Tweet tweet

04 Jun 2013

Twitter has become an invaluable tool for receiving information and sharing your thoughts, all in 140 characters. Why not open an account, and tweet, twerp and talk away?

Don’t be scared of Twitter

While social media can be a scary place, if you’re careful and conscious of what you post, it’s actually a valuable tool to stay abreast of current affairs, news and day-to-day information. 

Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to people and organisations anywhere in the world. Follow someone and you’ll be let into their unique world.

Where to start

The first thing you need to do is set up an account. Follow the steps below and you’ll be on your way.

1. Open the Twitter webpage
2. Fill in your full name, email and a chosen password. Then hit ‘sign up for Twitter’.
3. You’ll be taken to a verification screen. It will make sure your name is spelt correctly, check to see that your email address is valid and it will tell you how strong your password is. You’ll also be asked to choose a username. Sometimes this will be prefilled according to your name but this doesn’t have to be your username. If your chosen username isn’t available, they will tell you.
4. Click ‘Ok’.
5. You’ll be taken to a screen where it says ‘welcome new user’. Click ‘Next’.

You may be prompted to ‘Follow’ people. However, it’s probably best to wait until you’ve completed the set-up process before you choose who to follow. They may follow you back and you should be prepared with your bio and information.

To move onto the next step, scroll down to the bottom and click ‘Skip this step’.

You’ll be taken to a screen suggesting categories. Again, wait until you’ve set up your bio before going through this.

Scroll down to the bottom and click ‘Skip this step’. 

Another step to skip is the next screen where it prompts you to search through your email to find contacts. Scroll down to the bottom and click ‘Skip this step’.

Setting up your bio

You bio is what people are going to see if they search for you so it’s important that it’s catchy and relevant. Once you’ve skipped through the steps, you’ll be taken to your main page. Before you get started, look at the yellow bar along the top. It’s going to ask you to confirm your email address.

Twitter would have sent you an email to confirm the address. Find the email and follow the instructions by clicking on the link.

Follow the steps to finish inputting all the information. Ignore everything on the screen, and head to the little silhouette in the top right corner.

1. Click the down arrow and click ‘View my profile page’.
2. Click ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘choose file’. This is how you choose a picture that will represent you. Some people choose not to have their face attached to their Twitter.
3. Find the image you would like to represent you and click ‘choose’. The image will get loaded.
4. Fill in the fields if you wish, including a location and website if you like.
5. The bio is how people will get to know you. Just remember, because it’s Twitter, you only have 140 characters to describe yourself.
6. Click ‘Save changes’. You image and bio should now appear next to your username.

If there are people you’d like to follow, you can simply search for them in the search bar. Once you’ve found them, hit ‘Follow’.

You now officially have a Twitter presence. In the next Twitter how-to, we’ll go through how to tweet, what hashtags are and how to increase your following.

Remember, just because you’re on Twitter, doesn’t mean you have to say anything. It’s also OK just to follow people and keep abreast of the information out there.

Have you set up an account? Follow Probus South Pacific for daily Tweets.