#HowTo: Get Started on Twitter
Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 2:15PM
SOOOO!! I tell people all the time to get on twitter, that it's just the cats pajamas ... that the world is amazing ... that I get to have all these crazy and wacky adventures and always have people there to help ... yada yada yada. It all sounds grand, right? But I don't think I've ever sat there and explained to you all exactly how you can get started on twitter into doable actions past creating the actual account.
So, alrite - step 1. Go to www.twitter.com and sign up.
Super easy.
Tangent: Do yourself a favor though, do not sync your facebook to update at the same time as twitter. It's super lame, and have entirely different purposes. I use twitter to meet people, I hang out with them all on facebook. That kinda thing - I literally send at least 50 tweets a day, if I had that many facebook status updates, I would me on the Facebook's least wanted list!! EPPP!!!!!! No bueno - so don't do it. OR dude, even your tumblr account. Stop syncing those things, man. I've said it from day 1 and I see no point. It has no added value and each platform has different presentation manners that need to be serviced. Social media is about engagement, it's not a one pop shop. If you're too lazy to just update something that takes 30 seconds, why should anyone even care to comment or like it. What you give, you get ... jigggaaaa!!
I started using Twitter in June of 2009. Although, I did actually create my account back in like 2007, once I realized it was going to be something, I secured the handle since I was working for LiveVideo at the time, I didn't want someone taking it and pretending to be me. But either way, back in 2009 twitter was still the wild wild west. When I say twitter had no idea what they were doing when they launched the platform ... I literally cannot. stress. that. enough. It was such a clusterfuck ... buuuuttttt it gave room for a lot of nerds to play with and develop some cool stuff to have it all make sense.
K ... Step 2: Download Tweetdeck.
I LOOVVEEESSS me some tweetdeck! You can add search columns, see all of your DMs, @replies - omg amazing. Here's a step by step on Tweetdeck - it's kinda long ... but walks you through everything you need to know about downloading, etc. Dude, it's totally free - and you should totally get it.
So now you're all set up on twitter. You have this third party app thing called Tweetdeck that even helps you make sense of it all ... but now what. How can people find you? And what do you even say?
Step 3: Set up a profile on Twellow.com
I know it looks kinda funky, and crikey - but I assure you ... it's actually pretty brilliant, and I know a lot of social media peeps that use it. You can basically create yourself a profile there that literally acts as a little yellow page ad for people to find you. It's GREAT and how I started immediately following so many social media people. I would just click through and search for social media, search engine optimizers, etc. You tag yourself when you create your profile based on how you want people to find you. People found me ... I found them ... it was randy.
Well, not LITERALLY Randy ... cause now he's a little off his rocker.
Freaky.
Moving on ...
So, I set up my profile on twellow ... started following people ... they would in return follow me back ... sometimes ... but what value was I adding to their twitter feed? What did I have to say?
Honestly, when I started on twitter I didn't have to say much. For the first few months before I started TNTML, I just used it as a diary - a microblogging platform to send thoughts out to the universe that I didn't want to post on facebook, but no longer wanted to keep inside of me. I didn't use hashtags at first, but I was religious about tweeting every day, and even @replying to people that I thought said funny things.
You have to understand something about me and my personality though ... if you can't tell, I have no problem marching to the beat of my own drummer. I make random dance floors, and very literally just don't care about anything - ever.
Exhibit A:
For someone like me, twitter is PERFECT!!!! I have no problem putting myself out there and seeing what comes back. Like in life, there are no guarantees in twitter. People may or may not follow you back. So now you've created this account and it's scary ... like oh boy, I hope people follow me. Eep! It's crazy - I know ... but STOP THINKING and START DOING!!! It's only going to get worse, I assure you. Social media is going to transform the advertising world, which means it's coming into places you never thought you would see it as advertising is friggen everywhere.
Put. Yourself. Out. There.
