How to Use Twitter

Twitter and social media have the power to transform any business into a true economic success and it can connect individuals with friends and family spread all over the globe.

Twitter can be implemented into any marketing strategy to promote your business or it can be a great social tool.

However, if you’re not familiar with how Twitter works, then you might be feeling left out of all the fun.

In this article, we’re going to provide a breakdown of what Twitter is and how to use it. From setting up a Twitter account to following, tweeting and growing your personal or business ventures, we’ve got you covered!

What is Twitter?

Before we dive in, let’s go over exactly what Twitter is.

Twitter is an online social media platform that operates solely on tweets, which are short 280-character messages sent out by Twitter users. Any Twitter user can send out a tweet, share someone else's tweet (called retweeting) by hitting the retweet button, and communicate with other users through direct messages (or DMs).

You can talk to people by commenting on a tweet, retweeting a tweet with your own words, or tweet @ someone else’s handle. Many tweets contain hashtags or a phrase, name or word that is lumped together behind a number symbol to create a unique hashtag identifier. This #twiends is a hashtag. And #soisthis. You can create your hashtags and find relevant hashtags by searching on Twitter.

The most used hashtags become the most popular and are known as trending hashtags. Twitter is able to identify trending topics, or popular topics in certain geographical locations or from all over the world, based on trending hashtags.

In the Twitterverse, it can be good or bad to be trending. Usually, trending events are those major global events that much of the world wants to talk about. The audience for trending topics are global, but they can also be tailored for each region. The audience for relevant hashtags will typically be those interested or involved in a specific topic.

So now that you know the basics, are you ready to dive in? It’s easy to start tweeting, and soon you’ll be cultivating an audience and featuring promoted tweets.

Let’s get started by setting up a Twitter account.

How to set up a Twitter account

Signing up with Twitter is simple. You will need an email or phone number to create an account, and you will be required you to protect your account with a password.

First, head over to social media site twitter.com. You can also access this by using the mobile app or web app. The welcome page will ask you to ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Log in’. Click ‘Sign Up’.

You first need to provide a username and phone number or email. The name you provide does not have to be your legal name and can represent something you’re interested in or your spunky attitude. Choose whatever name you like. Twitter will then ask some questions, like if you want to customize your web experience by allowing Twitter to access content on the web. You can opt-out of this if you’d like.

Hit next to create your account, and then click ‘Sign Up’. Once you hit sign up a verification code will be sent to the email or phone number you provided. Type that verification code in and hit next.

Then, create a 6 character password - make sure it is easy for you to remember but difficult for hackers to figure out and again hit next.

Great! Now you have an account.

Next, you can go about personalizing your account with a profile picture and writing a brief bio. You can skip these for now and edit them later in your profile but don’t wait too long. These details will tell potential followers everything they need to know about you or your business! You can also specify what your interests are (or do it later). Search for your interests in the platform and follow things like ‘World News’, ‘Animals’, or ‘Bitcoin’. This is a great time to follow people who are major players in your field of interest.

From there you can get started tweeting!

Customize your Twitter experience however you see fit. You can even send out a test tweet. Once on your home page, click the blue circular button with a feather and plus sign.

Compose a tweet like: “I just created my first Twitter account! #letsdothis.” Feel free to learn the meaning of hashtags to understand more about what you just tweeted.

You’re official now! You’ve just created your first account and sent your first tweet! With your account, you can access trending topics, general topics, moments, Twitter ads, analytics and edit your settings and profile. You can even change your username (the @ name) in your account settings any time you want.

There is so much that can be done with a Twitter account. For example, if you are a business and you are interested in the ways your Twitter followers interact with your account, then you integrate google analytics for insightful data.

If you’d like to set up a second Twitter account, go through the same steps as described above and provide a different phone number or email. You can connect up to five accounts so that you don’t have to log out to transition to your other accounts.

How to follow people on Twitter

Following people allows you to tailor your content to your interests or business needs. You most likely followed a few people when you initially signed up, but you can always follow more at any time.

The easiest and quickest way to find your friends or target audience is to search for what you’re interested in.

Use the magnifying glass icon and scroll through topics such as “For you”, “News” or “Entertainment”. Or, if you type something specific, like “baseball gloves”, your Twitter account will pull accounts, like @Wilsonballglove for you, or tweets about baseball gloves that other Twitter users have made.

If you are browsing a specific profile, you can follow from there. Simply click the “follow” button. Once you do, suggested accounts that you may want to follow will appear. Generally, this is the best way to meet up with people who you might be interested in and who might be interested in your account.

You can also connect through influencers, tweets you find relevant and topical blog posts. Search through trending topics, relevant hashtags, or friend profiles to find ways to connect with accounts that can help you connect and grow your personal network. Following people can lead you to other people to follow, but it can also lead these people to follow you in return.

Now that you are following people you can stay up to date by subscribing to text or mobile app notifications. Head over to your account settings to update your preferences from there.

Ways to use Twitter

The Twitter algorithms and bots want to tailor your experience of the platform to your interests.

The more topics, hashtags, and posts that you follow that interest you, the more relevant your feed will be. Find influencer content through the Topics tab and bookmark important tweets for later use.

Twitter is first and foremost a social platform, so you can use it just to share your thoughts with the world. You can also focus the content of your tweets to suit a specific target audience or image you are hoping to project.

If you are an influencer, want to be one, or have a business/brand to grow, then you can share and promote significant web content like blog posts. Web platforms like SquareSpace and Wordpress can automatically tweet out your new blog post once it’s posted.

Identifying what to tweet and when to tweet is important. If you are interested in certain popular hashtags then you’ll want to tweet when that hashtag is trending. The time of day is important too. If your target audience is asleep when you tweet, they will miss your post. Consider scheduling your tweets to ensure they go out when your audience is most active.

One of the most popular ways to use Twitter is as a marketing tool. If you are a business, you can share your company’s blog post, relevant business details like hours of operation, or provide vital customer service. You’ll want to work with your marketing team to develop a social media marketing strategy specific to Twitter.

Let’s dive into this now.

How to use Twitter for business

To promote your business on Twitter, it’s important to implement a marketing strategy unique to your online social presence.

Most of your traffic will be funneling through trending hashtags. You can tweet out contests, company Twitter cards, and more using relevant and popular hashtags. You can also utilize influencer marketing, which implements a social media marketing strategy by recruiting an influencer who has sway with your audience to discuss or plug your brand/product.

Live-tweeting an event is another great tool. It can boost followers and provide further emphasis on your company’s main content.

Other ways that Twitter can work for your business is by scheduling your tweets. You’ll want to tweet at strategic times, before big events, or when your Twitter audience is most active online. Schedule tweets to make your social media presence automated. But be sure that you do not schedule tweets to go out too often, doing so can make you appear to be a bot and will turn off your followers as it will spam their feed.

Marketing on Twitter should be tailored to Twitter’s specifications, make sure your tweets say all it can within the character limit. Consider sharing videos, images, and memes to get your point across.

Conclusion

Growing and developing your online social presence will expand your business’ followers and could lead to more fruitful client relationships. It could also help you connect better with friends, family, and the subjects that interest you most.

Twitter is powerful, and how you decide to use it will depend on what your goals are. With this article you know have an informative step-by-step to getting started on Twitter and of the different ways you can use to market your business or stay connected!