Twitter is a great social media platform but it’s confusing to many people, even those who may be comfortable using social media sites such as Facebook to connect with friends and family. The good news is, Twitter isn’t complicated once you understand how to use it. Once you understand the basics, you can use Twitter to save money, simplify customer service issues, and connect with people in your community.

What Can You Do With Twitter?

The question is quickly becoming, “What can’t you do with Twitter?” While Facebook makes it easy to stay in touch with family and friends and share personal photos, Twitter helps you connect with a larger community of people, including businesses and your local community. I’ve used Twitter to connect with businesses for giveaways on Busy Mommy Media, launch a new site, and meet new friends after a move.

If I need some quick information Twitter is the first place I go. It’s kind of like a search engine that talks back to you. Recently I needed to find a new hair salon and figure out what the going rate was for babysitters in my area. Both times, I sent out a tweet, which is like a Facebook status update on Twitter, and within minutes I had dozens of responses that provided me with the information I needed.

Twitter Parties are a fun new trend that allow you to connect with other moms and be entered to win some great prizes. Our #MomStorm parties are a fun twist on a brainstorming session that provide you with a lot of information on topics that you are interested in. Social media (including Twitter) is evolving all the time. The possibilities that you can use it for are nearly endless.

How to Get Started on Twitter

The first thing you need to do if you want to start using Twitter is create a Twitter account. Creating a Twitter account is easy and fast, but you will want to do it right away if you have a specific username, for business or personal use, that you want to claim.

Once you have created a Twitter account, you will need to update your profile information to give your Twitter account some personality and provide your readers with a link to your blog, if you have one.

Parts of Twitter

When you login to your Twitter account, this is what you are going to see: (Click on the image to make it larger if you need to)

(A) Twitter Update - This is where you will enter your tweet. You have 140 characters so use them wisely. If you have trouble fitting everything you need to say into 140 characters try using Twitlonger.com or linking to a blog post with more information. If you are adding a link to a blog post, be sure and use a service such as TinyURL.com to shorten the link so it doesn’t take up too many characters.

(B) Twitter Home Feed - The tweets of everyone you are following will be listed here, starting with the most recent. Twitter will tell you how many new tweets have been posted since you loaded the page but you will need to refresh the page in order to see them.

(C) Twitter Background - Twitter offers a selection of built in Twitter backgrounds that you can use on your Twitter page when you are just getting started. Once you start to use Twitter more, you will probably want to make your own Twitter background or hire someone to do it for you in order to stand out and make yourself more memorable.

(D) Twitter Menu – The Twitter menu can take you back to your Twitter home page (as seen above), allow you to update your profile, find people to follow, change your settings, get help, or Sign out of Twitter. The menu is displayed on any page on Twitter so you always have access to it.

(E) – This area shows you some basic information about your Twitter account, including how many tweets you have written since creating your account. Clicking on your Twitter ID will take you to your Twitter profile. “Following” is the people that you have chosen to follow or receive information on. If you click on that link it will take you to a list of all the people your are following, starting with the most recent. “Followers” are the people who have chosen to follow you. If that number is increasing, you know that people are interested in what you have to say. Clicking on the “followers” link will take you to a list of the people who are following you, again, starting with the most recent, and allow you to follow them back if you choose to. “Listed” are lists that people have created and added you to. More on Twitter lists later.

(F) - These links make it easy for you to follow conversations in Twitter.

@YourTwitterID will take you to a screen that shows you a list of anyone who has mentioned your (or spoken to you). You can reply to tweets directly from that screen.

Direct Messages takes you to your private inbox of messages that have been sent to you. Only Twitter users who you are following can send you a direct message.

Favorites are tweets that you have chosen as favorites by selecting the star icon that shows up when you mouse over a tweet. This is handy for things you want to reference later.

Retweets are things that you have sent out to your Twitter followers that were posted by someone else. Clicking on this link will show you everything you have retweeted and the tweets you have written that others have retweeted out to their followers.

(G) Trending Topics – Trending topics are the most talked about topics on Twitter at that very moment. These can change quickly and range from political events to what’s on T.V. at the moment. Clicking on a topic will take you to all the tweets on the subject. You can reply to any tweet that you see or you can create a new tweet by entering it into the Twitter update area.

How to Create a Tweet

To post a tweet, click on the Twitter update area (A in the above image) and type out your tweet. You only have 140 characters to use. When you are ready to post your tweet, hit the button below the update box that says “Tweet”.

Your tweet will now appear in the timeline of anyone who is following you and be searchable through the search function in twitter.

Photo by tveskov