You want to Tweet but You Don't Know How...Look No Further!

This is blog entry is dedicated to all those who have asked me or someone you know (and inspired by my friend Rhodonna B)…”ok what exactly is twitter and tweeting.” This is a quick way to get you adjusted to the place us tweeters know and love as the twitterverse.

Ok first things first...

What is a tweet?

A tweet is a post or status update that is limited to 140 characters

Here are a few things you will need to know when entering the twitterverse:

Followers:

These are people who you may or may not know but they care enough to read your tweets. Please note if you bore them to tears they may unfollow you.

Who you Follow:

These are people you may or may not know. What they tweet will be on your timeline. Some p

eople start with following celebrities, friends, fam etc. There is no wrong or right way to chose who to follow and if it turns out someone is boring or not your cup o tea simply unfollow them. It’s a beautiful thing.

Timeline:

This is the listing of tweets updated as people you follow tweet. Your timeline can change tremendously in a short amount of time depending on who you follow and how much they tweet.

Hashtags:

Twitter provided no easy way to group tweet so the Twitter community came up with their own way: hashtags. A hashtag helps add tweets to a category. Hashtags have the 'hash' or 'pound' symbol (#) preceding the tag, like so: #traffic, #followfriday, #hashtag #TeamAndroid. Hashtags can occur anywhere in the tweet: some people just add a #before a word they're using. If you add a hashtag to your tweet and you have a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your tweet.(Example: I love the Rock #HOT)

Mentions:

Once you follow someone if they are following you a mention is the ‘@’ used to talk directly to someone. (Example: Hey are you going to sweep me off my feet or what? @DwayneJohnson) If you use a mention to someone it will show up in the mentions column on their twitter or whatever twitter app they are using on their phone.

Retweet

Let’s say you read a tweet that you think is great and you want all of your followers to see it. You would "retweet" it by clicking the retweet button. Which basically post the same tweet giving credit to the original tweeter but you are putting in in front of your followers to see. There is also an option to retweet with a comment. (For Example: RT @MotivationalQuotes: Live everyday as if it’s your last< #amen awesome quote) Do you see how I added my own comment with the arrow and text to separate the two.

Trending Topics:

These are topics that are all the buzz on twitter at the moment. If you are on twitter on your computer the trending topics are usually in a list on the right hand side. Usually celebs trend, big US or world events, some times silly jokes. In order to get in on the trending topics you tweet about it and use a hashtag and the trending topic (TT). (For example: wow #JustinBieber is trending again huh)

Searches:

Desktop twitter as well as all twitter apps have a search feature that allows you to look for certain topics, people, tweeters nearby etc. Skies the limit. Good way to find people to follow search some of your interest and follow some of the people who have the same.

Lists:

Twitter users can now organize users they follow (or users that they don’t) into groups, or “lists”. I personally don’t use them too much. However, you may have a list of just family that way you can keep up easily with them or just a set of ppl whose tweets you don’t want to miss. Please note you can have more than one.

Protected Tweets vs Non Protected Tweets

This is purely your call if you don’t want everyone able to access your tweets protect them which means they person has to get permission before they can see your tweets. However, I recommend not tweeting for personal information you don’t want anyone seeing regardless.

Twitlonger:

This is a way to let you post to Twitter when 140 characters just isn't enough. This is usually used when you go a little over. Twitter is not the place to start writing your latest novel.

That’s the basics as far as tweeting but before we end there are a couple more things:

If you need to post a picture to twitter here are a few programs that will do so with ease:

• Yfrog
• Twitpic
• Twicsy
• Twitgoo

Most people tweet from there mobile devices so here are a few apps for the popular platforms. There is no wrong or right one which ever one suits you. When tweeting from my Evo my app of choice is Twidroid but I will list some below. Its not a full list but it will get you started on your new adventure!

Android Devices phones & Tablets:

• Twidroid (Pro optional)
• Tweetdeck
• Twicca
• Touiteur
• TweetCaster
• Seesmic

IPhone/Ipod Touch/IPad:

• Echofon/Twitterfon
• Twittie
• Twitteriffic
• Twittelator
• Twinkle

Blackberry:

• UberTwitter
• Seesmic
• Tweetcaster

Just have fun and jump in once you get the hang of it you'll be hooked and meet tons of cool people. There is a lot more functionality to twitter that I wasn't able to address because I didn't want think blog entry to be a novel but just sign up and click around! You'll be a pro in no time! Feel free to follow me I will follow you back. My twitter name is toya10!