How To Get the Most Out of Twitter: For Beginners

First things first, this is not a post about how to get more Twitter followers (there are plenty of articles about that all over the Internet), it’s about how to use Twitter for maximum enjoyment. Since this means different things to people, I’ll explore a couple of the ways that you can get the most out of Twitter. If getting the most out of Twitter means getting more followers (which is absolutely fine, and important for a lot of us!) some of the following ideas will organically help you with that as well. For the rest of the post I am assuming that you have created an account with Twitter. If not, go do that now… I’ll wait here.

Business, celebrity, and news information is a main reason people use Twitter. It is very easy to use Twitter for this. Many people have a Twitter icon on their website. This can be a bird, the word ‘twitter’, or the letter ‘t’. If you click on the icon, it should take you to their Twitter page. You can follow them by clicking on the ‘follow’ button under their picture and above their tweet feed. It looks like this…

You can also use the search box at the top of the page to type in the name of a celebrity or business that you want to follow. For example, I searched for ‘CNN’. Once taken to the search page for CNN I can see all the tweets mentioning CNN in the tweet feed (I might want to peruse this to see if there are other news sources or people I want to follow who have a similar interest as I do in CNN and news). On the top right hand side will be the list of accounts with CNN in their name. I can either click on the word ‘follow’ next to the name to automatically follow them, or I can click on their name or icon to be taken to their Twitter page to find out more about them.

Hobbies are also a large reason people get on Twitter. They want to be able to interact with others who like the same things as them, and they want to learn more about websites and blogs that provide information about what they are interested in. To find more accounts that are of interest to you, visit some of your favorite blogs and click through to their Twitter pages. Once there, you will see a list of Twitter accounts in the right hand column that are similar to them. It will say ‘Similar to @ABCYD’ (or whatever their Twitter handle is). Explore these links on your favorite bloggers pages, and then continue to explore using the ‘Similar to’ links on other people’s pages.

Make sure you explore the sites that are linked to your favorite Twitter accounts. Many, if not most, accounts are linked to people’s websites and blogs. Once you visit a Twitter page, you can see if they have a site listed by looking under their description by their picture. If they do have a site, check it out! It just might be your new favorite find.

Get involved in the conversation. Use the blank box at the top of the Twitter page to get involved in conversations. You openly message people by typing in their Twitter handle (@WhatEverTheirNameIs) and then typing a message. Most people will respond to you. Keep in mind, if they have 1 million followers or are a celebrity, there is a big chance that they can’t or don’t respond to all of their messages. Tweet them anyway! It’s fun. Do not worry if someone doesn’t respond, it’s not a big deal. Keep in mind, that if you don’t tweet ever and don’t follow anyone, people may think you’re spam. So before you start messaging people it’s a good idea to start following others and tweeting on your own (ideas, links, re-tweets, etc.). Once you start messaging with people Twitter starts becoming like a big water-cooler party!

And don’t be shy to butt into a conversation that you see happening. If people wanted their conversation to be private they would DM (Direct Message) the other person. If they’re tweeting, they know that the whole world can see their tweets as well as have an opinion about them. If you are nervous, a popular way to butt-in is to write *butting in*. For example…

Make lists, they’re  a great way to organize the people you follow so that Twitter doesn’t feel so overwhelming. Many of us like to follow lots of people — either because we love their information or because we want to support their business/blog/website, but this can make our feeds get cluttered. Here’s where making lists come in handy. Once you have created lists, you can click on the list title to see tweets from people only in that category. You can organize them anyway you want, but here are some examples: Book Sites, Fashion Sites, News Sites, Celebrities, Friends & Family, Work Colleagues, etc.

How to make a list? 

1.) When you’re on someone’s page, click on the person icon with the arrow next to it, and choose ‘Add to list’.

2.) You can add them to a list that is already created by clicking on the box next to the name of the list.

 3.) Or, you can create a new list by clicking on the ‘Create a list’ link. It will prompt you to type in a list name. You must do this. You can add a description if you want to (but you don’t have to), and then decide if you want the list to be public or private. Public lists mean that the list will show up on your profile for others to see, private means it won’t. Perhaps if you title the list ‘The only sites I actually like – the rest are crap’, you might want to keep that list private so others don’t get their feelings hurt. However, if you title them normally it might be nice to keep them public; that way others will be able to find new-to-them Twitter accounts when they visit your page!

Like I said in How to Get the Most Out of GoodReads, there is so much offered on these social sites that it’s hard to cover everything. This is just a basic guide to getting started with Twitter. If you have questions, feel free ask in the comments section and I’ll do my best to answer them. You can also find help using the ‘Help’ link on the right hand side of the Twitter page.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and say hi!