Twitter Basics

Last week I walked you through the incredibly easy process of signing up for Twitter.  This week I will go over some of the basics.

• Followers - these are people who have chosen to follow your Tweets.  They have most likely followed a lot of other people and will see your Tweets along with anyone elses that they follow.  It will be displayed on their Twitter homepage or in what ever 3rd party service they are using.  They only see your profile if they have clicked on your profile. 
• Your Profile – This is a public area where you can tell people a little about yourself and what types of things you enjoy doing.  If someone is deciding whether or not to follow you they might look at your profile to see how often you post (all your latest posts are displayed), the types of posts you write, your interests, etc.  (If you look at other people’s profiles, you might consider using a 3rd party application (like TweetDeck) so you won’t get the Mikey malware.  Google Mikey Twitter and you will find plenty of info on it.)

• Your background – This is adjusted in the “Settings“.  If someone is looking at your profile, then they can also see your background image.  Some people have taken to adding pictures, more about themselves, etc.  You can also get a company to create a custom background if you like: (Google the phrase Twitter Background or Twitter picture or something like that. If you are too lazy, here are some of the top results)
  1. www.TweetBacks.com 
  2. www.TwitterBacks.com 
  3. www.TwitArt.com
  4. www.PimpMyTwitter.net
• Updates – this is the number of times you have (or someone else has if you are looking on their profile) Tweeted.  Everytime you type in What you are doing and click update it will be counted as an Update.
• Following – this is who you are following.  Their Tweets will show on your Twitter Homepage TO YOU.  You are the one following them, therefore you are the one who will see all those Tweets.  Other people viewing your profile will NOT be able to see all the Tweets you get from others.  Follow wisely if you actually want to read the Tweets.  I usually do not follow someone if they are an excessive Tweeter, I also usually don’t follow someone if they rarely Tweet (if they only have less than 10 Tweets but are following 10,000 and only have 10 followers).  This is all up to you as a personal preference.  Using Twitter will be different for everyone.  Don’t want to receive Tweets from someone?  You can always “UnFollow” them.
• @yourtwitternamehere – When someone puts the @ symbol and a Twitter name in their Tweet, they are basically directing their Tweet to that individual.  So if you click on that button on your Twitter homepage, you will see all the messages that people have sent to you or about you specifically (every message that includes the @yourtwitternamehere).  As such, people also usually refer to their own Twitter name as @mytwittername  like this:  @JohnnyOptimist
• Direct Messages - These are not Tweets, but messages that were sent directly to you through Twitter.  You can send them as well.  They will show under the Direct Messages, and not in the regular homepage Tweets.
• Favorites – not sure how to set this, but am guessing you can somehow pop in the names of the people you most want to follow thus creating a subgroup of your followers.  Please add a comment if you have used this feature
• Everyone – If you want to see ALL TWITTER USERS Tweets, then click this button. 
•   Following – you will see the profile pictures of the people you are following (or if you are visiting a profile, of the people they are following).
•   Home – brings you back to your Twitter homepage.

That is about the jist of things.  There are also further customization settings available, but that is pretty standard Profile stuff that shouldn’t be too difficult to navigate. 

Any thing to add?  Any questions?

Ben
Blogmaster General – teaching you to blog like nobody’s business