How to Use Twitter

January 12, 2010 By Dena Cassella

Want to know how to "Tweet?" Here are some quick and easy steps to get you started on Twitter.

Twitter has become a global phenomenon with people of all ages. Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 and launched to the public in July of 2006. The popular Web site is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post their latest updates in 140 characters or less. It is essentially massing texting via a Web site. To “tweet” is probably one the simplest thing you can do—all you need is a Twitter account and you are on your way. Here are some quick steps and tips to get you on Twitter.

Step One Open you preferred Internet browser and go to http://www.twitter.com. Click on “Sign Up Now,” which should be on the right.

Step Two Make your Twitter account by filling in the appropriate information and giving yourself a username.

Step Three You can find friends on Twitter through your email accounts, such as Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail and MSN accounts. Also, Twitter will give you a list of people among your email friends who have Twitter accounts. Select those who you would like to follow on Twitter from this list and most likely, unless they’re a celebrity, these people will follow your tweets too.

Step Four Now that you’re officially a Twitter member with a list of friends and followers, it’s time to become a Tweeter. Write what you’re doing, interested in, or just any random comment you may have to start a conversation on Twitter. Write this in the text box under “What’s happening?” and then click update. This is how you update you Twitter and let people know what you’re up to.

Tips & Tactics

It’s always a good idea to customize your Twitter homepage, as well as your Twitter profile. Filling in your profile information will help people find you on Twitter. You’ll be more likely to turn up in a Twitter search if you’ve added your location or your real name.
Search for your favorite TV show, celebrity, or new organization to get updates and Tweet feeds from them. Go to “Find People” located on your menu bar at the, top right of your Twitter page to search people to follow.
Go to “Settings” located in your menu bar and to change around you personal options, picture, descriptions, password, or any sort of customization you’ve done.
You can change your Twitter user name anytime without affecting your existing tweets, @replies, direct messages, or other data. But be sure to let your followers know so you’ll continue receiving all of your messages with your new user name.
You can make your account public or private in the “Settings” as well

Showing 13 comments

Video Production for Twitter Generation | Qudos Animations at 2:16am 5th January 2012 [...] Image Source [...]
annysmith001 at 3:16am 30th June 2011 Twitter is the best social networking site for all to gain knowledge and grow business by interacting with the business professionals all over the world. SSL Certificate
Spirit Resource Ltd at 10:07am 15th February 2011 Twitter is great!
Grigore Turcanu at 3:02am 30th January 2011 I just find this twitter vtb system and really is great.
rishil at 12:16am 16th November 2010 reality shows rubbish must stop
@itomlinson at 11:03am 18th October 2010 I'm just trying to getmy head around twitter so this post was useful, thanks. - I'm not sure who I should follow though, how do I work that one out?
ranroy21q at 9:53pm 31st May 2010 LOL. Actually it was pretty useful . Those tips and tricks are handy
abhishek at 5:08am 27th May 2010 hey ppl em new on twitter,i am look in forward for some new frend out
Cheap SSL at 7:27am 19th April 2010 I think the lists would be more useful if there was a way to make one of these lists your default one. For instance, I follow a lot of people that I don't really need in my main feed, as you noted above. I'd like to have a list of "people I really want to hear about" as my default one. Do you know if this is possible?
ShyamKapur at 10:47pm 13th January 2010 I think this article is timely. Even though Twitter has now been around for a while, I bet that even 10% of its users do not know everything that is described in this post. I will only add the tip that all users should use smart search tools like TipTop http://FeelTipTop.com to see only the very best tweets. Filtering the signal out of all the noise is a big challenge for all Twitter users no matter how much experience they might have built up on the site.
Ian Bell at 10:15am 13th January 2010 hahaha this was awesome.
Dena C. at 7:43am 13th January 2010 haha fair enough. We actually put this article out there for a certain audience (aka my parents have been asking me what twitter is and how to tweet). We know twitter is old news, but some people are still stuck in 2008 and we're just trying to catch them up one article at a time.

but touche on the comment :)
Listener at 7:12am 13th January 2010 Y'know, normally I enjoy DT, but this article... well, let's just say Q1-2008 called and they want their information back.