subject: A Beginners Guide to Twitter (Part 2) [print this page] A Beginners Guide to Twitter (Part 2) A Beginners Guide to Twitter (Part 2)
In part two of this series we will be going over the basic functions of Twitter and working to publish your first Tweet. If you have not started using Twitter yet, be sure to read the first part of A Beginner's Guide to Twitter (Part1) series which goes over setting up your Twitter account.
Now that you're set up with an account, it's time to start following some people. If you imported your contacts you should already be following a number of people from your E-Mail service. If not, you can start by clicking on the "Search" field at the top of your homepage. You can type in a username or a first and last name. When you do this, Twitter will give you a list of the Twitterers who match your search criteria. Twitter also allows you to do advanced searches by location and the like. Once you have found a contact you wish to follow, you can begin following them by simply clicking on the Follow button below their description.
Basic Commands
When using Twitter, think of it as a room full of people, all sitting around having a conversation. When you update your status (a tweet), you are speaking to the whole group. Everyone that is following you gets to hear what you have to say. Do remember that your tweets are limited to 140 characters, so it is a good practice to be straight to the point of your update.
Replies
If you want to direct your comments to one specific person in your conversation, while also making sure that everyone can here, use the "Reply" function. You address the person by using their Twitter username preceded by the "@" symbol. An example:
@fmracicot check out this great product that I just discovered.
In this example, everyone following fmracicot and me will see the message, but I am directing the message to fmracicot. (People not following both of us will not see the message.)
You can also use the reply function to refer to someone by name. For example"
I'm headed out to meet with @fmracicot. Looking forward to our brainstorming session.
Replies become "clickable links". If someone that is following me clicks on one of the names, they will automatically go to that persons Twitter profile page. This gives them the option to also follow that person.
Direct Messages
Continuing with our "conversation" with a room full of people, you can also use the "direct message" function. A direct message is similar to whispering to the person you are talking to. They can hear you, but nobody else in the room can. Direct messages are sent to the person you send it to, and only that person. An example on using a direct message:
d fmracicot Can you please bring the sales statistics with you to our meeting?
Tracking
Tracking is an SMS or IM only feature that allows you to receive all tweets that match a word you specify. If you wanted to receive all updates that match "TweetersMarketing", you would send 'track TweetersMarketing'. All updates sent from tracking will begin with parenthesis. You can also easily stop getting these messages by sending 'untrack TweetersMarketing'.
Your first Tweet
So you're all set up. Now it's time to start tweeting. You can do this from your Twitter home page, your mobile phone, a desk top interface, or a number of different ways. As stated before, the message can not be longer than 140 characters. If you use the Twitter home page to tweet, the input field will automatically count your characters and display how many you have available in your tweet. With time you will instinctively know how long this is and will not think too much about it.
How often should you tweet? This is a question that is in constant debate amongst all users of Twitter. Some say that you shouldn't tweet more than six times a day, some say ten to twelve is on the high end. I've seen many people that tweet every half hour.
The main thing to consider when you tweet is if you are adding something of value. People in general don't want to hear about every aspect of your life/business. However, some light or colorful commentary can be a good thing. This is a bit of an art, not a science, so there are no hard set in stone rules on this. Just consider that every tweet is a branding impression. You are building a reputation with your followers, so make sure you're adding something of value to the conversation.
This is really no different than any conversation you would have offline. You want to say something that is interesting, helpful, or just plain entertaining. You don't need to over-think it, but you shouldn't just tweet the first thing that pops into your mind.
You now have a general understanding of how to use Twitter. You have published your first tweet to your followers and in turn you should read and follow up on what your followers are saying. In part three of this series, we will cover some intermediate functions such as re-tweeting, hashtags (#tag), link shortening, and more.
