Getting Started With Twitter

Getting Started with Twitter The first 10 steps you need to make

By

Robert Crane

Computer Information Agency

http://www.ciaops.com

http://www.ciaops.com/

© 2010 www.ciaops.com Version 1.00

2

Index

Preface Page 3

Introduction Page 4

1. Create a Twitter account Page 6

2. Follow people Page 12

3. Posting an update (i.e. Tweeting) Page 19

4. Searching Page 22

5. Using hash tags Page 23

6. Unfollowing people Page 24

7. Blocking an account Page 30

8. Reporting spam Page 32

9. Messaging Page 33

10. Retweets Page 39

Where to go from here? Page 43

Conclusion Page 46

About Page 47


3

Preface

Copyright and Usage

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is copyright. You are however free to distribute this document to third parties only in its

entirety and without modification. For information about using all or part of this document

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Terms

This document from the Computer Information Agency is provided as is. Every effort has been

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By using this document you hereby assume full responsibility for any risk to computer systems,

now and forever arising out of, or related to the use of this document on any computer system.

Feedback

Any feedback, corrections or suggestions concerning this document can be addressed to

[email protected]. For further information about the creator of this document please see

the About section at the end.

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4

Introduction

What is this Twitter thing?

Is a very common question I hear these days. The easiest way to find out is simply to dive in and

try it. There is not cost and it can allow you to connect with millions of others around the world.

It allows you to have conversations around things that interest you and it is a way that you can

let people know about the things that are important to you or your business.

I hope that this document will allow people in business obtain a better understanding of what

Twitter is, whether they should be considering it for their business and at the very least, how to

get started.

Why Twitter?

Twitter is nothing more than another public means of digital communication like emails, blogs

and instant messages. In essence it is method by which you can talk and listen to other people

on Twitter. The major differences with Twitter are that any update is limited to 140 characters,

much like SMS texting on mobile phones, and that these conversations are typically public. The

idea is that this promotes brevity and openness, which is something perhaps missing in many of

today’s digital communication mediums.

So, if you want to take advantage of what Twitter has to offer you need to have the desire to

listen (called ‘follow’) or speak (called ‘tweeting’). If do not follow or write a blog, if you do not

read the opinions of others on the web or if you do not want your conversations made public

then Twitter is perhaps not for you. However, if you do even some of these things then Twitter

is certainly worth investigating.

How can Twitter help my business?

There are plenty of examples of how innovative companies are using social media to improve

their business:

Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, “uses Twitter to survey customers about business ideas. He also

announces contests and free giveaways via his account. All of these updates give “followers” a

reason to consistently tune in and find out what the Zappos CEO is up to.”i

“Companies use social networking to gain credibility, foster employee relationships, build a

forum for communication with customers, and in most cases, boost sales. Company recruiters

are even going to sites like LinkedIn to get access to the almost 25 million resumés posted”ii

The use of social networking tools within business is no longer restricted to a single segment, it

is being used by smart businesses who can see how it allows them to actively promote their


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business with less effort. It is being used by smart businesses to not only engage their

customers and prospects but also empower their employees to be truly part of the public face

of their business.

This document is only meant as a guide. There are many other ways of doing what I have

detailed here, however I leave that up to the reader to investigate the options that best suit

them. My aim here is merely to introduce the concepts and explain the basic operations of

these concepts.

If you want more examples of how Twitter and social media can be effectively utilized in

business I urge you to contact me. Likewise, if you have any corrections or feedback on what

you see here I’d love to hear from you. Above all, I hope that reading this document provides a

worthwhile investment of your time and I thank you for taking the time to read it.

Robert Crane

Principal, CIAOPS

[email protected]



6

Step 1 – Create a new Twitter account

The first step in getting started with Twitter is to create an account. Before you do this you

should decide on a Twitter name or ‘handle’. This ‘handle’ must be unique and will identify you

to other Twitter users. Given the popularity of Twitter, you may also find that the initial ‘handle’

you desire has already been taken, and thus you should have a number of alternatives

prepared.

A good account name is something short that is representative of your name or your business.

For example David_Smith or ABC-Computer is much better than something like davidS357 or

ABCC43. It is worth spending some time beforehand developing a number of good possibilities

for your Twitter ‘persona’.

Once you have a desired account name go to http://twitter.com/ in a browser.

Click on the "Sign up now" button on the right of the screen.

http://twitter.com/


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Enter your Full name, Username and Password, then Twitter will automatically check the

availability of your username. If your username is not unique you will prompted to enter

another.

Once you find a unique username, enter your email address and continue. If you want to

receive any updates or alerts from Twitter, then check the box that says “I want the inside

scoop-please send me email updates!”. If not, leave the box unchecked.

