Bradley Lail @Brad_2the_Bone

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging service for friends, family, and coworkers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages.

Source: https://support.twitter.com/groups/50-welcome-to-twitter#topic_202

Getting Started

Join Twitter http://twitter.com/signup

Be creative with your username, but keep it clean.

e.g. Bradley Lail

e.g. Brad_2the_Bone

Full Name >> Max 20 Characters Username >> Max 15 Characters

Sign in http://twitter.com/

Set up your profile Complete your profile set up and send a few tweets before you follow anyone. Whomever you follow will be notified via email and will most likely click on your account to see who you are. If your profile isn’t set up or if you haven’t tweeted yet, they likely won’t follow back because they may think it’s spam.  

Set up your profile

Enter a short bio & add a disclaimer if you’re tweeting on behalf of a company.

Add a nice profile photo

Add a cool header image

Add a background, change link colors, etc.

Turn on/off email notifications

Set your tweets to public or private and change other privacy settings

Edit your profile

About disclaimers

Tweeting on behalf of a company? Be sure to add a disclaimer in your bio for full disclosure. Don’t worry, you can be funny with it. Ex. Freedom of speech doesn’t pay the bills, therefore my opinions are my own and not my employer’s.  

About search engines

If you decide to make your Tweets public, they will be indexed by search engines such as Google, DogPile, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Therefore, you should be especially mindful of what you Tweet and re-tweet. Change your settings to private to avoid this.

Composing Tweets

What is a Tweet?

People write short updates, often called "Tweets" of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search.

Source: https://support.twitter.com/groups/50-welcome-to-twitter#topic_202

Composing a tweet

Type your Tweet into the box on the left side of your screen, or click the blue compose new Tweet button in the top navigation bar. It looks like this: As mentioned, make sure your update is fewer than 140 characters. Twitter will count the characters for you! Remaining characters show up as a number below the box. Click the Tweet button to post the Tweet to your profile. You will immediately see your Tweet in the timeline on your homepage.

Source: http://support.twitter.com/groups/50-welcome-to-twitter#

Composing a tweet

Add your location

Add a photo

Add a link

Characters remaining Send Tweet

Example tweet Don’t be a newb! Make sure you learn the lingo before you start tweeting.

Replying to a tweet

Reply to everyone tagged (@) RT this tweet Favorite this tweet

Twitter Lingo

Beginner’s lingo @ — The @ symbol is easily the most important thing on Twitter, because without it, you will never be able to communicate. In tweets, @ is the necessary marker for the system to recognize when you’re talking to someone and therefore alert them of the mention. Ex. I love @CKRetailSystems, they have the best customer service in the word! # — Also known as the hashtag, the # symbol is another necessary component to producing a well done (and well shared) tweet. When coupled together with a word or phrase, it helps to produce a sentiment that could be regarded at the theme of the tweet itself without all the extra characters. Trending hashtags are topics, phrases or games that the Twitterverse is actively participating in, and they usually reflect a current event or news item. For more on hashtags, visit https://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-using-hashtags-on-twitter# Ex. I love @CKRetailSystems, they have the best customer service in the world!” #retailtechpros RT — RT or R/T stands for “retweet.” When you share someone else’s tweet to your followers, that is a RT. When you RT someone else, your tweet will appear with quotes around the original tweet and the letters RT at the beginning. Ex. RT: “ @Brad_2the_Bone: I love @CKRetailSystems, they have the best customer service in the world! #retailtechpros” DM — This abbreviation refers to a direct message, which is the only private way for two users to communicate. A DM requires both users to be following one another. Ex. @CKRetailSystems, I want 2 learn more about the solutions u provide 4 specialty retailers. Please DM me w/ more info. FF — The abbreviation means Follow Friday—perhaps Twitter’s most popular day of the week. When your friends or followers tweet out #FF and tag you in the post, that means they’re recommending someone for you to follow. Ex. @James123 @THEJohnDoe @Megan_B_Fine be sure to follow @CKRetailSystems for all of your retail technology news and information. #FF #Retail #RetailNews

For Twitter’s official glossary, visit https://support.twitter.com/articles/166337-the-twitter-glossary#

Source: http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/09/15/a-list-twitters-language/

