9 Twitter Concepts You Need To Understand!

Fail Whale? Just refresh the page!

The inspiration of this blog needs to be attributed to the purchase of the iPhone 4 by @caryjames1. Upon getting the phone, he suddenly realized that he had access to a world in which he NEVER had with his flip phone: Apps. After falling madly in love with his new shiny toy, he moved onto downloading the essential Social Media Apps, he really started to try to understand Twitter.

Later that week, he admitted that he needed a crash course in Twitter– or what I think (as a Social Media wannabe-pro) would be important things for him to know and understand in order to grow his network and actually USE Twitter to its full capacity. Face it: you need it! Step into our world and join in the Twitter conversation.

How Does It All Work?!

I get asked for tips a lot, so I thought it was time I made a list. Everyone does top 10, but let’s have some fun. Here’s the 9 Twitter concepts you need to understand.

1. The Twitter Feed: this running feed is a series of postings or updates by Twitter accounts of people you follow. Follow? You “subscribe” to follow people, companies, places, organizations, schools, celeb personalities, weirdos, etc.

2. What’s Trending?
Essentially you can change your geographical location to anything you’d like. There will be hashtags, or topics Trending within that area– which are the the most talked about subject matters on Twitter in this location at this moment in time. Using hashtags that are trending is a great way to find and gain followers.

3. Find People: browse suggestions, sync your contacts, and view the followers listed in the categories that interest you. You will begin to connect with people and gain followers in which you can network with through: Creating conversations, asking and answering questions, creating catchy hashtags, and so on. [if you need more tips, chat with me @trishbaden]

4. WTF do I tweet? How?
First, answer the question in your status bar: “What happening?” Although your response cannot be over 140 characters, you can still make it punchy and awesome, just be creative about it. For example: you could tell this epically long tale of victory and revolution, but in reality– shorten your language, leave off descriptors, abbreviate, and slap a hashtag (witty or serious, but obviously applicable) on it and you’re DONE!

5. Who is this creepy Spammer that followed me?
No worries, if they’re spamming you, you can report (after 3 they’re deleted; thanks to @tweetsmarter for originally sharing that info)  them and block them, but strangers may follow you because they find you helpful or enjoy reading your tweets. After all, this IS Social Media– so be open to making new Network connections (while using CAUTION)!!

6. Links and Pictures:
Include them whenever possible so that people know what you’re actually trying to say when you’re talking about something and they know your point of reference.

7. Direct Messages, @’s, and @reply’s!
Direct Message = DM. Don’t use unless you’re trying to take a conversation offline. Unless you are close friends with someone, you risk being viewed as 1) a creeper 2) an annoyance.

8. @NAME will “tag” that person in your tweet. For example, “So great to have my friends back in town: @henryengle and @ashleestarin. #goodtimes”

9. @REPLY basically is someone including you into the tweet stream.

This is a very brief overview of some of the things that I find important to know on twitter in order to function properly. No worries, you’ll get it! If you have any questions, issues, or just want to follow me, connect with me @trishbaden!