How to Use Twitter

• by Darcy Logan

Introduction

• Have you ever wanted to create a blog, but found you didn't have enough time? Do you have trouble keeping up with all your friends? Do you like to be in the know about everything and everyone? If you answered "yes" to any one of these questions, Twitter is the online tool for you.

• Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service. It allows you to post "tweets," short, 140 character messages that let your friends now what you're doing right now. You can receive and send updates to and from Twitter via text messages, RSS, instant messages, emails or a third party application.

Step 1: Join Twitter

• You can join Twitter for free by going to their sign-up page.¹ Once there, you will need to do the following:

1. Choose a user name.
2. Choose a password. It needs to be at least 6 characters long.
3. Insert your email address.
4. Type in the words for the CAPTCHA device.
5. Click on the Terms of Service.² It will pop-up in a new window or tab. Read it carefully. Then return to the sign-up page.
6. If you want email updates, click on the box.
7. Click I accept. Create my account.

Find Your Friends on Twitter

• After you accept, you will be brought to a screen that asks Are your friends on Twitter? This will help you find any friends you might have on Twitter by accessing your Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL or MSN email accounts. Essentially, it looks at your contacts and then matches email addresses. It does not work with any other type of email accounts.

• You will need to either:

1. Find Your Friends: Insert your email address and password, and click continue.
2. Skip This Step: Click on the skip link. This link is not boxed, but appears in blue underneath the continue box.

• Don't worry. If you skip this part, but want to attempt it later, you can. Once you are finished, you will find yourself at the "find & follow" page of Twitter. You're ready to move onto the next step.

Step 2: What to Do Now

• Once you've signed up, you will be taken to your personal homepage. You will be presented with three options: "tell us what you're doing," "find some friends" and "turn on your mobile phone."

Option 1: Post Your First Tweet

• The first thing you will notice is the message What are you doing? above an empty text box.

1. Type an answer to the prompt in 140 characters or less.
2. Click on the gray update box.
3. You've posted your first Tweet!

Option 2: Finding Friends

• Clicking on the link "find some friends and follow what they're doing" will allow you to either find friends via your email account or invite friends who are not using Twitter yet to join.

• Inviting Friends to Join Twitter

1. To invite friends, click on the gray tab that says Invite by Email.
2. Type in an email address.
   • You can enter more than one email address by separating them with a comma.
3. If you want to see what your friends will be getting, click on the blue text that says What will this look like?
4. When you are finished, click on send.

• Find Friends on Twitter
• So how do you find friends while you're waiting for your other friends to sign up?

1. At the very top of the page, to the left of the Twitter logo, there is a search box. #Type in a word or phrase and see what pops up.
   • For example, if you type in "Mahalo," you'll discover that many of Mahalo verticals have their own Twitter profiles such as Mahalo News, Food, Games, Videos, TV and Entertainment.
2. Once you've found a friend or someone you'd like to follow, click the gray follow button on the right side of the search result box.

Option 3: Getting Connected

• Clicking on the text "Turn on your mobile phone to update your friends on the go" will help you set up your mobile phone to send and receive Twitter messages.

1. Twitter will ask for your phone number and country code.
   • If you're in the United States or Canada, add "+1" to your nine digit number.
   • If you live elsewhere, you can find your country code by going to International Dialing Codes.³
2. Once you have completed that step, you will need to verify your number by texting a code to 40404 in the US, 21212 in Canada or +44 7624 801423 in all other international locations.

• NOTE: Twitter does not charge for this service, but you phone carrier might. Standard text messaging rates apply.

Step 3: Setting Up Twitter

• The next thing you will want to do is adjust your settings. Look at the top of the page. You will see a set of words in blue. Click on Settings. From your Settings page, you will be able to change or adjust the following:

Account

• Account is the default screen, or the first one you will see after clicking on Settings. On this page you can change your name, username, email address and time zone. You can also add the following information:

1. More Info URL: A link to your homepage or blog.
2. One Line Bio: Your life story in 160 letters or less.
3. Your Location: It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where you are?
4. Your Language: Currently you can see Twitter in English or Japanese.

• One of the most important things you can do on the Account screen is "protect your updates." There is a Protect my updates checkbox located at the bottom of a screen. If you click on the box, your profile will no longer be visible on Twitter's public timeline.⁴ This means only people that you approve can follow your updates. If you are a minor or concerned with your privacy, check this box.

Password

• This is where you need to go if you want to change your password. Twitter will ask you to enter your new password twice.

Devices

• If you wish to send and receive Twitter updates via your mobile phone, this screen will allow you to enter and verify your cell number.

Notices

• This is where you can change how often you are notified about new posts or followers by text message, instant message or email. You have several options; some are automatically selected for you.

1. Auto Nudge: This will text message or instant message you if you have not updated your page in twenty-four hours. The default for this is off.
2. @ Replies: This will show you all, some or no replies in your timeline from other people on Twitter.
   • An @ reply (or @reply) is a public Twitter update directed at a certain person. It starts with "@username." For example, to do an @reply toward me, you would type "@darcylogan" along with whatever message you wished to send me.
   • From the Settings page, you have three options which apply to @replies:
     1. See all @ replies: See all of the @replies made by people you follow, whether or not you follow the person to whom the reply is directed.
     2. See @ replies of everyone you are following: See @replies from people you follow directed at other people you follow. (Default)
     3. See no @ replies: Never see @replies on your timeline.
3. New Follower Emails: This box is automatically checked, which means you will be sent emails anytime someone starts "following" you on Twitter. If you don't want to receive emails, make sure the box is not checked.
4. Direct Text Emails: This box emails you when you receive a direct message. It is automatically checked. If you don't want to receive emails, you need to uncheck it.
5. Email Newsletter: If you want email updates, this is the box to check. It is not checked by default.

