Twitter: A Beginner's Guide - Part 1

This post is particularly for my dad who is by no means a noob in terms of technology and computers but he is, however, finding the social aspects of the internet, specifically twitter, a bit daunting... I am by no means an expert but I have learnt a few things. If anyone else finds this helpful, by all means. Feel free to leave comments or questions.

What is Twitter? - The Beginner's Guide

Depending on your interaction with Twitter you might want to gloss over the following paragraph as it applies only to the absolute beginner...



I like to think of twitter as a news feed that displays the headlines of the news you choose to follow. These headlines (refferred to as TWEETS)  may just be a headline for the sake of mentioning something short and sweet, a quote or a quip. Tweets may contain links to websites - think of this as reading the newspaper with only headlines where you have the option to follow the link and read the whole article. Also, they can include mentions (ie. @mention) which is where somebody else is mentioned in a tweet. They will then be notified that they have been mentioned. Sort of like a newspaper article saying something about someone but with the added bonus that there is a direct link to that person within the article. And, lastly, tweets can contain hashtags (#someOrOtherHashtag). A what???

Some Terminology Before We Get Into The Details

• Tweet - Somebody on twitter creates a "headline" or a post of something.
• Follow - To subscribe to somebody's twitter account and receive their tweets on your homepage.
• Follower - The term used to describe the person following another's twitter account.
• Mention - Term used when somebody is mentioned in a tweet.
• Reply - What you do when someone mentions you in order to reply on that specific tweet.
• Link - A link to a website contained within a tweet.
• Hashtag - Keyword used to categorise the topic of a tweet.
• Direct Message - A message sent to somebody's twitter account where only they can read it. Something like an SMS or an Instant Message.
• Trending Topics - When something is tweeted about regularly and becomes popular it is said to be a trending topic. Often applies to hashtags that are used extensively. 
• Retweet - When you publish what somebody else has said in their tweet.

#hashtag???

The hashtag is a word preceeded by the "#" symbol (eg. #hashtag). It is a keyword used to describe the topic of your tweet. For example I might tweet the following: "Interesting beginners guide to twitter uploaded to my blog #twitterBeginnersGuide".


So I am using the hashtag to categorise my tweet, but more importantly what I am trying to do is make my tweet more easily searchable by other twitter users (commonly known as Tweeps). So, in other words, I could have used #twitter #blog #twitterblog or anything that I think Tweeps will be searching for to find something relating to A Beginner's Guide to Twitter.


Hashtags can be used anywhere in a tweet and clicking on a hashtag will show you all the other tweets on twitter that have used that specific hashtag. If a hashtag becomes very popular (#superbowl, #bigbangtheory, etc...) and many people are using it to categorise their tweets it starts making sense to use a keyword to define what you are tweeting about.


Some good practice when using hashtags: use no more than 3 hashtags per tweet and use hashtags relevant to the topic you are tweeting about.

@mention???

When composing a tweet you have the option of mentioning other twitter users in your tweet. The person or persons mentioned in your tweet will then receive a notification from twitter that they have received a mention from someone. For example, you could use this to ask someone specific something about their day: "@somebody how was the weather over the weekend?". That person could then choose to reply on that tweet which then, in turn, would mention you in their tweet.

Keep in mind that if you are using a public twitter account (you probably are unless you have specifically changed your settings) anyone could read your tweet and it will show up on everybody's twitter feed that is following you.

It could also be used, not as messaging tool but rather as a platform to speak about somebody. For example, you could be so pleased about the service you received at a restaurant that you would feel inclined to tweet about it, so that your friends will know where to go the next time they want to dine out: "I just had the most magnificent evening, thanks @restaurant #finedining". Notice the use of the hashtag #finedining? Anybody searching for this hashtag will find every tweet containing it and will be able to make a somewhat biased, but reasonably well informed decision about where the good restaurants are.

Now that you know some of the basics you are welcome to try out a mention in your next tweet by sending me one at @youngdaemon.

In part 2 of Twitter - A Beginner's Guide I will delve into the world of the reply, the retweet, how to gain followers and now that I have the basics, what next?