If you are looking for an article on high-falutin’ applications you can use to make hard core Twittering easier, go on down the road.  This guide is the REALLY basic guide that contains information you could probably find in the help section of Twitter, but we all know that’s kind of like reading instructions, that’s a last resort.

So, I hope this will be helpful.


Sign Up.  

Signing up is pretty straightforward if you go to http://www.twitter.com.  The one thinking point is you just have to think up your username.   Many people use their first name initial and then their last name (aallen, for example), but others, like me and WomenBloom, use a business or personal brand handle.  It’s up to you!

You can decide how much you want to include in your Twitter profile as you’re setting it up.  Many people include a website link or blog link

Useful Tip:  Many folks, before they decide to follow someone (see below for explanation), click their website link to make sure the person is legitimate and not some spammer or up-to-no-good person.  If there isn't a link, they may opt not to follow you.  Just so ya know.

Your Twitter address.

Your email address has a certain form:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   All twitter addresses likewise have theirs: your username (see Sign Up above ) preceded by an ‘@’ sign.  

@rubyslippers.  
@womenbloom

Pretty simple, hunh?

What is a tweet?  What does it look like?

A 'tweet' refers to the individual messages you send and receive:

Example:

WomenBloom If people are peeps, and twitterers are tweeps, are (women) Bloomers 'bleeps'? What the bleep??!? :) Sowwy, just being silly.

Send A Tweet.

At the top of your Twitter home page, is a block that says in big bold letters:  'What are you doing?'  Go to town with anything mundane, amusing, informative, thought-provoking...just remember you can’t use more than 140 characters including spaces.  Keeps it short and to the point.

Useful tip:  Since you’re limited to 140 characters, if you want to include a link, and the url is extremely long, go to http://www.tinyurl.com to make it shorter.  There is a window for you to paste the url you want to shorten, then you hit the button “make tiny url” and it gives you a page with a url that begins with http://tinyurl.com....  

Is that nifty or what?

My Twitter Stream:  What’s a Follow, Who Do I Follow, and How?

Following is what you do when you find someone interesting on Twitter.  When you choose to follow them, or they choose to follow you (because you have something interesting to say, you know you do), the tweets of that person show up in your Twitter stream.

Your Twitter stream is simply the running list of messages from those fascinating people you have chosen to follow.  It’s like a Twitter ‘inbox’.  In the beginning, you can limit yourself to one or two follows until you get the hang of it. You can add more as you figure things out.

To follow me, for example, search for ‘womenbloom’.  To the right of the page that pops up, you’ll see WomenBloom under Matching Users which you can click.  Then on my page, at the top left, you’ll see my profile picture with a box ‘follow’ underneath.  Just click ‘follow’ and voila, my tweets will begin showing up in your Twitter stream.

Direct Messages:  Why do some tweets look a little different than others?

Most tweets begin with the username of the person sending it.

Example:

WomenBloom  For midlife women , check Cindy LaFerle's blog. Great post on having a 'room of one's own' to create in: http://www.laferle.com/?p=918

But sometimes you’ll see the person’s username followed by an ‘@someone’, then a message.

Example:

Rubyslippers @WomenBloom - I don’t think I would want to live in an intentional community entirely without men.

So, what’s with the @WomenBloom?   

Let’s say @rubyslippers wants to tweet directly to a particular tweet I, @womenbloom, sent about intentional communities.  She would run her mouse arrow over the tweet in question to highlight it and, at the right, a little star (to make it a favorite) and a little arrow (to direct message) would appear.  Click on the arrow and it automatically adds the person’s @username for you in your tweet/What Are You Doing box so you can easily type in and send your tweet.

Direct Messages:  Tweeting privately.

You can direct message as a private tweet.  A Direct Message (DM) means it goes only to that person and doesn't appear in either of your main Twitter streams. To DM, you click on Direct Message at the right side and you’ll notice that in addition to the usual box ‘What are you doing?’ there is a drop down that lets you select the person you want to send a direct message to. 

Favorites:  What if I want to tag a tweet so I can find it again?

Remember when you run your mouse arrow over a specific tweet and a little star shows up at the right?  If you click that, it puts that tweet in your Favorites.  You can click on ‘Favorites’ on the right side and see all the favorite tweets you’ve saved there.


This should be enough to get you started.  There are many other things to know about Twitter, but just take it slowly until you’re ready for more.

If you'd like to read more about what Twitter is and isn't, read our article, Twitter 101:  An Explanation For The Curious But Uninitiated.

Follow me on Twitter:  @womenbloom.