Picture

• This is where you can change your image. The maximum image size is 700k. Hint: Use the WeeMee image you created for your Mahalo Social account!

Design

• This tab allows you to change your page design in Twitter. It allows you to change your background color, background image, text color, name color, link color, sidebar fill color and sidebar border color. All except background image requires you to insert the six digit color value. If you are unfamiliar with these, a basic guide along with the most popular html colors can be found on Wikipedia.⁵

Step 4: Sending Twitter Messages (Tweets)

• There are three types of Twitter messages (a.k.a. "Tweets"): updates, @replies and direct messages. This step only covers how to send these messages through Twitter's website. If you are interested in doing this through your mobile phone, see Step 5. For third party applications that allow you to connect to Twitter in other ways, see Step 6.

• Updates
• An update is sent through the main status update box, located below the "What are you doing?" prompt on your Twitter profile page.

• @Replies
• An @reply is a public Twitter update directed at a certain person. It can be viewed by other Twitter members, even though you did not direct it to them. There are two ways you can send an @reply:

1. Type in @username and your message.
2. Click on the reply button on a person's update. The reply button looks like a curved arrow.

• Direct Messages
• You can send direct messages to anyone you are following as long as they are following you. These are private messages that will not be viewed by others. There are several ways you can do this.

1. Using the status update box on your Twitter profile page.
   • You need to add "d + username + message."
   • So, if you wanted to say "Hi" via direct message to me, you would type in d darcylogan Hi!
2. Click the message link on your friend's profile page.
3. Use the drop down box on your direct message inbox page. You can find this page by clicking on "Direct Messages" on the right sidebar.
4. By replying to a recent update. This automatically inserts an @reply. Replace the @ with the letter "D" and a space, then type your message.

Step 5: Integrating Twitter with Your Mobile Phone

• You can use Twitter through your mobile phone by texting 40404 in the US, 21212 in Canada or +44 7624 801423 in all other international locations. You must set up your mobile phone first (see Step 2). Twitter does not charge, but your wireless carrier might. Here are a few remote commands you can use by text messaging Twitter:

1. Receive Updates from Twitter: on
2. Stop Updates from Twitter: off
3. Send @Reply: @username message
4. Begin Receiving a Person's Update: follow username
5. Stop Receiving a Person's Update: leave username
6. Send Private Message: D username message
7. Stop Receiving Private Message: off (sent 2x)

Step 6: Becoming a Power User with Twitter

• Now that you have learned the basics, it's time for you to become a power user with Twitter. The best way to do this is to try some of the wonderful third-party applications. These programs will help you find the best way to use Twitter. A complete list of applications currently available for can be found on the Official Twitter Downloads page or the Twitter Fan Wiki Apps page.^{6 7} However, here are a few of the more popular ones.

Desktop Applications

• Desktop applications allow you to use Twitter without going to your profile page.
  1. Twhirl: Twhirl is a desktop application for Microsoft Windows and Mac OSX using the AIR platform.
  2. OutTwit: Allows you to update Twitter using Microsoft Outlook.
  3. Twitteroo: Allows you to update Twitter from your PC desktop.
  4. Twitterrific: Allows you to read and post Twitter messages from your Mac.
  5. Spaz: Integrates Twitter with Windows and OSX using the AIR platform.

Social Integration

• These programs help integrate several different programs into one device.

1. Digsby: Digsby can integrate a number of social networks, instant message services and email platforms into one application including AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, Facebook, MySpace, Gmail, MSN Hotmail, AOL, POP and IMAP.
2. Chirp: Chirp integrates Flickr, Facebook and Twitter using either a desktop viewer or a screensaver.
3. Socialgami: Socialgami integrates your MySpace, Facebook and Twitter accounts into one Windows application.
4. Yoono: Yoono is a firefox extension that integrates Twitter with Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed and most major IM services.

Web Browser Widgets

• These widgets will integrate Twitter with your web browser.

1. Twitbin: Twitbin works with Firefox.
2. Opera Widget: Works with Opera.

Badges

• Badges allow you to display on your profile page, website or blog that you are a member of Twitter. Currently, Twitter supports badges for MySpace, Blogger, Facebook and TypePad as well as enables users to create their own Flash and HTML widgets. They can be made on the Twitter badges page.⁸

Other

• Here are a couple other items that can help you become a power user on Twitter.

1. Twitter Widget: Twitter Widget will allow you to show your twitter feed on your blog or website.
2. GetMobio: GetMobio helps integrate Twitter with your mobile phone

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References for How to Use Twitter

1. ↑ Twitter: Sign-Up Page
2. ↑ Twitter: Terms of Service
3. ↑ Kropla: International Dialing Codes
4. ↑ Twitter: Public Timeline
5. ↑ Wikipedia: HTML Color Names
6. ↑ Twitter: Official Twitter Downloads
7. ↑ Twitter Fan Wiki: Apps
8. ↑ Twitter: Display Twitters on your Web Page

Additional Twitter Resources

• Twitter: Frequently Asked Questions
• Twitter Fan Wiki

How to Use Twitter Videos

• Video: Twitter in Plain English (Time: 2:25)
• Video: How To Use Twitter (Time: 9:18)
• Video: Signing Up to Twitter Is Easy (Time: 8:40)
• Video: How to Use Twhirl (Time: 14:27)

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