It has come to my attention that there are those, even among my legions of Twitter followers (literally, but merely technically, dozens), for whom Twitter remains an almost imponderable mystery. Many don't get it and don't care to, and I feel ya. For the rest of us, it's gone beyond a mere trend and developed into a social force that's impossible to ignore. But what in the hell, many ask, does it all mean? Fear not: I was once as confused, frightened, and annoyed by these little messages as some of you are today. By request from our very own Sarah Smart, I will do my best to shine a light. Follow my advice, and soon you'll join me on my comfortable perch among the top 30,000,000 Twitter users.
Let me rephrase that: I'm not an expert, merely a verbose amateur.
In the Twitter spirit, I intended to keep this tutorial on the wee side. Well, the beast grew a bit out of my control, so I'll be posting this over two days (or more if I get any further requests). Today I'll just talk about the basic stuff. The biggest bits of confusion for me were always the weird hashes, the @ symbols, "RT" and stuff like that...those will come tomorrow. If you're already using Twitter, you may be a bit beyond today's lesson. hang out until tomorrow for the real meat.
First, a few definitions relevant to today's lesson:
Follow: to subscribe to the updates of another use such that those updates will appear on your Home screen.
Follower: a user who has subcribed to your updates.
Timeline: a list of the Tweets of those you follow, updated in real time--may be referred to as your Home screen of Home Timeline.
Tweet: as a verb, refers to posting a message/as a noun, refers to the message itself.
The Basics:
140 characters. That’s all that you get, per Tweet. That includes spaces, symbols, letters, numbers—any single keystroke will use up that allotment. In the same way that the rules of haiku dictate meter and length, Twitter restricts you to producing short bursts of information and/or wit. If you’re familiar with Facebook and its status updates, it’s a similar idea (though not precisely the same, and we’ll discuss why later). Some may see Twitter as the ultimate communication tool of the low-attention-span era in which we so flittily reside. I like to think of it as an exercise in conciseness. As someone who has occasionally been accused of tending toward the verbose, it’s not a bad way for me to flex some new muscles. What you do with those 140 characters is entirely up to you.*
* Within reason: spamming, phishing, distributing malware or being otherwise dicky and aggressive are prohibited.
Some examples:
That’s all there is to a basic Tweet. I short, hopefully witty and piquant little note about what you’re doing, who you’re doing, where you’re going, what you’re selling, or when your new movie debuts. The witty, piquant part comes with practice…figure out what it is you want to say, and then figure out a crisper way to say it. It takes time, but you’ll gradually get the feel for it. We’ll come back to tweets for some of the more advanced stuff, like those weird hashes, "RT"...all that stuff.
Following/Followers:
Twitter is different than Facebook in that relationships need not be mutual. If I’m following you, you needn’t follow me, and vice/versa. When you tweet, you’re kinda posting stuff on a bulletin board for anyone to see. Your followers will see every Tweet that you post, as you post it, on their Home screen. Likewise, you’ll see the posts of anyone whom you choose to follow on your Home screen. Again, it needn’t be mutual: your followers and those whom you follow don’t need to be the same people. I follow Wil Wheaton, for instance, and see everything he posts. He, on the other hand, has no idea that I exist and will likely never see any of my tweets (that being said, there are ways to see the tweets of those whom aren’t in your “Following” list—more on that later).
If you’re not following anyone on Twitter, there’s really not much point. In the upper right-hand corner of your Home screen you’ll find a short menu bar. Click on Find People to search or browse for users whose tweets you might enjoy. You can search for your friends, celebrities, or skim through Twitters suggestions based upon your interests. The bonus here is that anyone you follow will be notified that you’re following them, which may inspire them to, in turn, follow you. While some join Twitter only to follow the posts of others, most of us want to Tweet. And if one is going to Tweet, one will likely want one’s Tweets read*.
Your numbers of followers and followees appear in the upper right corner of both your Home screen and your Profile screen.
*A bit of a caution here: one of the tricks that over-enthusiastic users and spammers use is to follow hundreds or thousands of people, knowing that at least a portion of those will return the favor by following them back. Twitter keeps an eye on such behavior behind the scenes, and will sometimes remove users for it. Not to say that you shouldn’t follow whomever and however many users you like, just don’t follow by the thousands for no good reason. Also: I mentioned that your tweets are like postings on a bulletin board. Twitter does, however, provide the option of protecting your tweets in the settings menu, giving you greater control over who gets to see your posts. If that’s your preference, you’ll want to do it early on, since it isn’t retroactive. Everything that you’ve posted prior to protecting your tweets will remain publicly visible.
Here's a difficult twuth: if you're not already famous, it's likely going to take you a very long time to develop a large number of followers. That's just the way it is. Of the millions of people who use Twitter, you could probably count on two hands the number of people who have become famous using Twitter. The Shit My Dad Says guy now has a book and a TV show on the way, so it is possible if you find a great hook. But, in general, do it for fun, not to get famous.
On the Go:
Quick note about Twitter and your phone: there's more than one way to get your Tweets. You can log in to Twitter and review your Home screen (aka Timeline) at your leisure, or you can have Tweets sent to your phone or mobile device as text messages. You can direct the Tweets from all of your followees to your phone, or (more commonly) pick and choose. Twitter also lets you set the hours during which you'd like to receive zero updates, which is handy.
OK, that's it for today. Hardly concise and Tweet-worthy, but hopefully helpful. Tomorrow I'll talk about the Tweets themselves, and how to decode them. The examples up above are pretty straightforward, but they're not all that easy to read. I'll also talk about some of the ways in which Twitter users interact, and give shout outs to some of my faves.
Inspired? Follow me on Twitter here. Let me know what else you'd like to learn in the comments below.
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