Once the form is complete, press the “Create my account” button at the bottom of the page.


8

The screen now displayed is optional. If you don’t want to search the contacts in your Gmail,

Yahoo and AOL accounts and look for your others already on Twitter, then just click “Skip this

step” link located underneath the “Continue” button.


9

The next screen is also optional. It lists popular people, typically celebrities, who are already

using Twitter that you can follow. If you don’t want to follow the people shown on this page,

then just uncheck them and click on “Skip this step” (which is under the “Finish” button) or

select those that you want to follow and click on “Finish”.


10

You are now taken to your Twitter home screen. The Twitter home page for your account is

http://twitter.com/<username>, where username is the account name you just used to register

with Twitter.

Initially at the top of the screen, you are being asked to confirm your account by verifying your

email address. When you register with Twitter a confirmation email will be sent to your inbox in

order to confirm the account. To complete the Twitter sign up process you will need to confirm

the receipt of this email. You should find this email in the inbox of the email account with which

you just used to register your Twitter account.


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Locate the email in your inbox. It should be like the one shown above. Simply click on the

confirmation link in the email to verify your account. If that doesn’t work, simply copy and

paste the complete web address from this email into your web browser.

After clicking this confirmation link, you will taken to your Twitter homepage and given full

privileges to access your Twitter account.


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You can now start using your Twitter account to listen and communicate with other people

using Twitter.

Step 2 – Follow people

Once you have created a Twitter account you can choose to follow any existing Twitter user to

see what they are saying.

To find someone to follow go to http://twitter.com/

http://twitter.com/


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Sign into http://twitter.com with your Twitter username or email ID and password. The sign on

option can be found in the upper right of the web page as shown above.

http://twitter.com/


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You will be taken to your Twitter home screen as shown above.

To find people on Twitter, go to the menu at the top right of the web page and click “Find

People”.


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You will now see the following page displayed. In this search box “What account are you looking

for?”, you can type anything you want to search for. In this case we will type “Guide” in and

press the Enter key on the keyboard or click on the Search button to the right of what we just

typed in.


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You will be returned a list of users who have the word "Guide" in their Twitter Id. Click the

"Follow" button (the first button from the left as shown above) for those whom you are

interested in following.


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In this case we have clicked on the follow button for “ForexBrokerGuy”. Once the follow button

has been click you will see a small green check mark and the word “Following” next to that

profile.

You may select to follow as many people that appear on the list as you desire.

Go back to the home page by clicking on “Home” in the menu at the top right of the screen.


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Once you have returned to your home page you will see a list of updates from the people

whom you have selected to follow. These updates are known as “tweets”, they are basically 140

character or less updates this account has typed into the “What’s happening?” area of their

own Twitter home page. You can see you own “What’s happening?” box at the top of the

screen. We will cover how to start posting your own “tweets” soon.

Now, every time someone you have chosen to follow enters an update you will see it appear on

your homepage. If you have chosen to follow multiple people then any update will appear as

they are made. This can sometimes make following people’s updates difficult if you have

chosen to follow a lot of Twitter accounts.

To start with it is recommended that you only follow a few people on Twitter until you get a

feel for what they are saying.

Rather than searching for people you are able to follow people directly from their own Twitter

home page.


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If you already know someone’s Twitter handle (in this case ProdHacks) firstly login to your

Twitter account as shown before and then simply enter their Twitter homepage directly into

your browser. A person’s Twitter account is of the form http://twitter.com/<account_name>, in

this case for example http://twitter.com/prodhacks.

Once you are on their home page you will see a “Follow” button in the upper right of the

screen, just under the Twitter identity. If you click on the “Follow” button, that Twitter user will

be added to your “Follow” list and you will begin to see their updates on your homepage.

Step 3 – Posting an update (i.e. Tweeting)

Twitter is all about conversations and this typically means both listening and speaking. In

Twitter when you update your status this is known as “tweeting” and there are some important

things to remember before you start doing this.

Generally, anything you “tweet” is public, this means that it can be read by any Twitter user.

The second thing is that Twitter updates are limited to 140 characters. It is possible to use

shortcuts to long URLS but this will be covered in another document. Also generally, once an

update has been “tweeted” it can’t be deleted, so be careful with what you choose to “tweet”.

To “tweet” an update, first go to http://twitter.com/

http://twitter.com/prodhacks

http://twitter.com/


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Sign in with your Twitter username or email ID and password. The sign in option is located in

the upper right of the screen.


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Once you are at your home page you will notice the “What’s happening?” box at the top of the

screen. It is into here that you can type your 140 character or less update.

