Thursday, February 03, 2011

twitter 101.

Because I am a social media geek, I take things like twitter for granted. Scott just told me I need to help one of our fairly web savvy friends with how to use twitter.  I plan on giving her a twitter rundown, but in the meantime, here are the top 11 things you should know about twitter.

Twitter 101:

1. If you don't have a twitter account, go to www.twitter.com and sign up. Your user name will also be known as your twitter "handle".

2. Each 140 character statement you make is called a "tweet". Past tense tweets are "twats". Actually, that is a lie.

3. A good place to start is to follow people you know on twitter. Example - I'm @ficklefeline, so feel free to follow me.

4. A lot of people will follow you just because you follow them. You don't have to follow everyone who follows you (I don't). Don't be offended if someone doesn't follow you just because you follow them - it's no biggy, you aren't in high school anymore (unless of course you are and in that case, it sucks to be you).  That's what separates twitter from facebook - and thank dog for that.

5. Don't use the twitter app in facebook to auto update your facebook status with every new tweet. It's really annoying and you will piss your facebook friends off.

6. The world doesn't need to know that the apple you ate was really tart. The world does need to know that the bacon you ate was the best thing you've ingested this year. I kid. Tweet about whatever you want, but don't be surprised if you lose followers for tweeting about running out of toilet paper.

7. If you want to tweet at someone, include their twitter handle, starting with "@" in your tweet - example - @ficklefeline you look super hot - clearly @P90X is working for you!!

8. When you see words that begin with "#" at the end of a tweet, these are things that people might search by - example - #ficklefelineisasexybitch - or, you know, #superbowl #chilirecipe

9. If you like something that someone else has tweeted, you can retweet it. Don't retweet everything, just the awesome stuff that you think people that follow you might find interesting.

10. Make sure you keep your profile up to date and use some sort of avatar (not the default egg). You can also do things like backgrounds and other fancy stuff on your profile, but your priority should be to make sure you look hot.

11. You can use twitter to follow people you find interesting, even if you don't feel like tweeting much yourself.  It is a great source for news, entertainment, sports updates and funny shit.  I follow Chelsea Handler, Bill Simmons, Tony Horton and Rachel Maddow.  Note - if you are following someone who is big time and you want to be sure they are the real deal, make sure they are "verified" - that means they are legit.

There are more things you should probably know about twitter, but figure out these ones first and then I'll hit you with more.

4 comments:

  1. Kat... add Steve Martin to the list of people you follow... he'll have you laughing out loud. :)

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  2. point #7 is exactly what I thought when I saw your Blissdom photos! Keep up the good work:)

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  3. http://momthisishowtwitterworks.com/

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  4. @Tracy - done! I love me some Steve Martin!

    @Erin - you are too kind, but I love it.

    @Designmojo - bwah hahaha

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