replying

To message someone publicly, put in your tweet

@someonetomessage this is a message.

So, if I wanted to tell Lance Armstrong to bike harder, I would tweet:

@lancearmstrong why can't you bike faster?!?

Not that it’s true, of course.

Note that using @, you can message anybody, you don’t have to be following them or vice versa.

Direct Messaging

To privately direct message someone, click on ‘Home’ on the Navigation bar at the top. Then, click ‘Direct Messages’ on the right-hand sidebar.

Notice that you can only send Direct Messages to people following you.

Trending Topics

A very cool part of Twitter is that you get to see real-time news in the form of Twitter tweets. Go to ‘Home’ and look at ‘Trending Topics’ on the right-hand sidebar. Those are what the Twitter bot sees as the most popular things being tweeted about. For example, two weeks ago, swine flu was at the top of the list.

Search

One of the most talked about features of Twitter is its search function. It is really very cool, you can search all the real-time tweets that people and news have tweeted. It connects to the trending topics I talked about above. For example, if I wanted to see what Obama has been doing lately, I would just search [again, on the right-hand sidebar] for ‘Obama’.

Change your theme

My theme, as you can see, is a very sleek black one. To change your theme from the regular blue one, click on ‘Settings’ in the Top-right corner and click on the ‘Design’ tab.

Update Twitter on the Go

Another huge feature of Twitter is the ability to update it from your mobile phone. You can even create your own blog – a ‘micro-blog’ that is, and embed it on your website, Facebook Profile, or Myspace page. Sadly, I can’t text from my phone, thanks to my parents [comment if you petition against that decision , maybe I'll be able to text], anyway, let’s get started to setting up your phone.

1) Put in your phone number

• Click on ‘Settings’ on the top-right navi bar. Then, click on the ‘Devices’ tab.
• Put your phone number in the box, prepending it with a ‘+’.
  • If my phone number was ‘555-5555′, and I lived in a city with an area code of ‘555′, I would put this in:
  • 15555555555 [That's 11 5s after the 1]
• Check the box that says
  • It’s okay for Twitter to send txt messages to my phone. Standard rates apply.

2) Hit Save and you will be given a code to text to a number on the Twitter network. That number is 40404. Once Twitter receives that text, you can start texting on your phone!

Twitter will send you notifications and updates from people you follow. To change your status, just text Twitter your status. For example, texting reading the tech advisors to the designated number, your status would be ‘reading the tech advisors’.

There are many commands to control twitter from your phone.

Some important ones:

ON: Turns ON Twitter text messaging you

OFF: Turns OFF Twitter text messaging you

ON username: Turns ON Twitter text messaging updates from username

OFF username: Turns OFF Twitter text messaging updates from username

FOLLOW username: Follows username

LEAVE username: Un-follows username

Find all the commands at Twitter Support.

There’s my how-to on Twitter for newbies. Thank you for viewing this! I hope it helped you get introduced to Twitter better.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::