Twitter for beginners
Twitter is a widely used social media network, the second most popular, after Facebook.
It is one of the mediums which drive user engagement to a great extent. Here are some basic steps for users to get started with Twitter.
1. Create Twitter profile –
§ This step is very similar to the creation of any other online account. You will need a valid email address, and a password has to be entered
§ Once you register your account will need to be verified, and you have to agree to the terms and conditions of Twitter
§ When creating the profile, you will also be asked to pick a Twitter username, which has to be unique and available. They will also provide you with suggestions for usernames, based on your first and last names and email address. You can only have one Twitter account from a single email address
2. Getting started with Twitter –
§ As soon as your profile creation is completed, to get started, Twitter will recommend that you follow certain people based on your IP, contacts etc., or else you can search for users you wish to follow on the search bar. You need to follow a minimum of 5 people to get started
§ Twitter will then show you users in various categories that you may follow. Examples for some of the categories are Television, Sports etc. Here again, you will be prompted to follow 5 users
§ Following this, there will be an option to search contacts from users’ mail accounts. i.e., there will be options to link to users’ yahoo,google,aol accounts etc., where you will be given the option of following your contacts that are Twitter users
3. Profile Updating – In your Twitter profile, there are several areas that can be customized
§ Avatar – Equivalent to your “Profile Picture” on Facebook, this is the image by which you would be symbolized all over Twitter. It’s a square shaped area so make sure the photo you upload will fit into this square and is appropriate.
§ Header Photo – Corresponding to the “Cover Photo” on Facebook, this image spans the entire width of the top area of your profile. It is a landscape image which you can upload as an introductory picture to you.
§ Bio – This is a section below your avatar where you can enter a few words about yourself as an introduction.
§ Location – You can enter your geographical location in this section
§ Website – In this section, you can enter the URL of your website/blogsite
§ Theme Colour – The latest version of Twitter also enables you to use a theme colour to be displayed across the profile
4. Tweeting – Tweeting is the action of composing “Tweets” which correspond to status updates in Facebook, but limited to a maximum of 140-characters. It is possible to attach images and links to your tweets
§ Mentions: You are able to tag any user/s on your Tweet, by pressing the “@” key and typing the name/username of the user/s you wish to tag. The user/s will then be notified that they’ve been tagged. Photos could also be tagged with users, but this is only possible on mobile
§ Hashtagging: Another important feature is that you can add hashtags, that is tags to a message followed by the hash “#” key. These tags are important since when they are clicked, all the tweets containing that hashtag will be searched for. Hashtagging is very important and the trending hashtags at a given time will be shown in the bottom. You can also search for the trending hashtags in a particular geographical location at a particular time
5. Newsfeed – Your news feed, which will be under the “Home” section, will show you the latest activity of users that you follow. You are able to
§ Favorite the tweets: Corresponds to “Liking” on Facebook
§ Reply to the tweets: Corresponds to “Commenting” on Facebook. Here, the tweeter will automatically be tagged upon choosing the “Reply” option
§ Retweet: This corresponds to “Sharing” a post on Facebook. i.e., Sharing another user’s tweet on your profile
6. Notifications – The notifications tab shows if someone has mentioned (tagged) you in their posts, favorited one of your posts, retweeted or replied to your tweets
7. Discover – The Discover tab gives you a glimpse of the current latest events, tailored according to the preferences and trends shown by your follower patterns. It is further possible to create “Twitter Lists” where you can nominate certain users out of the ones you follow, and then view a list of only their tweets
For more assistance on using Twitter, setting up your profiles or for managing your account, email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Created: May 19th, 2014