Simply type in the information you wish to share. While you are typing you will notice that the

number to the right of this box decrements. This is your character count indicating how many

more characters you can fit in this update (which has to be less than 140). After typing your

“tweet” in the “What’s happening?” box click the update button to post the tweet.


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Your “tweet” is now posted on your home page and you can see it in your timeline underneath.

Your “tweet” count (in the top right under you account name) is increased to 1.

Your “tweet” is now visible to anyone on Twitter. If you have someone who is following you on

Twitter then this update will appear on their home page.

It is possible to post your “tweets” via a number of different methods. For example, you can

also post your “tweet” through your mobile phone. You can also use the special mobile Twitter

website http://m.twitter.com made for especially for mobile web browsers. More of these

options are mentioned at the end of this document.

You can continue to post as many updates to Twitter as you desire to give your followers more

information about you.

Step 4 – Searching

Since just about everything posted on Twitter is public you can use Twitter search

(http://search.twitter.com) to locate “tweets” about any topic.

http://m.twitter.com/

http://search.twitter.com/


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Simply type the phrase you wish to search on into the box and press the Search button.

You will now see a list of tweets that match your criteria. You are able to click on any of the

links or account names to gain more information. You will also notice in the top right hand area

of the window (via Feed for this query) there is the option to subscribe to updated information

via Really Simple Syndication (RSS). This allows you to continue to monitor search criteria as

new “tweets” come in. This is extremely powerful since it allows you to continuously monitor

what people are saying about any topic, company, product or brand.

The good thing about Twitter search is that you do not need a Twitter account to use it. You do

however need an account if you wish to view details of the person posting the “tweets”.

Step 5 – Using Hash Tags

The real power of Twitter is being able to search across all the information people are

constantly posting. For example, if you are stuck in a traffic jam you could probably do a Twitter


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search of the area and find out if there are any accidents causing the delay. To improve this

searching facility Twitter uses something called “Hash tags”.

If you add a “Hash tag” to your “tweet” anyone who does a search for that “hash tag” will find

your “tweet”. All a “hash tag” really involves is simply placing the hash symbol (#) in front of a

word in your “tweet”.

Example: Here is the #guide about Twitter basic.

This means that if you now conducted a search for “#guide” you would only receive matches

like that shown above.

Although this is still very rudimentary it provides Twitter uses with a simply way to improve the

functionality of their “tweets”.

Step 6 – Unfollowing people

As easily as you can elect to “follow” someone on Twitter you can also elect to “unfollow”

them. You may need to “unfollow” people who no longer provide relevant information to your

needs to reduce the volume of updates you have to read.

To “unfollow” someone go to http://twitter.com/

http://twitter.com/


25

Sign in with your Twitter username and password.


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You are now taken to your Twitter home page. In the top right of the screen, under you Twitter

handle, you will see three numbers: following, followers, listed.

Each of those words is hyper linked so you can click on them to display the items in the list. In

this case click on the word “following”.


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You will now see a list of all the people whom you are “following” on Twitter. Next to each

account you will see two grey buttons. If you press the second of these (the one that looks like

a cog) you will see a menu displayed.


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From the menu that is displayed you can select “Unfollow <account_name>”. Once you have

selected this option you will no longer received updates from this Twitter account.

It is also possible to “unfollow” a Twitter account directly from their homepage. To do this,

firstly login to your Twitter account as shown before and then simply enter their Twitter

homepage directly into your browser. A person’s Twitter account is of the form

http://twitter.com/<account_name>, in this case for example http://twitter.com/prodhacks.



29

Once you are on their home page you will see two buttons to the right of the text “Following”.

If you click on the second of these buttons (the one that looks like a cog) a menu will appear.

From the items in the menu select “Unfollow <account_name>”.

Once complete, you will no longer receive updates from this account and your following list will

be adjusted.


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In this case the account is removed from your following list and the count is reduced by 1.

You can at a later stage choose to “refollow” that account by simply following the previous

steps outlined to “Follow” an account.

Step 7 – Blocking an account

Unfortunately, like most methods of electronic communications these days, Twitter can be

subject to spam and undesirable users. Twitter has a “blocking” mechanism that allows you to

deal with these.

Blocking someone instead of removing them means you are denying them the ability to follow,

send you “tweets” and put your account on their lists.


31

To “Block” a Twitter account, go directly to their homepage. To do this, firstly login to your

Twitter account as shown before and then simply enter their Twitter homepage directly into





From the items in the menu select “Block <account_name>” and then "Okay" to confirm the

block. This means that your account will not appear on the blocked party's profile page, friends

time line, badges or anywhere else. The person will not be notified that they have been blocked

and they can’t follow you. If your account is public, the blocked party can still view your profile

page but they can't receive your updates in their timeline or on their phone.

