Twitter is a social media platform that allows users to share short messages called tweets. Tweets can include text, photos, videos and links, and can be replied to or shared by other users. By following other accounts, users see tweets from those accounts on their Twitter home page or feed. Hashtags allow tweets about certain topics to be found more easily. Businesses and organizations use Twitter to engage with customers and share information. With over 400 million tweets sent per day, Twitter is a widely used platform for communication and discovery.

1. Twitter 101
What Is Twitter Really About?
Twitter – what is that?
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Twitter is a social network with real-time communication service
Twitter is used by millions of people and organizations to quickly share and discover information
Users can access the site via the web and mobile devices to exchange frequent bite-size updates
of information called “tweets”
The messages or “tweets” are public by default and visible to all those who are following the
person who wrote the message aka the tweeter
It’s mainly run by following other users you are interested in so that you’ll see their updates and
responses on your home page, which in fact, stems from all the accounts you’re following.
Tweets can come in many different forms, containing information, photos, videos, quotes,
articles, links and more.
Each “tweet” can be replied from other people creating a real-time conversations around hot
topics, breaking news, and interesting new content
History of Twitter
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Originally started off as a Podcasting company called Odeo before pivoting the mircoblogging
service we know and love today. If Apple didn’t release podcasts via iTunes and shifting Odeo’s
work into obscurity, we might of never got Twitter
Key Terminology
Knowing these terms is important of mastering the lingo. Twitter can be complicated if you don’t know
of understand these terms; it has its own vocabulary flying around in tweets
Tweet
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A standard message on Twitter containing 140 characters or less
Retweet
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A tweet or message that has been reshared to all of the users’ followers
Hashtag
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The # (number pound) symbol is used to tag keywords, phrases, or topics in a tweet to make it
easily identifiable for search purposes

2. Mention
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Tweets can include replies and mentions of other users by preceding their usernames with the
@ sign
Handle
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This designates your username and accompanying URL at http://twitter.com/handle (another
way of saying who you are – how someone can find you
Feed
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The stream of tweets on your Twitter homepage comprised of all the accounts you follow
Lists
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Twitter provides a mechanism to list users you follow into groups or curated lists showing
tweets of all the users in the list
Direct Message
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Also called a DM, this represents Twitter’s direct messaging system for private communication
amongst users.
How to get started on Twitter
1. Signing Up
First off, pick a username for your twitter ‘handle.’ Preferably some short and sweet or
something that can easily identify yourself or your business. Next you’ll want to add your bio
information with a little bit about who you are and your interests to help people get to know
you better and decide whether to follow you or not. You can also include your location, website
link (if this is for business purposes), and an avatar image (which is a picture that will appear
next to your profile and next to all your tweets.
2. Follow Sources
After you sign up for Twitter you’ll be given some suggestions of popular users to follow. This is
the first step in using Twitter as a discovery engine so start following interesting new people and
sources. Some of the followers may even end up following you back (it’s a beautiful cycle). At
first, Twitter won’t know much about so find familiar friends and brands to follow too, and
overtime Twitter will make better suggestions to suite you. You can always unfollow people too
that seem to be clogging up you stream with useless posts.
3. How to Post a Tweet
You can post tweets of up to 140 characters. These tweets can also have media embedded like
photos, videos, or rich snippets from articles. Media can make your tweets more engaging,
where photos generally get double the engagement compared to just text.

3. 4. Retweets
A retweet is the action of sharing another tweet again. People and businesses post messages on
Twitter in hopes of getting as many retweets as possible to reach out to new audiences.
5. Connecting and Mentions
Twitter provides a great way to connect with other users and monitor your interactions and
mentions. You can also communicate privately with other users via Direct Messages if the other
person follows you. Twitter also provides you suggestions on who to follow and other options to
find friends.
6. Twitter Search and Discovery
See what’s happening right now tailored just for you. Use the Discover tab to keep up with
tweets, activity, and another source for new people to follow, find friends and browse through
interesting categories like music, sports, entertainment, humour, technology and more.
7. Twitter for Mobile
Twitter’s mobile website allows you to have consistent experience using Twitter on any
smartphone or tablet device.
8. Twitter for Business
Businesses of all kinds also use Twitter to market their products and services, and to engage in
dialogue with their customers.
With over 400 million tweets a day and 200 million active users, people tune into Twitter to
bring them closer to the things they care about. Having a personal profile and a business profile
is a great idea. Having a business profile gives your brand credibility on social media. Some of
the best practices for businesses are writing good tweets, sharing relevant and interesting
content as well as sharing other people’s stuff. Twitter can be a platform of getting fan exposure
to your business by promotions and advertising.
Video about Twitter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AN4_N5N52U
Twitter Connect – Closing
People use Twitter to learn about topics they care about and to share their thoughts with other
people--in other words, to both send and receive messages.
Celebrities and media professionals are big Twitter users, sending tweets out to legions of
followers. Politicians and government officials also send many tweets, which often are quoted in
the media as sources of news. Now you can join the world… so go on…tweet.