I have had enough of all my friends asking me how to use twitter… So I thought I’d just write a post and then I can just point everyone of my friends to it everytime they ask the question, “How do I use twitter”…

So lets start, First of you need to get an account (I am assuming you have one if not go here https://twitter.com/).

Next get yourself a good client they are invaluable to helping you keep track of what is going on and help you in your daily twittering. A good one is tweetdeck (http://tweetdeck.com/beta/). There are others that are just as good but for this “how to” I’m just focusing on tweetdeck. Once you have downloaded it and run it you then need to login with your twitter account and create a tweetdeck account. The last option isn’t required but benifical for many reaons like, synchronizes your groups and helps with mulitple accounts.

You’ll start to notice that most of the information is actually to use tweetdeck in context with twitter. Like I said before clients are invaluable and knowing how to use them is too.

The Language

So now you will need to know the language. A few things;

@garethjrichards would essentially send a tweet that will mention me and which obviously has something to do with me for example – Mmm coffee! @garethjrichards you want some? – You can easily do this in tweetdeck by pressing this button after hovering over a user or when tweeting just type ‘@’ and you will get a list of your friends.

RT or retweet is similar to above but has two functions the first is to give context to a reply for example I say something like – @garethjrichards xbox is awesome! – and Nintendo reply like this – RT @garethjrichards: xbox is awesome! || No it isn’t – This gives context to the reply so that everyone can follow the conversation. The “||” in this example helps to separate Nintendo’s reply from my message. The other function is to share a tweet that you think your followers would like to know for example Nintendo tweets – This is the new Wii check it out http://newwii.com – Then I would tell my followers (because some might not follow Nintendo) by tweeting – RT @nintendo: This is the new Wii check it out http://newwii.com. You can easily retweet in tweetdeck by pressing this button after hovering over a user.

The other type of message is a direct message this message is directly to the person you sent it to and no one else can read it. Like a messenger (gtalk or msn messenger). You can easily direct message in tweetdeck by pressing this button after hovering over a user.

Another interesting thing to learn are hashtags. These will show up as a ‘#’ icon followed by a word like #applemac. This gives the tweet a kind of information or keyword but I think wiki explains it better “In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are chosen informally and personally by the item’s creator or by its viewer, depending on the system.”

The Options

You’ll start to notice that most of the information is actually to use tweetdeck in context with twitter. Like I said before clients are invaluable and knowing how to use them is too.

We can now poke around what is what and how it all works. You’ll notice different options above (right at the top) for tweet deck that look like this.

1 – This opens up your tweet window which allows you to update your twitter (and facebook) account. I’ll explain it more later on in the post.

2 – This opens a window that shows you all the twitter updates of people who you follow, your friends status’ (statii?) if you will.

3 – This opens a window that shows you all the twitter messages where you have been mentioned (whether you follow the person or not). If you have been mentioned it will show up here. For instance replies (as I explained above) to your messages will end up here.

4 – This opens a window that shows you all the direct messages (as I explained above) that have been sent to you.

5 – This opens a window that shows you all your favourite messages (there is an icon to favourite a message that you think is awesome you’ll find the option in tweetdeck if you poke around).

6 – This creates a new group (I will explain groups later) for you to add people to.

7 – This opens a window that shows you recommended tweets (not sure how tweetdeck does this but it is not a twitter feature).

8 – This allows you to search through tweets (all of them) using a keyword. It’s like searching google only you aren’t looking for a website you’re looking for a tweet.

9 – This opens a window that shows you the most common words being used on twitter at that moment. It can help you discover what is happening in the world. Sometime even before the news websites can publish them.

10 – This icon is a separate company that allows you to share short 12 second video on twitter. I can’t tell you any more than that because I don’t use it. But it seems like a nice idea if I had a video camera.

11 – Okay I have know idea what this does. Seriously, I haven’t used it. If you want to tell me in the comments that would be great.

12 – This opens up a window that shows you all your facebook friends status’ (statii?).

The Update

So I think the last thing we have to do is show you the update area and possibly the groups the rest of the cool features you can work out yourself.

So above is a picture of the update area (you can get to it if you press number 1 in the previous window described above).

1 – Is the area you type you update in. Your update can only be 140 characters long and their is a countdown on the side represented by number 11

2 – Because you only get 140 characters to type in a long URL (website name) like “http://capetown.gumtree.co.za/c-Stuff-for-Sale-musical-instruments-Bagpiper-W0QQAdIdZ147170235” is just a bit too long to put into twitter so you can insert that URL into the text area and click the icon referenced as 3 and it will take that URL and shorten it through an external service and put it in your tweet text area. Something like this http://is.gd/26jYd. Ahhh that is much shorter.

4 – This icon will allow you to search your harddrive to find a picture which will be uploaded to a photo hosting sight and the URL will be placed in the tweet text area. Something like this http://twitpic.com/6ny1a

5 – This option will try and shrink your tweet so that you can add more text for example a tweet like “Hello everyone how are you all?” will be shortened to “Hello every1 how R U all?”

6 – This is a translation button to translate your update into another language.

7 – This shows all the most recent hashtags (as explained above)

8 – This will show you your twitter account. If you click on it the update will not be sent to twitter. When you click it again the send to twitter option will be enabled again.

9 – This is similar to 8 but for facebook updates.

10 – This sends the tweet but you can always just press enter which will do the same thing.

11 – This was explained above.

The last thing to explain is groups. each person you follow can be grouped into different categories. For example I have SA friends, US friends, News reels, and Extras. You can group these people into their groups very easily and in so doing can make management of your followee’s easier.

That’s a wrap if you want to know more just drop me a tweet @garethjrichards

Cheers and happy tweeting.