How To Use Twitter

In case you have lived under a rock in the last 48 hours the announcement that Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton are having a baby has sent Twitterverse in a complete royal frenzy. Heard that it’s all about #royalbaby and #royalbabynames on Twitter but not sure how to keep up? We have it covered for you, here’s a basic refresh of how to use Twitter.

BASIC REFRESH

TWEET: When you post or write your 140 characters on twitter and hit send it’s called a tweet
or tweeting.

 
HANDLE: That’s your twitter name @Iamnotaroyal – balance and be short with your descriptive and no
matter what your business handle is get your personal name if you can even if you don’t plan
to use it right now. It’s like your URL and will have value to help people find you in the future.

 
FOLLOW: This is simply the act of adding someone to the list of people you are following
– this makes their tweets show up on your homepage. If you are really into #royalbabynews then you could add the Archbishop of Canterbury for example.

 
REPLIES: This is what it is called when someone writes a tweet directly at your handle – @Iamnotaroyal– it’s generally an invitation to engage.

 
RETWEET: This is a tactic of republishing someone else’s tweet – the original tweet along
with author stays intact, but you are basically posting someone’s tweet to your followers –
many people find this a great way to add content and say thank you to the people they are
following.

 
DM: This is a message that is sent directly to another Tweep. They must be following you
for you to DM them, but this is a very useful tool for private messages and generally a good
choice when you want to connect with someone in 3D.

 
HASHTAG: This is a how people add categories to tweets so that others might use the
same tag and effectively find their way on Twitter to other related tweets – something like
#royalbabynames will create a search for all tweets with the same theme.

 
With the array of social media tools available namely Hootsuite and Buffer, you can automate some of the work which will
give you some breathing time to think of ways to be more creative on Twitter. You should be on your way to become Twitter royalty after this – pun intended!

Tips by : Sharon Latour