Twitter 101: Your Ultimate Guide to Twitter

What is Twitter?

Whether you are into news, celebrities, sports, pop culture, Twitter is the place to be. A lot of famous people, brands, TV networks, establishments are here. According to Twitter, 66% of its users have found new small or medium-sized business on Twitter. It would be a shame to miss out on this pool of potential followers. Before we go to the tips on how to be successful on Twitter, let us first understand the basics of Twitter.

• Tweet – This is what you call your Twitter post. You can include images, links, videos, to your tweets. The maximum limit of a tweet is 140 characters.

  Tip #1: Make your tweets personal. Open and honest communication is important in building trust and confidence. People do not like detached and impersonal tweets.

• Twitter handle – This is your username. It always starts with an amphora or the @ symbol. It is your unique identifier on Twitter.

  Tip #1: Remember to choose a username that is significant to your business. Do not use a bunch of unrelated words as a username.

  Tip #2: Every tweet is limited. It is important to keep your username short and easy to memorize. Avoid making it alphanumeric unless the name of your business contains numbers.

• Twitter profile – This is your page. You can see your picture, tweets, and bio on your profile.

  Tip #1: Complete your profile details including your picture, header photo, website link. People might think you are a bot account if you do not fill your profile.

  Tip #2: To ensure the authenticity of the profiles you will follow, make sure the Twitter profiles have a verified status. This is important especially if you are following a famous person and brand. A verified account has a blue check beside the display name.

• Hashtag –  A hashtag is a keyword or phrase pertaining to a certain topic. You will know that a phrase is a hashtag when it starts with a # sign. Discover more about hashtags and its usage here. When you click a specific hashtag, you will see other related tweets containing the same hashtag.
• Search –  When searching for accounts, be sure to include an @ before the username. If you are not certain of the exact username, check if there is a blue check beside the name to make sure it is not a fake account.  You can also search for a particular hashstag. Just make sure to include a # sign before  searching. The top hashtags of the day are listed on the trends section.
• Mention –  When you interact with people, you mention them. How do you mention people? You use @ and followed by their Twitter username.

  Tip #1: People can also mention you when they want to interact. Make sure to always check your notifications tab.

• Retweet –  A tweet you shared from other sources is called retweet. Once you retweet, it will display the original source of the tweet. People usually retweet timely stories.

  Tip #1: When people retweet your tweet, it could also mean that they can relate to it or find them interesting. If possible, include images to your tweets.

  Tip #2: Retweet a positive review of a product and thank that person by replying to the tweet. It will encourage your followers to buy your products since they saw someone who had a pleasant shopping experience.

• Home –  This is the tab for the tweets of the Twitter accounts you currently follow.
• Notifications – This is the tab for the tweets mentioning you. The notifications tab also includes retweets , likes, the list of accounts who followed you.
• Block – If you block certain accounts, they cannot view your tweets and they are unable to follow you. Any mentions by these accounts, you will not be notified.

  Tip #1: Do not get me wrong. People are free to share a negative review of a product. Blocking applies when people are being offensive. Personally, I do not block people as much as possible, but at certain times, you really have to. You cannot attend to legitimate queries if you do not filter your notifications . Having been a social media assistant for quite some time, this command is helpful when people spam your account and send repeated messages.