Character: 140 characters or less, a series about Twitter
As I posted last month, I have been added to the Interim National Team of Coffee Party USA as one of their New Media Outreach Coordinators. In addition to being one of the people handling the organization's Twitter feed, I have also been recruited to write for the Coffee Party Newsletter. Here I go again-- again!
Here's something I figured out about myself back in 1996, after the third time it happened to me. Every time I'm involved with a group or activity that has a regularly published newsletter or newspaper and I have the freedom to indulge my wishes, I end up writing for that publication. Every. Single. Time.
This is now the sixth time this has happened in my life and the second time I was asked. I should have known this was coming.
So what does this have to do with Twitter? I've been asked to write a series on how to use Twitter more effectively. Tonight, I submitted my first installment. Here is the unedited submission.
New Users guide to Twitter, Part I Getting Started
Why Twitter?
Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media services. More than 100 million accounts were created during 2010 alone, more than half of all Twitter accounts ever created. In addition to individuals, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies all use Twitter. Even after eliminating duplicate accounts for personal use, commerce, advocacy, and other work, tens of millions of Americans, as well as tens of millions of people elsewhere in the world, use Twitter.
Twitter is also a great source of information. Most news organizations have at least one Twitter account, with some of the larger ones having accounts for each of their major deparments and many of their journalists. As of last April, a survey found 39% of journalists were posting to Twitter and using it as a source of stories.
Besides, it's a great way to stay in touch with friends and causes. Oh, and celebrities--lots of celebrities.
For more, read 12 Reasons to Start Twittering by Michael Hyatt and watch Twitter in Plain English on YouTube.
Getting Started
Go to Twitter.com and click on the Sign Up! button under the text "New to Twitter?" Enter your full name, username, password, and email address. Read the Terms of Service. Either allow other users to find you using your email address (the default), or disallow them (click on check box to disable the function). Click on the Create an Account button. Fill in the Captcha (Twitter wants to make sure that you are really a human, not a computer program--no bots allowed!)
In another tab or window, log in to your email to receive the confirmation message. Click on the link to confirm your account. Congratulations, you now have a Twitter account!
Who to follow
Twitter will present a screen full of accounts to follow organized by interest, including news, politics, science, health, and entertainment. You can click on an area of interest and follow the accounts Twitter suggests for you, or you can skip to the next step, friends. There, you can use your email contact list to find your friends, as long as you use GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or MSN. Click on the button that says "find friends on" whichever email you used to set up your account. Allow Twitter access to your account and a list of your email contacts using Twitter will appear. Click on the Follow button for all those whose tweets you wish to read. Don't forget to follow @coffeepartyusa!
You've now selected the people you will follow as you start using Twitter. Click Finish. Close this window or tab, as confirming your account opened another tab or window for Twitter. If you wish to follow more people, don't worry. You'll find them, and if you're worth following, they'll find you.
Setting up your profile
When you're signed in, click on Profile, which is to the right of Home on the black bar along the top of your screen. At the next screen, click on "Edit your profile..." to see your settings. You will land on the "Account" screen. After you've set your time zone, language, and other settings for the account, click on Profile. There, you can upload an image you wish to use as your picture, add in your website if you have one, and type in a biography. Then check Notices, where you can set whether you want to be notified of new followers and direct messages (the default is that you are). If you wish to customize the background you see on Twitter, as well as the background others see when they visit your profile, visit Design and pick one of the backgrounds there.
Many people use Twitter from their mobile phones. To join them, click on Mobile. There you can enter your mobile phone number. While this is a free service where Twitter is concerned, normal texting rates apply to your tweets from your phone. If you tweet a lot, be sure to get an unlimited texting plan from your cell phone provider.
Connections is an advanced topic that will be the subject of a later post in this series.
Now that you've gotten yourself set up, you're ready to actually use Twitter. That will be the subject of the next installment. Stay tuned!
However, if you can't want and want to know more, Mashable has an online guidebook to Twitter.