Twitter 101 - A Beginners Guide

It's a fact that social media is here to stay and getting connected with others is the best way to network and further your career goals. We all know this, but sometimes change can be scary. It's one thing to have a Facebook account and even a profile on Linkedin, but to really harness the power of social media, you'll need to get involved in real time.  That means Twitter.

Twitter is the best way to communicate with others in real time, with instant feedback. The problem is that learning new technology can be tough and a little intimidating - even for those of us who spend a great deal of time online. If you've been meaning to join Twitter, but aren't sure how or have a Twitter but haven't really gotten the hang of using it much, hopefully these pointers will help.

Here's how to get started:

What is Twitter? - It's a social networking platform where users can share their thoughts, opinions, links to content they want to share or whatever. The only limitation is that the message has to be 140 characters of less. Once you send your message, it will be available for anyone to see. Other people can comment on what you said or send messages to you by indicating that in their text. Typically, users "follow" the people who they want to see messages from. These followers can be personal friends or people who you don't know at all. If you follow someone, that doesn't mean that you are or want to be friends with them.

In the Twitter universe, there is some jargon that is commonly used. In order to understand how the site works, you'll want to have the correct term. Here's a few:

Tweet - A tweet is a message posted to twitter.

Retweet (RT) - Re-sharing someone else's tweet. For example, if someone you follow sent a tweet and you want to share it with your followers, you will simply re-tweet it.

Feed - This is a stream of all of the tweets that you will see on your homepage. They are typically updates from the people you follow and any tweets that are directed at you.

Mention - When you want to mention someone's name you should reference them by using the @ symbol, followed by their username. If someone @mentions you, it will show up in your feed. The @mention is the best way to have a discussion with other users on the site, but keep in mind that the discussion isn't private.

Direct Message (DM) - This is the only way to send a private tweet to someone. You can only DM someone who follows you.

Hashtag (#) - This is a huge part of Twitter. The hashtag is a way to tag a conversation or get involved in a larger discussion with people who are talking about the subject but who aren't people you follow. For example, if you were talking about the President of the United States, you would add #Obama. You can click on hashtags and see all of the tweets that mention it as well. There are many job search hashtags that can be useful when looking for people to follow.



Now, all you have to do is sign up, do a hashtag search to find people who are talking about the subject you are interested in and get tweeting. Good luck and have fun!