If those in charge of our society – politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television – can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.
Howard Zinn
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TweetThis primer has some tips and resources you'll need to get oriented. There are trillions of tutorials available on Twitter, many of them pretty poor. Twitter's own help pages are among the worst of them. But there are some adequate sites and pages, ranging from this brief overview style, to the far more extensive, tutorial-about-everything style, such as Mashable's Guide To Twitter. Even the bad ones can still give you the basics.
Note: Twitter 101 For Business is probably better than most of their materials, and worth a look, even if you're not a business.
I suggest you glance at that one, but ignore the rest (for now). Just wander around, asking questions and endearing yourself to people by being clueless and vulnerable. Just bear these things in mind during your first week:
Try it. Click #p2 for filthy commie libs, or #tcot for screaming Beck fans who want all liberals to be sent to Super Max concentration camps.
If you're a conservative minded person, my only tip is this: Facebook.
That's it. You'll pick it all up from here.
Most of all. Enjoy it. Yes, it's a brave new world, but it's also an interesting and fun one.
Client programs take social media to a new level not usually found on the web verisons of many applications Nobody you like uses the Twitter.com website to access Twitter:
Verify Your Twitter Account — Very important. Celebrities and people important to Twitter can get it done. Just ask your staff to follow instructions. We little people have to suck it.
Basic Twitter Terms You Must Know
How to get started with-twitter — As stated above, just one of many tutorials. One is just about as good as another at the start. Get the key ideas; learn by doing.
Top 50 Twitter Acronyms, Abbreviations and Initialisms by @digiphile — A very good guide by a saavy social media thought leader.
Shoq's Tips — A number of things you won't find easily. Including tricky issues like New Retweet vs. Old Retweet, etc.
What does #FF or "#Follow Friday" mean? — Since Friday is your first full day, you're about to find out. It's not one of Twitter's finer traditions. Read about it here.
Twictionary.com — All the lingo in one place. Not for the squeamish.
Hashtags.org — A dictionary of tags (best picked up by just watching and asking)
Journalists on Twitter — A decent, if not exhaustive directory of people you will surely be interested in. Remember, there's far more insight and ideas than what come across in any one community.
Directory of Twitter Lists — Lists are a great way to follow the tweets of many people in various interest areas, without actually following individuals. You just follow the list, and browse the tweets of the people in them.
WeFollow.com —A General Twitter Directory
Tweetprogress.us — The Progressive Community on Twitter. Hardly definitive, but most of the leaders and core people are there.
About Gametags — Which are an amusing way to waste hours of time creating completely silly, often riotously funny, poignant, or humiliating tweets about breaking news, or really dumb or annoying people and events.
How To Verify A Tweet — Useful for Journalists, or anyone trying to confirm the veracity of a Tweet on a fact or news story.
Note: This page will change often. If you are referring it to friends, please ask them to check back often. If you feel it needs new concepts or resources, please post a comment.
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Gametag — is a term that I created to describe the use of #hashtaqs in contests or simple word games played on Twitter, and other social networks that support such tags.
Sometimes I, my friend @lizzWinstead, or some other Twitter addict will create a tag and put it out there and see if others will find it amusing and join in by tweeting some quip, definition, remark, or other form of "submission" to the #gametag stream.
Most often, these are just for fun, and tossed out at random, but there are many people who are addicted to creating them in hopes that they will become a "Trending Topic" (#TT), and get listed in Twitter's search interface. Some try to make this happen to promote an event or product (but these are usually obvious, rarely much fun, and often fail to gain much traction).
A popular gametag can be followed—or at least noticed—by thousands, even millions of people on social networks.
Many gametags are based on a breaking news event, such #balloonBoy or #StupaksNewJob, but the majority of them are predicated on some amusing premise such as #TeabaggerMovieTitles, #3wordsAfterSex, or #4WordStories.
For example, #TeachOlbermann was a new gametag I created to teach new Tweep, Keith Olbermann what people think he should know about Twitter—or the politics, culture, allure, or hazards thereof. About 1% of them were serious, and the rest merely funny—or trying hard to be.
Note: You never know with tags. Sometimes they soar, and become a "trending tag," and at other times they're just dog tags and die a quick death).
Note: These may be removed from Twitter by the time you read this.