Twitter 101
This guide will give you the fundamental basics of Twitter mechanics to help you get started
Tweets: This is the term used for each message sent via Twitter. Messages have a 140 character limit and are, in general, meant to be responses to the question “What are you doing?” although this has been broadened to more of a “status” update, where you can share any kind of thought that is on your mind.
@ Replies: By putting “@username” at the beginning of your message you ensure that it catches a particular person’s attention. In addition, these messages will only show up in the update feed of people who are following both parties included in the message. If you put “@username” anywhere else in the message it is used as a way to refer to someone without directing the message at them.
Direct Messages: By either going to your inbox directly or putting a “D username” at the beginning of your message you can send a private message to someone. The person must be following you for this to work.
Follower: A person who subscribes to receive your tweets in their feed.
Following: When you subscribe to receive another person’s tweets in your feed it is called “following them.”
TinyURL: TinyURL is one of many services used to shrink a long link into a shorter one that will fit within the 140 character limit. Others include Bit.ly and BudURL.
Twitpic: You can use Twitpic to upload photos with a caption and and tweet the caption with a link to the photo.
12 Seconds: You can use 12Seconds to upload 12 second video clips to Twitter similar to Twitpic.
TweetDeck: TweetDeck is a very effective desktop application that let’s you organize and manage your Twitter feed. You can group certain people together, filter out keywords (if you don’t want to hear about a particular topic that’s trending) and even add in your Facebook status updates as well. It lets you filter out noise, create searches (more real-time than TweetBeep) and has a lot of third party tools built in (like URL shortening, TwitPic and 12 Seconds)
The following video gives a good intro into what Twitter is and how to use it:
