Indiana University: IT Training Tips Blog

New to Twitter? Did you just log in for the first time, and you feel your Twitter profile looks like a lonely wasteland? And seeing that, are you wondering what all the excitement is about? Here are a few tips to get up and running with Twitter, and to find just the right people and information. Your Twitter space will be home to you in no time.

Sending Tweets

• - After you sign up for Twitter, just enter a message (maximum 140 characters) in the entry field at the top of your Home page. All who follow you will see your tweets. If no one is following you yet, send a little introduction message anyway just for practice. It will be there for people later.

Receiving Tweets

• - Your Twitter space will be populated by the tweets of all the people you follow, so go out and find some Twitterers. See Finding Friends and Following Tweeple, below.

Finding Friends and Following Tweeple

• - Having an avatar is helpful when people start following you; everyone wants to know with whom they're speaking. Therefore, as soon as you can, add a picture of yourself or supply an image by which people can identify you. A bio is helpful, too. (See Making It Your Home, below.)
• - To find friends or interesting individuals who twitter, click Find People at the top of your profile. Type in their names, or just try searching “New York Times,” “Library of Congresss,” “noaa,” “oceanexplorer,” or other entities of interest. This is a good way to find news sites and other topics as well. To receive all their tweets, click the Follow button.
• - People you follow will receive a notice that you are following them, and in turn they will probably follow you.
• - To find more people or sites to follow, see who THEY are following and follow the ones that interest you!
• - To find celebrities, people, or categories of interest, go to http://wefollow.com/.
• - If you know someone's username, you can travel directly to their Twitter space by going to http://www.twitter.com/[username].
• - If you don't want certain people following you, it's easy to Block them.

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“One could change the world with one hundred and forty characters.”

-@Jack

This article is intended to give people new to Twitter or people who don't have a good understanding of the application's capabilities a brief overview of why Twitter is powerful and how they might start using it themselves. It's focused on companies/departments/groups for an Indiana University audience, but the information is applicable for everyone.

What is Twitter?

This might seem like a simple question to answer, but in reality, if you look at each of the following definitions, you will see that they're all different.

• Twitter's Definition: "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"
• Wikipedia's Definition: "Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read each others' updates, known as tweets."
• My Definition: Twitter is a technology that facilitates synaptic, asynchronous, and individualized communication between its users.

They're all similar in one respect, communication. The truth is that Twitter is whatever you make of it. The service's architecture is open-ended and loose allowing users to use Twitter for whatever purpose they desire. Whatever you put into the service by way of interaction will be returned.

Check out the rest of the post after the jump!
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