How to use Twitter

by Alexandra Middleton | 23 Jul 2013

Last month we discussed setting up a Twitter account. Now you have done that, it's time to follow interesting accounts to keep in touch, and to learn how to tweet to build your profile.

Whether you plan to tweet or simply observe, Twitter offers limitless opportunities to connect with others. To make the most of the microblogging site, once you’ve set up an account, you need to find people to follow.

The people you choose to follow may be friends, media outlets such as ABC News or SBS News, sporting teams or players, public identities whose opinions interest you, companies or community organisations.

Finding your way around

The Twitter home screen has four main sections. On the right side of the screen is an automatically updating feed of Tweets, which is where the Tweets of the people you ‘Follow’ will appear.

Down the left side of the screen you will find details relating to your profile, including the number of Tweets posted, the number of people you follow and the number of people that are following you.

Below this are suggestions from Twitter of 'Who to Follow'. These suggestions are tailored to your interest, based on the accounts you have already actively chosen to follow. Included in this 'Who to Follow’ section is the option to view ‘Popular accounts’. This breaks users up into a variety of categories, including music, sports, entertainment and news.

Below this is where you will find a list of ‘Trends’ or topics that are being widely discussed by multiple users on Twitter. These are called hashtags, and are prefaced with a hash symbol (#).

The hash tag symbol is used to indicate a topic or subject within a Tweet, so Tweets about "#superannuation" would use that hashtag. Hashtags allow users to find others discussing the same topic. This feature is a great way of accessing a number of opinions and lines of discussion on any number of topics, and of making sure that your tweets can be found by people who are interested in the topics you are tackling.

How to find people to follow

If you are searching for a friend, simply type their name or username into the search bar, which is found within the black bar that runs across the top of your home screen.

This will reveal a list of users who match your search query. Click on the name of your friend to be directed to their profile and hit the ‘Follow’ button, identifiable by the blue bird.

If multiple users with the same name appear, use the small profile pictures to tell them apart.

You can also find friends by importing contacts from your email account. In the ‘Who To Follow’ section on your home page there is the option to ‘Find friends’. Click on this option, search your email contacts and choose all, or select the ones you want to follow. 

If you are looking to follow a certain organisation, or people associated with that organisation, such as Probus South Pacific, type the name into the same search bar. Once you have hit search, in the top left side of the screen you will see two options, ‘Tweets’ and ‘People’. The 'Tweets' option gives a list of Tweets about "Probus South Pacific", while the 'People' option finds the @ProbusSthPac profile and gives you the option to Follow.

How to write and post a tweet

In the top left side of your home screen, below your profile statistics, you will find a space to ‘Compose a Tweet’. Tweets are no more than 140 characters in length and can be accompanied by an image or linked to a location. To compose a text-only Tweet, simply click in the ‘Compose a Tweet’ space, begin typing and hit ‘Tweet’ when you are happy with what you have written. The number of characters you have left to use in the Tweet counts down in the bottom right corner of the dialogue box. In the bottom left hand corner of this box you will find a camera icon and also a pin drop item, used to add an image or location to your Tweet.

To delete a tweet, navigate to your profile page by clicking ‘Me’ in the black bar running along the top of your home screen. Running your cursor over the tweet will reveal the option to delete it. 

Don't forget to follow Probus South Pacific for daily news and updates.