Twitter Basics

When creating your account and username, keep in mind your personal brand. You will see a lot of people use aliases or avatars instead of their name. This is not recommended. Use your name if you want to build your brand.

Second, don’t tweet until you are comfortable. You can follow and get a sense of what’s going on, what kind of stuff you find interesting, what bores you (for me, it’s people who go to Vegas for the weekend and tweet the entire time about how their poker games are going).

To make the most of twitter and social networking, don’t protect your updates. Keep an open profile so anyone interested in getting to know you can. At the same time, be mindful of what you tweet and recognize that it goes on your permanent record. All of it.

And some basics:

@username
The “@” plus a username equals a hyperlink, e.g. @racheldelcau

When you reply to someone, your tweet will begin with @theirusername.

If you want to get someone’s attention, you can also put this at the beginning or in the body of your tweet. It’s sort of like saying “Hey Rachel!” Any tweets with your @username will appear in a section of your profile called replies. Most mobile applications have a similar section.

Mentions
This is when a username is placed in the midst of a tweet. Generally speaking, if you refer to someone using twitter you should include their username in the aforementioned format so it’s a link for others. Here are a few examples of using mentions to refer to individuals and other entities.

Racheldelcau: Chatting with @onethatcan about setting up an Entrepreneurs group for Consortium members.

Racheldelcau: listening @onpointradio on @kwmu – great show!

RT = retweet
This is like a forward. An example of when to use this:

Racheldelcau: The Consortium offers full ride fellowships to full-time MBA students at 15 top-tier institutions.

Onethatcan: RT @racheldelcau The Consortium offers full ride fellowships to full-time MBA students at 15 top-tier institutions.

My initial tweet is viewed by my followers. When you retweet it, all your followers see the message. Etiquette calls for including the original tweeters username and making clear any additions you’ve included. Etiquette also calls for thanking folks when they retweet your message.

Onethatcan: RT @racheldelcau The Consortium offers full ride fellowships to full-time MBA students at 15 top-tier institutions. [I’m a Consortium alumnus!]

DM = Direct Message
This is what you do if you want to send someone a “private” message. Example of proper format below:

DM @racheldelcau Help me learn how to tweet pleeeeze!

This message would show up in my DM “folder” on either twitter or my mobile app but not publicly. Also, all your tweets except your DMs show up in your “twitter stream” which is what’s on your profile page. If you click on any of the hyperlinks to my profile above, you will see my most recent 25 tweets. Under my name you can chose to follow me if you’re logged in.

Follow me @racheldelcau.

I hope this introduction to Twitter helps you find your way.  Please feel free to provide feedback!