Baldy Blogs: Twitter Newbie Guide. some things you should know

(If you ReTweet this Guide, you get listed as a recommended follow at the bottom - please let me know when you have so I can include you, thanks).
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I often hear people say "I don't get that Twitter, how does it work and what's it good for?"

I think I actually said pretty much the same thing before I started 'having a go' at it. My initial snapshot was that it was just like a load of Facebook Status Updates, so what was the point?

Now, I find it to be:

- A source of entertainment

- A source of news and information

- A place to make new friends

- A place to connect with people who have similar interests and hobbies

- A way of promoting businesses and services

- A platform for people to air opinions and take part in discussions

- A way of researching opinion or encourage feedback

Twitter is described as a microblogging site. It's for people to share up to 140 characters of information and log their thoughts, actions, concerns, observations, and more. It's also a way for people to share photos, videos, blogs and links to external sites.

1- Getting Started

I'll assume you are capable of registering (easy process). It's worth writing a synopsis of yourself in the profile information so that others get an idea of who you are, what you use Twitter for and what interests you. You can also tailor the background with an image - either yourself, or a 'poster' of your services, website, etc.

The next step is to start 'following' people. Following someone means that you will get all their updates shown in your timeline (like your Facebook NewsFeed). You won't see all their individual messages to people (any message starting with someone's username - like @Graham_Lay) but if you click on their profile you will see all of these updates.

2 - @ messages. You can reply to people by clicking reply on their Tweet - this will appear in their 'mentions' tab (and when you get an @ reply it will be in your mentions tab). It doesn't go to all your followers, but anyone can see it if they come to your profile (be careful not to divulge too much personal information).

3 - DM's - these are private messages between the sender and the receiver. You can only send a DM message to someone who is a mutual follower - you must be following them, and they must be following you. This is for more personal interaction.

4 - Following

A good way to start building your 'following' is to search for someone who you know, or who interests you. You are given some suggestions by Twitter when you register - the more popular Twitterers. Click on Follow and add as many as you want - you can always unfollow them later if you find their Tweets boring or annoying.

To find even more people - go to the person's tab 'following' to see who they follow. Read the profile synopsis and add more people from their list. You can start 'hopping' around them and going to new people's lists and adding from theirs too.

You will find that if you only follow 20 people, your timeline will be very quiet - not much happening. If you start following a few hundred people, it will be updated almost every minute with something new. If it gets too busy for you - you can either:

1/ unfollow the ones that are swamping your timeline with stuff that you don't want to know

2/ start compiling 'lists' to put people into categories so that you can filter out the people you don't want.

5 - Twitter Lists
Possibly the best way of using Twitter for what you want. A Twitter List is a group of Twitter users who have been labelled under a heading. You can start your own list easily, and/or you can follow other people's lists.

What a List does - is ONLY show you Tweets from the people in that list. For example:

You have a hobby - knitting. You are interested to read about and talk to other people who enjoy knitting too so you decide to create a list for "knitters". You can put anybody you like in this list once you've set it up, you don't even have to be following them.
> Go to Lists
> Click New list
> Give your list a name e.g. "knitters"
> Give it a description e.g. "People who enjoy the wonderful sport of speed knitting!"
> Choose whether to make your list public (anyone can follow the list) or private (only you can access the list)

You can also add people from your Following page or anyone’s profile page. It's simple - when you visit someone's profile there's a box that says "lists". Click the drop-down menu and tick the box or boxes that you want them to be listed on.

Once you've created your lists, you can pick and choose what to read and talk about. It might be:

- Check the news
- See what your closest friends are talking about
- Read about your favourite hobby
- Join in a Twitter game
- Catch up on the latest jokes

Making and using lists makes it much better - YOU decide what and who you want to read about without having to filter through all the other tweets that are nothing to do with what you want to read, and there can be a list for whatever mood you have!

Another thing Lists are good for is helping people find you and follow you. This works for lists you get put on, and lists you make. People will find you on other people's lists and follow you - for example, it could be a list called "Fave Tweeters" - who wouldn't want to see what these people had to say?

6 - Tags

You will see Tweets that contain hashtags #. What this does is enable you to see ALL global Tweets that contain that exact phrase simply by clicking the #hashtag word. If you are commenting on the news, you may want to tag it if you want others to come across your Tweet. Example "Wayne Rooney signs new 5 year deal with Man Utd. #Rooney". If you or someone else clicks #rooney - all the recent tweets with that tag will show up.

7 - Your Followers

A lot of people get fixated with how many followers they have. It's almost like a popularity contest to some. If you have only 1 follower, you can't expect to get much interaction when you post a Tweet asking for help with a recipe for bolognese for example. If you have hundreds of 'engaged' followers - you may get inundated with suggestions and ideas. There's a difference between having 1000 engaged followers and 1000 'sheep' who simply follow for the sake of following or building their own following.

