Twitter is an online social networking/microblogging service that allows users to send and receive 140- character messages (Tweets). It's a quick and easy way to read, share, and comment on the latest news (“what’s happening”) related to subjects you care about. History Twitter started in 2006 and gained widespread popularity in 2008. The service came about because the founders wanted to find a way to send text messages between computers, much in the same way that they had been sending messages between their mobile phones. They wanted these messages to also be seen on Smartphones, so they used the same protocols as the text messaging (SMS) services provided by AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc. The mobile phone companies use a control signal that’s 140 characters in length that tells cell phone towers to switch a call from one tower to another as the user moves to different locations (thus the 140 character limit.) When someone sends a Tweet it travels over the Internet and via cell phone towers to reach users on computers, Smartphones, and tablets. Getting started Creating an account: 1. Navigate to http://twitter.com/ 2. In the “New to Twitter” box, fill in your full name , email, and password click “Sign up for Twitter.” 3. On the next page, select a username . Try to pick something that describes you - whether it's a nickname, an interest or a hobby. 4. Click “Create my account” 5. You will receive an email asking you to confirm your account. Click the link to confirm. 1 Intro to Social Media: Twitter Your username is the name your followers use when sending @replies, direct messages, or Retweets. It will also form the URL of your home timeline. Please note: You can change your username in your account settings at any time, as long as the new username is not in use. Twitter will walk you through a short “orientation” You will have an opportunity to search for and “follow” people. When you follow people, their tweets will show up in your timeline (more on this later.) You can follow anyone that you like, just do a search and then click the “follow” button next to their name. You can follow businesses or organizations as well. You can also find people by searching your email contacts (such as Google or Yahoo.) Click on search contacts, and then Twitter will ask you to sign in to your email account. It will then list all of the Twitter users that are in your contact list. You can skip this step if you prefer to search for people manually. 2 Intro to Social Media: Twitter Understanding the Twitter interface On the top left of the Twitter page, you will always see these icons: Click here to go back to Click here to view Click here to search for your timeline tweets that you are topics that you are involved in interested in following (such as food or politics) On the top right of the Twitter page, you will always see these icons Use the search bar to Click here to view direct Click here to compose a find people and topics in messages, lists, help, new tweet Twitter keyboard shortcuts, settings, or to sign out 3 Intro to Social Media: Twitter The Timeline The Timeline is your homepage on Twitter. It can be accessed at any time by clicking the “Home” icon in the upper left corner of the page. Here you can see, in real time, tweets posted by the people you follow, your followers, as well as your own tweets. You can also see what popular topics are “trending” on Twitter at that moment (more on that later.) You will be notified of This is your profile new tweets at the top of information. your timeline. Tweets are listed newest to oldest. These are topics that are popular now (trending). Updating your profile Click on the silhouette of the person and then click on “settings” Account information 4 Intro to Social Media: Twitter Here you can view and update the current twitter account information, including your: o Username o Email o Language o Time zone o Tweet location: this option allows the user to allow twitter to track the location of your tweets. If you don’t want users to know the location of your tweets, keep this box unchecked. You can also elect to “delete all local information” of previous tweets by clicking this box: o Tweet media: some videos may contain sensitive content. If you want your twitter following to see the content (or a preview of the content) check this box. o Tweet privacy: check this box if you only want certain followers/users to see you tweets. o HTTPS: checking this box ensures that your browser has a secure connection. Password: Change your password Mobile: You can connect your mobile device to your Twitter account with this setting. There is also the option to download the mobile Twitter app for iPhone, iPod, Android, Blackberry, or Windows Phone 7. Notifications: You can control how often Twitter notifies you by email when someone sends you a message, includes you in a tweet, when you are followed by someone new, etc. If you don’t want to be notified, leave the boxes unchecked and click “save changes.” Profile: Update and change your profile picture, name, location, website, and bio. Profile pictures must be under 700K, and in the .jpg/.gif/.png file format: There is also an option to post tweets to Facebook. That means every time you post a tweet, it will also be sent to your Facebook timeline. Design: Twitter allows you to customize the background design of your homepage. You can either choose a premade theme provided by Twitter, browse themes from Themeleon, or customize your own theme. Customize the background color Customize the background/link color by clicking the colored box, and then5 choose one in the color palate that you like. You can also define a “web safe” color if you know the letter/number sequence. When you are finished, click “Save changes.” Intro to Social Media: Twitter Apps: Apps are 3rd party applications that connect to or access data from your Twitter account. For example, you can automatically share your tweets on Facebook, or tweet whenever you publish a new blog entry. There are a few steps for connecting to a 3rd party application 1. On the website of the application you want to connect, click the button that says something like “Connect to Twitter” or “Authorize ___ to use your account?” 2. You will be re-routed to a Twitter website asking you to log in to your account. Check to make sure it is secure by verifying that the URL starts with http://twitter.com 3. Once you log in, Twitter will ask you to approve the application 4. Review the various permissions you are granting the application. These are listed in green (what the app can do) and in red (what the app cannot do.) 5. Click “authorize app” if you would like to grant permission. 6 Intro to Social Media: Twitter You can review/revoke access to apps at anytime Following and unfollowing It is easy to find and follow people or organizations that you are interested. You can search for individual’s names in the search bar, and then click follow: The search also shows the top tweets of that particular user. If you click on the name of the user, you will see the number of tweets this user has, how many people the person is following, as well as the number of followers. 7 Intro to Social Media: Twitter If you click on the silhouette of the person next to the Following box, a few options appear: 1. Tweet to @nameofperson: compose a tweet to this person (it will appear in his/her timeline) 2. Add or remove from lists: create a list of people that have similar interests (such as family or friends) 3. Block @nameofperson: the person won’t be able to find you in a search 4. Report @nameofperson for spam 5. Turn off retweets: (more on this later) 6. To unfollow a person, hover over the ”Following” box and click on “Unfollow.” Their tweets will no longer appear in your timeline Click on the #Discover button to expand your following list. There are a few options listed here: 1. Stories: lists recent tweets that you might be interested in based on your tweets, what you link to, as well as who you are currently following. 2. Activity: shows recent followings by your contacts. 3. Who to follow: creates a list of people/organizations to follow based on who you currently follow, your activity, tweets, and likes. 8 Intro to Social Media: Twitter 4. Find Friends: find friends on Twitter by logging in with your Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail/AOL address. Twitter will search your contacts and indicate who has an account. 5. Browse categories: here you can browse categories that you might be interested in. Composing Tweets To compose a new tweet, click on the blue box with the pen: This will open a dialog box that you can start typing into. Remember, you only have 140 characters for each tweet. The dialog box allows you to add an image or location to your tweet as well. Click here to add an image or location to your tweet You can determine the location of the tweet by entering it here 9 Intro to Social Media: Twitter Once you click “Tweet” it will appear at the top of your timeline: Click the Youtube link to watch the video and the “View photo” link to see the image Deleting Tweets To delete a tweet, roll over the bottom of the tweet, and then click “delete:” Retweeting If you like something that another Twitter user posted, you can share it with your followers by “retweeting” it.