Advanced lingo This. — More a call to action than a comment, “This.” is usually the phrase utilized to indicate that the user considers following tweet or link a must-read or must-click. Ex. This. RT: “@ Brad_2the_bone @CKRetailSystems was just named to the Inc. 5000 list for the 5th straight year! #boss” TBH — An abbreviation for “to be honest.” TBH captures a sentiment that’s really difficult to capture in as little words: dissent. Ex. @Brad_2the_Bone: TBH, I don’t know any omni-channel retail solutions providers who do it better than @CKRetailSystems MT — This abbreviation is short for “modified tweet,” which indicates that the retweet that was intended needed to be paraphrased to ensure the message,  now ripe with a fresh comment, still meets the 140-character limit. Ex. MT: “@Brad_2the_Bone: @CKRetailSystems does omni-channel like no other provider.” OH — Short for “overheard,” this abbreviation is commonly used to reference someone who is either anonymous or chooses to not be attributed for their quotes. Ex. OH @Brad_2the_Bone say that @CKRetailSystems is da bomb! +1 — A spill-over from neighboring social network Google+, +1 is the Twitter equivalent to a “Like” on Facebook. Ex.“This. RT:’“@ Brad_2the_bone @CKRetailSystems was just named to the Inc. 5000 list for the 5th straight year! #boss’” +1 SMH — Perhaps the most interesting abbreviation of them all, SMH is short for “shaking my head.” Because of its relatively ominous meaning, SMH can be used in place of a variety of much more verbose sentiments: confusion, disappointment, even amusement. Ex. That fool said @CKRetailSystems was not the best omni-channel solutions provider! SMH ICYMI — One of the more recent and popular abbreviations is ICYMI, or “In case you missed it.” New organizations usually use this to entice users to read one of their articles or to recap Twitter’s top trends of the day. Ex. ICYMI: @CKRetailSystems was just named to the Inc. 5000 list for the 5th straight year!

Source: http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/09/15/a-list-twitters-language/

Navigating Twitter

Home

Compose a Tweet

Compose a Tweet

News feed, aka Timeline (tweets from those of whom you follow).

Search for people, topics, and trends

Connect

Find out what topics are trending around the world. Aka trending topics (TT).

Twitter’s recommendations of who to follow based on who you’re already following.

Who’s followed you, re-tweeted your tweets, replied to your tweets, or favorited your tweets.

Who’s mentioned you in a tweet or re-tweet.

Discover Tweets based on your recent tweets, hashtags, etc.

Recent activity of those of whom you follow. (who they’ve followed, etc.

Twitter’s recommendations of who to follow based on who you follow.

Find friends, family & colleagues on Twitter through your email account(s).

Find out who the most influential people are on Twitter based on categories (i.e. celebrities, retail, etc.}

Me (You)

Your Tweets

Who you’re following

Who’s following you

Tweets you’ve favorited

Lists of those of whom you subscribe to

Photos and videos you’ve tweeted out

Edit your profile right from this screen.

Twitter Settings

Direct Messages (DM). Your Twitter inbox.

Additional FYIs

Best practices Following: According to Twitter, automated pro-active following and automated un-following are not allowed. This means that some people will aggressively follow you and un-follow you in order to get attention. It’s best to avoid those who do this. It’s also best to avoid aggressive following yourself. Click here for more on following. @Replies: You can direct a Tweet at a specific user using @replies and mentions. Trending Topics (TT): Participating in Twitter trends is a great way to join in a worldwide public conversation. DO NOT post unrelated Tweets to trends just to get attention. You will get kicked off of Twitter. Twitter’s trends help page has information on TTs. Beware of Impersonators, Copyright Infringement, Spam and Abuse: There are a lot of hackers and posers out there looking to get your information, so be mindful of hyperlinks, contests, etc. asking for your personal information. Go here for more of Twitter’s best practices and to report violations to Twitter.

https://support.twitter.com/groups/56-policies-violations#

Be yourself

Be yourself and avoid being too salesman-like or too pushy about your tweets. If you have good tweets, people will find them and follow you. Make your tweets count. Remember, Twitter is about real conversations with real people, so be polite and professional to everyone.

Have fun!

Most people don’t sign up for Twitter to receive serious business updates or marketed messages. They interact on Twitter because 1) they love being heard 2) they love sharing fun and engaging content and 3) they love being in the know. If you’re all business all the time, other users will avoid you. Twitter is meant to be fun, so let loose and enjoy!