Twitter Tips for Beginners
Twitter has exploded within the past few years from a simple communication service to a social networking giant that even become a tool for protests across the world. Twitter has redefined the way we share news, communicate, and do business on a global scale. So it’s important that we recognize its full potential and in order to do that, we should take a look the basics.
Of course we already have blogs, email, and Skype, but sometimes it just isn’t natural to share all of the little things in your life with those tools. Twitter covers that ground with its short form messaging service where users can share their thoughts in 140 characters or less. Users can post updates, follow celebrities, politicians, businesses, friends, families, and even the superstars at Black Box Social Media by scrolling through their updates on your homepage in real-time, and send public and private messages to other users.
Starting With Twitter
Creating your new account is relatively simple, as is the case with most social media websites your first task is to create a username and password. Do this by clicking on the “Join The Conversation” button on the main page. Then upload a picture to your profile and add some basic information about yourself. This will make your page more recognizable to your friends that may be looking for you. After all, how many John Smith’s are there in the U.S.?
Finding and Following Friends on Twitter
Now its time for you to search for your friends using the search tool. Click on Find Friends on the top of the page, type in a friends name or username in the “Who Are You Looking For” search bar. Once you find a friend click on the follow button, now you can see their updates on your homepage.
Once you choose to follow a friend, they will receive an email update and you will be added to their followers on your main page. View your followers, who you are following and user updates on the top of Twitter’s sidebar on your main page. You can view and post updates on your laptop, desktop, or mobile phone. Make sure you edit your settings and let Twitter know whether or not you would like to receive status updates, etc, to your provided email.
There are several other methods of finding friends on Twitter. You can choose to search for friends on other networks by clicking “Find On Other Networks.” From here you can import contacts to your new account from your Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or MSN account. You can also click “Invite by Email.” This is an easy way to invite as many people as you want by typing their email addresses into the box on the page and clicking Invite. Twitter will send an email to them and let them know that you are on the social media giant and that you would like them to join. Finally, you can click on “Suggested Users.” This brings up a list of some of the most popular followed accounts, including major corporations, celebrities, and news networks.
You’ve Started Twitter
Now that you’ve created a profile and found some friends, its time to move forward with some of the more important tasks. Although Twitter began as a simple communication tool, it has evolutionized as a way to link to interesting web content, share pictures, music, trending topics through #hashtags (don’t worry we will touch on that later), and to post important updates in the midst of current events.