Using Twitter the Techietubby way

Newbie Level (Beginner):

Step #1 How To Find Specific People/Organizations
Look up whoever you wish to follow via the Twitter search bar. Enter a name, then click the magnifying glass to search. A row of options will appear, allowing you to specify your search by tweet, tweets with links, tweets near you, and people. For the most efficient results, click "People".



Enter their username if you know it into the URL bar. Add "/username" without the quotes (following www.twitter.com) to be directed to the user's feed.



Search by email. Click on "Who to Follow", then click the "Find Friends" tab. You'll be able to browse email contacts that use Twitter, and will be linked to their pages to follow them. Simply log into your email account (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Outlook, AOL Mail, and various other accounts are all supported here), then select which contacts you would like to follow.




Browse Twitter's suggestions for those to follow. Click "View All Recommendations" once you've searched for someone, then scroll through the list of generated suggestions. Click on a username to check out their profile or to follow them.





Step #2 How To Send and Reply Tweets and Direct Messages:

To send a tweet, click the blue quill-in-a-box icon in the top right corner of your Twitter page. A box will appear where you can compose your tweet and post it.



You can also send tweets to people, or send them direct messages.

First, what's the difference between tweeting to someone and sending them a direct message? The main difference is that tweeting to someone is public, and sending them a direct message is private.

Tweeting to someone is similar to having a conversation to someone, i.e. you are saying it directly to them (or referring to them in a tweet) instead of broadcasting generally to all your followers. However, remember that this is still public. All your followers (and everyone else if you have a public profile) will be able to see this tweet.

A direct message is a private message that only you and the recipient can see, regardless of your profile settings.

How to tweet to someone: 
Go to the profile of the person you want to tweet and use the “Tweet to …” box in the sidebar.



Or if you know their username, just start a new tweet and add their username (which often takes the form @username) to the beginning of the tweet. For example, if you wanted to tweet to Dr. Bert, you would write: @kimubert Hi Dr. Bert!

If someone tweets to you, you will usually receive a notification. You can see these tweets and other notifications by clicking on the bell icon at the upper left of your Twitter page .

To reply to a tweet, click the reply icon at the bottom of the tweet, and type and send your message.

How to send direct messages to someone:
Make sure the person you want to message is following you. You can only directly message your followers and vice versa.

Click on the letter icon at the top right of the page. It's to the left of the cog/gear icon. From there, click new message and type the username of the person you want to send the message to.

If someone sends you a direct message (or replies to yours), a little number notification will appear on the letter icon. To reply to direct messages, click on the letter icon, followed by the conversation, and you will be able to send a reply.


Step #3 How To Work With Lists:

Find the lists feature at the upper right settings cog or gear icon.




Use the Create New List button to create a new list.




Name and describe your list and decide if you want it to be public or private.




Now go ahead and find people and accounts to add to your list.




You can also subscribe to other people’s list by:
1. Click on Lists when viewing someone's profile.
2. Select which list you'd like to subscribe to.
3. From the list page, click Subscribe to follow the list. You can follow lists without following the individual users in that list.

Techietubby Ninja Level (Advanced):

Building Your Following: How To Make Friends And Influence Tweeters

Put Your Best Face Forward
Make sure your profile is complete with an avatar that shows your face and a solid bio. It's important that people know who you are and what you're interested in. The simplest and most personal way to go for an avatar is a photograph of your face looking straight into the lens. Avoid funny angles or having anything else in the photo. Crop it into a square, but don't shrink it down. You want people to be able to click on it and see the larger version. Many people will read your Twitter bio before deciding whether to follow you. A good written bio can help you get much more followers than a poorly written bio.

Would You Follow A Boring Person?
Most potential followers will glance at your most recent tweets to see if you're worth following. Therefore, it stands to reason that the better your tweets, the more followers you'll gain.

• Add variety. Make sure you're tweeting on a variety of subjects and not just your personal thoughts or what you're doing at the moment. Talk about your hobbies and interests, share a piece of insightful advice, or post a photo of something cool to switch it up.
• Post interesting and helpful links. Find humorous, inspiring, useful items that “help” people live their lives better or be better professionals. Search the web voraciously for a nugget you can spin into a good tweet.
• Post multimedia. Switching things up with pictures, videos and even sound clips here and there can make your posts more fun to follow. Use hashtags. Using hashtags is a great way to connect to people with similar interests and to increase the visibility of your tweets.
• Add hashtags to your tweets and also create tweets based on hashtags that are popular on Twitter at the time (you can see these as "trends" on the left-hand side of your Twitter home page). This will maximize your tweet's exposure.
• However, like everything on Twitter, hashtags should be used in moderation. Just pick one or two relevant or amusing hashtags which add to the quality of your tweet. Don't just add hashtags onto words that appeared in the rest of your tweet, or include them just for the sake of it.
• Use Tools:

1. http://wefollow.com/ Allows you to find new followers based on your inputted keyword.
2. http://friendorfollow.com/ Who are you following that’s not following you back? Who’s following you that you’re not following back? Find out!
3. http://justtweetit.com/ Just Tweet It was created to make it easier for people using the popular micro-blogging service Twitter to find other “Tweeters” with similar interests.

Integrate Your Social Networking Experience
You can use social media management tools to make it easier to keep tabs on all the different networks.

Hootsuite
Checking, and responding to a handful of social networking services can be a daunting task, forcing you to juggle jumping between tabs. HootSuite is one of the most popular social media management apps with a slew of options, settings and dynamic features. You can monitor and post to several popular networks including both Facebook personal profiles and business pages, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. It also offers a built-in custom analytics system, the ability to monitor selected keywords and the option to conveniently schedule posts. You must obtain and install Hootsuite from the Google Chrome extension webstore



TweetDeck
TweetDeck is another popular web app for social media management. Unlike HootSuite, which operates within your Internet browser, TweetDeck can be installed as a separate program on your hard drive as a desktop application. For those who want the flexibility, apps for the iPhone, Android and Chrome browser are also available. With TweetDeck, you can watch your updates stream in real-time when you connect with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz and more.

SocialOomph
With an impressive list of features that really sets it apart from other social media management applications, SocialOomph can help you keep an eye on not only your Facebook and Twitter accounts, but it can also help you manage and schedule posts to your blog as well. SocialOomph offers both free and premium services. Schedule your tweets, track keywords, promote your profiles, shorten URLs, purge your direct message inbox, and create an unlimited number of profile accounts completely free of charge.

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