Maybe you've never used Twitter. Or, maybe you're Larry Bird's neighbor and you've had a Twitter account sine 2006. Either way, no one can deny the cultural significance of that white bird stamped on the sky blue background. Personally, the most time I've ever spent on Twitter was to collect evidence for a research paper in March and April of 2020. Which, was perhaps one of the most chaotic times to be joining an established social media platform. Based on my experience, I've collected a list of the tops 10 most helpful things you'll want to know when navigating this site.
1. Your Profile
The first thing you'll want to do is customize your profile. Once you make an account, you'll have the freedom to change your profile picture, bio, and name. You only get to use 160 characters in your bio, so make sure to be concise! Your profile is how you will be represented on the site. Also, when someone visits your profile, not only will they be able to see the tweets you've made, but they can also see everything you've retweeted, liked, and replied to.
As you can see, some people like the multi-talented actress, comedian, and rapper @awkwafina make their Twitter bio short, sweet, and witty.
2. Home
Like any other form of social media, the home page is where you will see the tweets of the Twitter accounts you follow. I find it funny that we've accepted the idea of the 'home' page. However, maybe it's fitting. Once you click on that little house icon, you are seeing the content you have chosen for yourself. Do we see the accounts we follow on social media as a kind of chosen family? Something to think about.
3. Explore
The explore page on Twitter is where you can find content that Twitter determines you might like based on who you follow and what is 'trending.' The following subpages can be found on the Explore page: For You, Trending, News, Sports, Entertainment. Sometimes extra subpages are added like COVID-19 and, more recently, US Elections.
4. Notifications
Never want to miss your favorite celebrity's tweets? You can turn on 'notifications' for that account so you will be notified every time they post something. Also, you can decide which push notifications you want to receive from Twitter based on your account's activity. On the notifications page there is a gear icon indicating the where you can find the settings in the upper-right hand corner. Once you are in the notification settings, you have options under the tabs 'Filters' and 'Preferences' to sort through what kinds of notifications you want to receive and how often you want to receive them. However, if you're like me, you'll only turn on the post notifications for your close friends so you can hype up their new posts.
5. Hashtags
On any social network site, It is easiest to think of hashtags as a way to categorize the content in your post. Hashtags are a way to connect related content. Under the 'Trending' page you'll see what hashtags are have recently gained a rapid popularity. Also, on the explore page if search for something you are interested in, it's likely a hashtag and you can find tweets related that topic. On the other hand, If you include a hashtag in your tweet then when someone searches for that hashtags, they might see your tweet pop up!
6. Privacy Settings
It's important to make sure you aren't sharing too much of your information online! Sometimes the default privacy settings on a social media platform are not as secure as you'd want them to be. The first thing you do after you make your profile should be to set the privacy settings to your comfort level. To change your privacy setting, click on 'More' (the icon of the three dots) and then choose 'Settings and privacy.' Then you can change your account information, change your password, give others the ability to tweet from your account, or learn how to deactivate your account. Check out this site for a deeper drive into what each of these settings do.
7. Tweeting
Originally, the length of a tweet could not exceed 140 characters. This was due to the fact that tweets used to be sent via SMS messages that were limited to 160 characters. The remaining 20 characters in the SMS messages were saved for a person's username. However, in 2017, Twitter doubled the limit to 280 characters! To make a tweet, you can go to your home page and start typing to replace the What's happening? search prompt. Or, you can press the icon that looks like a quill and start typing away!
8. Retweet
See a tweet with some really neat info you want to share with all your followers? Hit the double arrow icon (shown below) on that tweet and it's like you have tweeted someone else's tweet again. Hence the the term 'retweet.' Vice versa, if someone sees your tweet, they can retweet it and then any of their followers can interact with your tweet, which might result in even more people seeing your tweet. This is how things go viral on twitter.
9. Threads
Does 280 characters seem too short for you? Fear not, there is a way to communicate all that you have to say. The Twitter help center defines a thread as "a series of connected Tweets from one person" that "can provide additional context, an update, or an extended point by connecting multiple Tweets together. To make a thread, start off by making a tweet and then press the highlighted plus icon to add one or more tweets. Finally, press the Tweet all button to post your thread.
10. Analytics
Want to know how many people are interacting with your posts? If you click on one of your tweets and then go to 'View Tweet activity' you'll be able to see your Tweet Analytics. Under Tweet Analytics you can see the number of people that have seen your tweet, the number of times someone interacted with your tweet, the number of likes, and the number of times people viewed the details about your tweet. Go ahead and check it out; I bet the number of impressions is a lot higher than you'd expect!