Yes it may be scary, yes you may think you're doing it wrong ... but I assure you, that's your own general insecurities and not the platform as a whole. Twitter just is. Yes, it may be difficult to understand as the creators failed to establish value on why we should use the damn thing - but I assure you, it's the greatest thing EVVERRRR!!!
Couple of etiquette points to keep in mind:
Don't just pimp your own stuff - share thoughtful links. Stuff that you find online that you like! Throw a hashtag up in there (the # sign before a word. ex: #nerdsunite - the official TNTML hashtag. Readers of the site can communicate with each other on twitter outside of me, and say whats up. It's amazing!)
Stop saying, hey what's up world! Or good morning peeps! ... no one cares. at all. ever. That doesn't count as a tweet and you should be ashamed of yourself for even writing that. Unless you're a super hot chick, with a couple of fan boys - no one will ever respond. Think about it - what the hell are people going to tweet back? Good morning?! Good night?! Then what! The conversation ends!!! Ask open ended questions, crowd source for opinions on things. We LOOOVVEESSSS to give our opinion on twitter - so again, put yourself out there and see what we have to say. Add value to the people that are following you. Be vulnerable, have some sort of insight into whatever your nerdy area of expertise is. Get it?
I can't tell you exactly what to tweet- that might take some inner soul searching. What makes you happy? What do you like to talk about? What are you passionate about? I hope with this post you guys can at least understand that there are sites that make it pretty easy for you to at least connect with like minded people, and then you take it from there. Say hi to people! @reply them!!! I guarantee you, they will @reply you back! Twitter is a real time conversation ... SO GO SAY SOMETHING!!!!!!!
Got a question? Hit me up on twitter: @JenFriel
Remember, there is NOOOO such thing as a dumb question ... at all ... ever. But, I will tell you if you're being lame.
#kthxbye
Reader Comments (8)
I know you want to present yourself as this super early adopter chick, but your account creation date is April 2009, not 2007.
whatchoo talkin about willis? i was working on livevideo (photojenic) in 2007. the fans of the show used to tell me about twitter. even created a photojenic to just secure it, which has since been released due to inactivity.
it was definitely 2007 - december ish
babe, timing on all of that has never been in question. i dont know why it says april to be honest when i didnt even think i started tweeting until June. hmmmmmm
but either way man, totally feel free to comb through the archives if it'll knock your socks off: http://www.livevideo.com/liveshow/PhotoJeNic
yay life!
http://www.whendidyoujointwitter.com/
The @JenFriel account was create on April 18th of 2009.
yeah but dude, honestly thats bullshit. what do they go off of? I know for a fact i secured the domain in 2007, because of livevideo. i very literally wouldnt have it otherwise in 2009 based off of that - there are other Jen Friels in this world.
Question, do they judge that based off of when you actually tweet or edit the profile? I know for a fact I didn't like edit a single thing on that until then - but I know I secured the domain. you get what im saying? I'm curious what it bases that off of.
It's not bullshit, it's data that's tied to the creation date of the twitter.com/jenfriel account.
You are Twitter user #32,867,432.
but that doesnt make sense. i secured the handle in 2007 - because i didnt want fans of the show taking it over as they were all talking about twitter. you literally couldnt escape it when it first came out. but i didnt start tweeting until 2009. what im saying is im curious what their definition of account creation is.
Clearly, you are recalling incorrectly as that number is a part of your Twitter account information. Sorry. I'm not saying anything based off of what you use. It is a number that is a part of your @JenFriel account and associated with date of account creation.
but what i am questioning is what is the account creation defined as? the date that one secured the handle? or the date that said tweeting occurred? dude, im not hating - i said, in black and white - i didnt start tweeting til then. the rest, just is my friend. but to doubt me being an "early adopter" is ignorant. especially since me being in this space has been long documented, and is neither here not there - it just "is." dude, i agree - in 2009, i still thought i was late to actively start tweeting - but things dictate otherwise. xoxo #nerdsunite