It is possible reverse this process. If you want to follow the blocked person then you can easily

unblock a person by following the same steps above. The link of course will read “Unblock”

instead of “Block”.



32

Step 8 – Reporting spam

Twitter is a community that relies on it members to inform Twitter when accounts are abusing

the terms and conditions of the service. It is therefore possible to not only block an account

that maybe sending you unsolicited updates but also to report that account directly to Twitter

who will examine the circumstances and take appropriate action.

To “report” a Twitter account, go directly to their homepage. To do this, firstly login to your

Twitter account as shown previously and then simply enter their Twitter homepage directly into





From the items in the menu select “Report <account_name> for spam” and "Okay" to confirm

the report. This action doesn’t immediately or definitely cause an account to be suspended

rather it alerts Twitter that the account is a possible spam account and locks the account from

following you or replying to you.



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Step 9 – Messaging

Normally, any update that you post on Twitter is public. There are two methods of sending

updates directly to other Twitter users. The first of these is known as “DM’ing” or direct

messaging and remains totally private between the two parties and secondly using the “@”

symbol to address an update directly to another Twitter user but in this case having the update

remain public.

A direct message or “DM” can only be sent by someone you follow and who follows you and is

a private message that only can be viewed by the author and recipient.

To create a direct message, first go to http://twitter.com and login with your account details.

You are now taken to your Twitter home page. In the top right of the screen under you Twitter

handle you will see three numbers: following, followers, listed.

http://twitter.com/


34

Select the word “following” which is hyperlinked to your contacts.

Locate the “followed” contact you wish to direct message and select the second button to the

left of their details (it appears like a cog). From the menu that appears, select “Direct message

<account_name>”.


35

You will then be taken to a screen like shown above. Now simply type in your direct message

(up to 140 characters still) and press the send button when complete.


36

Because direct messages are different from normal updates they are stored separately. To view

any direct messages you have sent or received, click on the Direct Messages option in the

middle right of your Twitter home page. You should then see a screen like that shown above

not only showing you the direct messages you have sent (via the Sent tab) but also received (via

the Inbox tab).

Direct messages behave more like “tweets” than emails, any action the sender of a direct

message takes on a direct message will affect the recipient of that direct message. This means

that as the recipient of the direct message, you have the ability to delete it. The messages you

delete also disappear from the sender's sent tab. Conversely, deleting direct messages you have

sent will also delete the message from the recipient's inbox forever.

You can also send direct messages from the status update box using the direct message

command: “d + <account_name> + message”.


37

As you can see from the above screen shot, with the update starting with d adexpress anything

following this will be sent a direct (or private) message to the Twitter user adexpress once the

send button has been pressed.

It is important to remember that you can only send direct messages to those people you are

following and who likewise are following you.

The second way to send a message directly to another Twitter user, but for that message to

remain public (unlike direct messages), is to simply start an update or “tweet” with

@<account_name>.


38

As you can see in the above screen shot, the update has been started with @adexpress which

means this update will be sent to the Twitter user adexpress whether or not you are currently

following them. However, because you are able to send this update to a Twitter user you are

not currently following, the message will remain public for all Twitter users to potentially see.


39

A mention is any Twitter update that contains @<account_name> in the body of the “tweet”. If

you include more than one person in your update and you use the @<account_name> format,

then that person can also see the update in their replies tab.

All tweets containing @<account_name> are collected and accessible by a link (which is your

account name) in your sidebar, just under the Home link. Click on the user name to see all

replies made to you and mentions of your user account name.

Step 10 – Retweets

If you want to share an interesting “tweet” or update from another Twitter user with all of your

followers, then you can use “retweet”.

To “retweet”, firstly go to http://twitter.com and login with your account details.

http://twitter.com/


40

You are now taken to your Twitter home page.


41

Hover over a “tweet” in your list of updates and click the “Retweet to your followers” link, then

click "Yes" to copy that “tweet” to all your followers.


42

You will now see that the update you “retweeted” is marked “Retweeted” on your home page.

You will also note that there is an “undo” link if you wish to roll back your “retweet”.

You can also roll back the “retweet” by just hovering over the “retweet” and click “Undo”. Now

your “retweet” has been rolled out from all users.


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Where to go from here?

Other access methods

There are a variety of other ways that you can monitor Twitter information.

Mobile

Because ‘tweets’ are limited to 140 characters they are perfect for viewing on a mobile phone

or handheld. Simply go to http://m.twitter.com where you will see a simplified interface

allowing you to read you feed and ‘tweet’ directly from your mobile device.

