Following a request for help on understanding Twitter from Clare over at Battlements of Rubies, I realise that explaining how Twitter works to the uninitiated is a bit like that old (but still very amusing) joke about explaining the rules of cricket to a foreigner.
When you first look into Twitter and what it's all about, if you're like me, you search for an account and look at their timeline (list of Tweets from the account holder in chronological order).
If you don't have an account yourself yet or have an account but are not 'following' many people then it looks like some sort of 'gobblydygook' as you will see a lot of disconnected statements some of which you can probably tell are replies to something or other.
To get the whole picture you need to be able to see the Tweets of the people the account holder is talking to.
Like many things, the best way to 'get it' is to set up an account and begin following people. As you become more familiar with how it works and more confident you'll find you naturally want to join in (at least, I think most people feel like that).
I would guess that most people have a spread of people they follow. A good starting point might be to add a few News sites like @BBCNews, @breakingnews and for Catholics how about @catholic herald, @lukecoppen @news_va_en? A lot of bloggers are also on Twitter; add some of your favourites to your 'following' list. You could add a few Twitter accounts of things you are particularly interested in; I follow a few sports sites; it might be politics (e.g. @number10gov), music, films, art galleries etc.
Twitter has jargon like any other social media. Here is a glossary of some of the more common terms. And here's the official Twitter version.
So, now you know your Tweeps from your twerps and your Followers from your stalkers, all you have to do is get Tweeting.
1 comment:
Very helpful, thank you!
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