Twitter: Getting started

Jannine Perryman suggested I try to write a simple guide to Twitter for new tweeters.  Here goes.

The impact of Twitter on the webosphere

Listen to Ben Walker, local musician's song about Twitter.  We have got his video at the bottom of the front page of Olney100. Scroll down to find it.

Sign up to Twitter

Signing up to Twitter is free and takes 3 steps.

1. Chose your twitter handle and make it as close to your real name as possible.  I use @jobucks as my name had already gone.  Make it easy to type and easy to remember.  People will begin referring to you by your twitter name.  It's the easiest place on the internet for people to find you and people now wear their twitter name on conference badges.  Keep it short, memorable and real! 
2. Put in an email and use a public email like gmail as your email is visible to other people.  Public email is good because it helps people find you.  So maybe find a twitter handle you like then, without closing the screen, go to gmail and open an account with a similar name.
3. Choose a password and make it unique to Twitter.  Twitter is famous for its shambolic management and even Obama has been hacked on Twitter!  So unique Twitter password!
   

Introduce yourself

Finding friends begins with one.

1. Follow me by typing "f @jobucks" Nothing much will happen but on the top right you will see Following becomes 1.  You are now following one person.
   
2. Say hello. Experienced tweeters ignore new followers and lurkers.  So you must say hello.  Just type "@jobucks here I am - member of Olney100 #olney."  If I can't recognise you from your handle, then give me your name too!
3. I will see your message when I check my replies (side right) and I'll reply and introduce you to people.  I'll also follow you (like friending in Facebook) and your followers will go up by 1.
   

People who are online when I introduce you may say hello.  Check your replies and say hello back!  Check their Twitter profile and follow them if they seem interesting.  They will follow you if you are interesting!

Pimp your profile

Twitter is about people, though the bots are out in force.

1.     Load up a photo of yourself.  People want to know whom they are talking to.
   
2.     Add a 160 character description.
   
3.     Add an url - if you don't have a website or blog, use your profile name from Olney100.  Go to My Page and cut and paste it from the address bar.
   

Join in

Twitter is about conversation.  It began as What are you doing? but has morphed into conversation.   

We do 'broadcast' and we do 'pimp' our wares, but you will have heard on Ben Walker's song that this is 'not done'. These are the ground rules.

1. When you are doing something notable that you would tell someone about if you met them, tweet it.  It's interesting.  People like to hear.
   
2. Take part in the conversation.  Thank people for useful tips.  Help people asking for help.
   
3. And follow people who seem interesting and introduce yourself!

In other words, be normally sociable!

Technical Tricks

I'll leave most of the technical tricks for when you are up-and-running.  Two will help you get acquainted.

1. Go to Settings/Notices.  Change @replies to "All @replies".  Then you will see replies to you AND replies to me (and all your other followers).  You will find interesting, real people this way
2. Use the hashtag #olney when you want your "tweet" to land up on the front page of Olney100.  It takes about an hour to arrive on Ning. 
   

What I've done is set up an ongoing search for #olney and fed the results to Olney100 using an RSS feed.  No you don't need to know.  You only need to know #olney.

And don't be surprised if you suddenly have 20 followers.  If you did nothing on Twitter you would have 100's of followers in no time.  Computers come looking for you.  Ignore them.  If a real person starts spamming you with rubbish, particularly on DM (right), ask them to stop.  If they don't, defollow them.  They ain't your friend!

Looking forward to seeing you on Twitter and shout when you need help.  You'll be teaching me in no time though.   Twitter is popular because it is soooooo easy to use.  You've just got to begin.  You'll never look back.

Jo Jordan