Day 5
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Lesson 5
Just one word: Twitter. You’ve heard about it. Odds are, you don’t even really know what it is. Well guess what. In about 5 minutes, you will know more about it than some people who already use it. Look at you go!
Twitter is a micro-blog. A blog, or weB LOG, is a series of articles available to read over an internet connection. The blog articles are usually posted by one author and are kept in a descending sequence by date. You are reading a blog right now. These lessons are the first ten articles published in a blog.
A mirco-blog is a blog made up of very short posts. Every twitter post is limited to 140 characters, which is enough for 1 to 2 sentences. It was originally developed for people to alert their friends to what they’re doing at the moment. For example, you might tweet a message like, “Heading to the movies at 7:30 pm to see the new Star Trek movie.” Then, any of your friends who wanted to join you could show up at the theater.
There is some functionality built into Twitter to allow for people to respond to your messages, but it is really built to send messages that you do not expect to receive a response to.
There are two sides to this Twitter coin. They are who you are “following” and who your “followers” are. You choose who you are “following” and your “followers” choose to follow you. Now, before you run off screaming, “Cult, cult, cult,” let me assure you that there will be no Kool Aid served over Twitter.
Let’s break this down.
If you send:
“I am going to the movies.”
All of your followers will get the message.If you follow your friend Larry (Twitter Username = LuckyLarry) and he sends:
“I am going to the movies too.”
You will see it, and everyone else who follows Larry will see it.If you send;
@LuckyLarry Sneak in some Junior Mints dude!The @ symbol in front of Larry’s username will direct the message specifically at Larry, but other people can see it too. Oh, and you get Junior Mints out of the deal.
You can send a message directly to a person that other people cannot see. That has to be done by clicking “Direct Messages” on the right side of your Twitter page and then selecting a user from the drop down menu at the top of the page. You can only send a direct message to another user who is following you.
Note 2.0
It is important to note that you should never send personal information like social security numbers and credit card numbers over twitter at any time for any reason.
There is more to this Twitter thing, but these basics will get you going nicely. Remember what the past lesson on Netiquette said about typing in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Don’t.
Homework
Open a Twitter account and follow me on Twitter. You may want to write down or print these instructions.
- Go to http://twitter.com
- Click the “Sign Up Now” button
- Fill out the short form (remember your e-mail address)
- Click the “Create My Account” button
- Click the “Skip this step” link underneath the “Continue” button
- Click the “Finish” button
(Note: This method will auto-follow some random Celebrities) - Go to http://twitter.com/firstplacetogo
(Note: I didn’t put the word “the” in there. The name was too long with it.) - Click the “Follow” button
Congratulations, you’re on Twitter!
If you want to get some followers from our community here, feel free to post your Twitter username in the comments below. Once you do, go through the comments and follow some of the folks here. If you notice that someone has posted a Twitter username here that does nothing but send out advertisements, please let me know and I will remove their post.
Wrap Up
Have you noticed that I usually put two topics in each lesson? Did you notice that I didn’t today? That is partly because this is a big topic, partly you’re now halfway through the lessons, and partly because I want you to use the Find People link at the top of Twitter to search for people to follow and have fun with a really neat social networking tool. I’m looking forward to tomorrow!