Desktop application - Twirl

http://m.twitter.com/

http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog/Lists/Posts/Attachments/546/image_6_3D5764C4.png


44

Twirl is very much like Microsoft Live Messenger in that it keeps all your Twitter info inside a

nice little application that can be minimized. It is easy to follow people and post using Twirl.

Desktop application - Tweetdeck

TweetDeck is another very popular Twitter client application. The good think here is that it

splits up replies and direct messages as well as other updates. It has a whole host of other

features and is very pretty to look at.

Email - OutTwit

OutTwit is an add one for Microsoft Outlook. Once installed you can easily configure how often

OutTwit checks for postings). You can also select a folder in your mailbox for postings to be sent

so you can review them at a later date. With the OutTwit toolbar in Outlook, you can post

http://www.twhirl.org/

http://www.twhirl.org/

http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/

http://www.twitter.com/

http://www.techhit.com/OutTwit/



http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog/Lists/Posts/Attachments/546/image_8_6B44B77C.png

http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog/Lists/Posts/Attachments/546/image_10_6B44B77C.png


45

Twitter updates directly from Outlook. It even keeps track of Twitter statistics that are

displayed in a graphical format.

Monitoring tweets – Twilert

Apart from using http://search.twitter.com and RSS feeds to monitor ‘tweets’, you can also use

sites like http://www.twilert.com. You create an account and then set up which searches you

want, then everyday any matches to you queries are automatically emailed to you for review.

Other resources

http://www.ciaops.com – for a range of resources including documents, videos and training.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o&feature=channel_page – Twitter in plain

English (video).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGbLWQYJ6iM – Twitter search in plain English (video).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc – Social networking in plain English (video).

http://www.twitter.com/

http://search.twitter.com/

http://www.twilert.com/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGbLWQYJ6iM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc


46

Conclusion

The most powerful thing about Twitter is that there are now so many applications that

interface to it. However, at its core Twitter is about conversations, talking and listening,

‘following’ and ‘tweeting’. You can choose to do either or both but if you don’t plan to use any

of them then Twitter is not for you.

Twitter can allow you to not only communicate more directly and efficiently with people but it

can also help you promote you business and your brand. With powerful search tools it is also

possible to monitor all Twitter conversations for information that may help your business.

At first glance Twitter may simply appear to be nothing but white noise, however using the

tools that exist and applying a business mentality you can make Twitter a powerful tool within

your business.


47

About

Author - Robert Crane BE MBA MCP

Robert has a degree in Electrical Engineering as well as Masters of Business Administration. He is also a

Small Business Specialist and Microsoft Certified SharePoint Professional. Robert has over 15 years of IT

experience in a variety of fields and positions, including working on Wall St in New York. He was the co-

founder of Saturn Alliance, an IT systems integration business in Sydney, Australia. He continues his

involvement with information technology as the Principal of the Computer Information Agency. Apart

from resolving client technical issues, Robert continues to present at seminars and write on a number

for topics for the Computer Information Agency. Robert can be contacted via [email protected].

Company – Computer Information Agency ( www.ciaops.com)

Founded in 1995, the Computer Information Agency is a specialized technology consultancy in Sydney,

Australia that focuses on assisting businesses and individuals improve their productivity using

technology and smart business practices. The Computer Information Agency has high levels of

experience in technologies such as Windows Servers, including Small Business Server, and desktop

applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel and OneNote.

With special emphasis placed on the business benefits of technology the Computer Information Agency

is unique in its ability to work with companies to improve and streamline their processes utilizing the

technology they already have in place. The focus is on providing an improved end result for the business

which in the long run leads to greater productivity and profitability. More information about the

Computer Information Agency can be found at http://www.ciaops.com.

Advertisement

To learn how to put the power of technology to work saving you time and money contact the Computer Information Agency for assistance. Let us tailor a package that suits you and your business becoming more productive. Whether you want group sessions, individual one-on-one, single product, multiple product training, on site or web delivered we are able to oblige. You'll not only receive comprehensive notes but ongoing support. As a first step take our offer of a free initial 1 hour consultation to discuss your needs. In that time we are confident we can show you how we’ll dramatically lift productivity and improve your knowledge of the technology your business works with. Contact [email protected] to take advantage of this offer.

i How 6 companies used social networking to revolutionize sales - http://www.businessbrief.com/how-6-companies-used-social-networking-to-revolutionize-sales/ ii Companies using social networking to boost sales - http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/companies-using-social-networking-to-boost-sales



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http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/companies-using-social-networking-to-boost-sales

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Technology

Getting Started With Twitter