Creating engaged followers happens when:

- You say a lot of funny things - jokes, links to hilarious sites/posts
- You say a lot of useful things - observations, links to info
- You intrigue your readers with your thoughts or questions
- You interact and show interest in others (not all me, me, me)
- You have a regular presence (daily, regular time slots)
- You Retweet* your followers appropriately

8 - ReTweets

A ReTweet is when someone reposts a Tweet they have come across to all of their own followers. It includes the original Tweet and the originator. If you say something very funny, it may get ReTweeted by 5 of your followers and go to ALL of their respective followers. This is a way to get a lot of exposure, which can be a great thing, or not so great a thing!

If someone ReTweets a moan or whinge and adds a negative comment to the ReTweet - you won't look too good. However, you may find that a 'gem' of a Tweet gets Tweeted around the world by hundreds of people and you get a lot of new followers or a lot of clicks to your website for example.

Be careful not to overdo the ReTweets. Select only the Tweets that you WANT to share with your followers if you think there is some value in it for them (if there is, it adds value to you too).

9 - Etiquette

There are no real written rules, but here are some tips I've picked up along the way:

- Tweet a celeb by all means. Don't get annoyed if they don't reply - they can have thousands of messages to read through and can't reply to them all! Also, don't keep bombarding the same people all the time in the hope that one day they will reply - you will most likely get 'blocked' if you are really annoying. This prevents you from any further contact.

- If you Tweet someone and they reply - acknowledge it! Don't just read it and file it away in your memory or favourite Tweet section.

- CAPS LOCK IS SHOUTING! Be very selective about when to use it.

- Most people are approachable, have a sense of humour, and are friendly. Not everyone will share your sense of humour though - be careful about making funny statements to someone who hasn't tuned into your wavelength.

- Anyone can follow you (unless you mark your Tweets as private). This is where it is a bit different from Facebook where it is only friends who you can see and who can see you. Don't forget that anyone can read what you write - whether they follow you or not. If they search for your name on Google, chances are that your Twitter profile will be highly ranked and they can drop in and see what you are writing about.

10 - #ff - FollowFriday

This is a Twitter tradition. Every Friday, some people will recommend other users to their followers by listing the names with a #ff hashtag for others to follow. Don't do hundreds - it can be annoying. Perhaps select a chosen few each week and give a little 'reason' for people to follow them. "always good for a laugh" "the King of news" "must follow"

IF you choose to #FF me, please nominate me on my own (no other users in the tweet) - it earns me more points in a fun follow friday list, I'm trying to beat @duncanBannatyne !!!

Added info, thanks for the input!

11 - Spam -

12 - First few days...

13 - TweetDeck
If you haven't seen Tweetdeck, I'd recommend downloading it. I use it more than 'normal' Twitter. You can have a few timelines running alongside each other at the same time and it seems to update quicker than Twitter does.

I usually have "All friends" (normal timeline) "Mentions" (@replies to you) and "New Followers" so you can see who's started following you, all at the same time. You can then open up a profile in the 4th slot to find out more about someone, or you could have one of your newly formed Lists, or a search phrase - much more ability to see what's going on in realtime. Have a play - I may write a quick guide about it if people ask.

14 - Conversations

Great point raised by Claire ( @gothiechick ) - how do you see what people are replying to?

On Twitter - I've shown you a screen shot of Claire's reply to me, you can see a tiny little arow in a circle on the Tweet on the left, once I clicked it it opened up our conversation on the right.

On Tweetdeck - it says: "gothiechick [+] Sun 20 Mar 16:20 via web in reply to..." - If you click the "in reply to" bit it opens up their conversation for you to see.

15/ ManageFlitter - A really good tool which tells you which of the people you are following are:

Not Following Back

Inactive

Too active

Spam

Plus lots of other useful stats and tools. You can do a group unfollow of the users who aren't doing you any help.

Build your Twitter account with ManageFlitter

BLOCKING PEOPLE!

You have the option to block anyone on Twitter. This means you will not see their Tweets and they can't reply to you. You can't make someone 'disappear' entirely but you can avoid them in this way. The button is on their profile under 'actions'. You can either block them, or block them and report spam.

EXTRA FOLLOWERS

A great way to get extra followers without doing anything is to stick a bumper sticker on your car - I designed one here:

Twitter Bumper Sticker

iPHONE EXTENSION LEAD - allowing you to Tweet from the comfort of your bed/sofa without losing battery power!

Here is a list of people who have helped to share this Newbie Guide - I'd say they are definitely worth following! If you ReTweet the Guide (from the link at the top of the blog), let me know and I'll add you to the list!

COOL PEOPLE TO FOLLOW!

You must follow this baldy!

@Graham_Lay

And the superstars who have shared the Guide for others - Follow them and let them know you found them from reading the Guide :)