Twitter for Beginners

Twitter is like online text messaging with a 140 character limit. The ‘phone number’ of the user is their Twitter ‘handle’. The handle is called by placing the ‘@’ before their username. When you write something to someone on Twitter using their handle, it’s called a Mention. Unlike real text messaging or even Facebook, you can @mention anyone you want and it’s not considered strange to talk to someone you don’t know. It’s actually encouraged that you get out there and start talking to new people.

When Twitter first came out I was hesitant like most people. Why would anyone care what someone is doing every couple hours (or minutes for some Twitter users). The more I used Twitter, the more I understood it and then could see its benefits. I now admit that Twitter is my favorite social media platform. I’ve interacted and built strong connections with amazing people I otherwise would not have been exposed to. I have found amazing insights from these people. The Twitter community loves to help each other out with information and tips. I’ve even met some of the people that I’ve met through Twitter in person. You can network with people in specific niches and with similar interests and build a strong online community you can rely on. The only other platform I’ve seen that has a similar positive community is Google+.

So back to basics. When you @mention someone, it comes up on your real time feed and the other person is notified that you @mentioned them and can in turn respond by @mentioning you – and from there a conversation is formed.

Alternatively, you can choose to ‘DM’ (direct message) the other person. This is a private message only the 2 of you can see. This is useful when you want to exchange personal information, like your e-mail address.

When you are ‘Home’ on your Twitter feed, you see tweets from all the people you follow. When other people follow you, all your Tweets will come up in their home feed. People post everywhere from 1-100 times per day. If you follow a lot of people, or your followers follow many people, they might not always see your Tweet. The life expectancy of a tweet is much shorter than Facebook. Tweets can easily get lost in the live updating news feed and that is why it is sometimes a good idea to post often.

Twitter is an interesting social platform like none other. To truly understand it and to see how it works best for you, the best thing to do is start following interesting people and ‘listening’ to what they are talking about. Examine their style, see how many times they are posting or re-posting (re-tweeting) other people’s content. You will not get any followers unless you start following other people! Once you feel comfortable, start sharing some interesting links you find on the internet. You can start by following me @cnicolestudios. Include my handle @cnicolestudios and then write to me with any comments or questions you have.