Find your way around Twitter, part 1: Profile and Home

In earlier posts about Twitter, I gave you guidelines for your Twitter username and told you about the @ and # symbols.

By popular demand, I’m going to share with you some additional basic information that will help you to better understand how Twitter works. This won’t be too helpful if you aren’t registered for your free Twitter account, so go ahead and do that now (using the username guidelines I provided earlier).

Quick Vocabulary
A tweet is a Twitter post (also called an update). It contains 140 or fewer characters (not words–characters) and has the Twitter user’s name (aka Tweeter) attached to it so you can see where it came from.

Your Twitter Page Profile
This is what the world sees when they look you up on Twitter. The URL is http://twitter.com/yourusername. So, my Twitter page profile is at http://twitter.com/abstanfield.

People see a stream of your tweets in the center, but the two most critical items on this page are

1. Your photograph
2. Your one-line (160 characters or less) bio

These are important because you must look like a real person (thus the reason for the photo) and you want to describe yourself in a way that encourages people to follow you.

Your photo and your one-line bio should be in place before you start following people. Why? Because when other Twitter users see that you are following them, they might like to follow you back. If you look real and like you have potential, they’ll probably return the favor. If there’s nothing on your Twitter page for them to see, they probably won’t waste their time.

You can update or add to your personal information profile NOT by clicking on Profile in the menu (oddly enough) but by clicking on Settings and then Account.

After you have done this, look at the bottom of that page. There is a box that says “Protect My Updates.” You want to make sure that box is not checked. Twitter is a social media site. If you don’t want people to read what you have to say, you probably shouldn’t be using Twitter. The only exception should be if you have a second or third Twitter account and use it for private messages between friends and family.

While you’re under Settings, you can add or update your photo by clicking on Picture.

Your Twitter Home

This is the page only YOU see. You get it by clicking on Home or by logging in to your account. By default, it shows the stream of tweets from all of the people you are following–with the most recent tweet at the top. In the upper right–under your name–this page also shows the number of people following you as well as the number of people you’re following and the number of updates you have sent. Click on any of those numbers and you will see the details.

There is also a large box at the top under the heading “What are you doing?” This is where you post your pithy, 140-character-or-less tweets. Just type them in and click on the “update” button. (Note: Sorry, but we don't really care what you're doing most of the time. More on what to tweet in a later post.)

Everyone who is following you will see  your tweets (if they’re looking at the right time, of course).

I’ll have lots more about using Twitter in upcoming posts, but please leave any questions you have in the Comments.

Updated 4:30 p.m. on 7/1 thanks to comment from @lisacall