Learn Twitter & Its Powerful Benefits: The Beginner’s Guide

So without further delay, let’s dive in to learn Twitter and its advantages …

What Is Twitter?

Twitter, Inc. is an American microblogging & social media service. It is based in San Francisco, California & has presence in multiple countries around the world.

Twitter is my favorite social media site that employs message restriction of a maximum 280 characters. 

It really is different from others like Facebook and others. There are only short specific messages tweeted by people from around the world, which is effective to communicate something quickly. It sends instant updates.

Twitter is great in order to remain updated about everything happening in the world around you.

You read the word microblogging. What does it mean?

What Is Microblogging

It is basically a combination of blogging and instant messaging. Together both of these result in short messages to be posted and shared with the online world.

Twitter is a prime example of microblogging. It suites the mobile platform as it becomes convenient to push your thoughts on the go through to the point, concise content. Lengthy posts are difficult to write on smartphones.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Short messages

Unlike Facebook or other social media platforms, Twitter has a limit of 280 characters for every Tweet, Retweet or Reply. 

This size cap has made Twitter a popular communication tool. Concise and to the point content is easy to read. This cap promotes focused and clever use of language, which results in Tweets easy to scan and challenging to write.

History Of Twitter

This social site was created in March 2006 and launched in July that year by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams.  

Jack Dorsey is the CEO of the company.  

It rapidly rose in popularity, being described as “SMS of the Internet”.

Currently, there are around 330 million monthly active Twitter users.

It ranks as 35^th most popular site in the world.

Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but the limit was doubled to 280 for non-Asian languages in November 2017. 

Want a Twitter account? Read on……

Join Twitter Community

Before starting to learn Twitter, first get an account on it. Setting up an account is fairly straight forward as with other service accounts anywhere else.

Please follow the steps below:

• Go to Twitter site, twitter.com, and click on Signup.

• On the next screen, write your full name in Name field and email address in the Email field.

• The next screen asks you to select the option in order to have personalized experience served to you. It is recommended to keep it checked.

• On the next screen, click Sign up.

• Enter code on the next screen to verify your e-mail address. You will receive it at the address provided.

• Set a password on the next screen.

• The profile picture is optional on the next screen, so use it if you want or it can be done later.
• Write about yourself that describes you as a person on the next option. It should be creative & concise. By the way, it is optional too.

• On the next screen, select the topics of interest to you in order to receive updates about them.

• In addition to topics, it will now provide names of popular people to follow.
• Now turn notifications on or skip them. Click on Next.

That’s all. You will now find yourself logged in to your brand new Twitter account!

What Is A Verified Account

During your experience with Twitter, you may come across many accounts that have a blue badge with a tick mark next to their name. This is the symbol of a verified account as shown below:

This badge shows that an account of public interest is authentic. Certified badges are only applied by Twitter itself upon request by an account. 

These public interest accounts include music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, media, sports, business, etc.

It is not an endorsement by Twitter.

Get A Suitable Username

Username is the one by which you will be known on Twitter. After setting up your account, make sure to change it if it is not as per the following suggestions:

You can set username by following the procedure given below:

• After logging in, click on More on the left side, where different options are available. It is shown below:  

• Now click on Settings and privacy in the resulting menu.
• On the Settings screen, check on the right side under Login and security. There is an option for username. It is your required field. Click on it and change as suggested above. Shown below for you:

Why Twitter is so powerful – Quick & effective communication

Twitter allows users to quickly communicate anything important and interesting to people like news, events or anything they know about.

They can send a quick message because of text limit for every Tweet – 280 characters max – so they need to shorten the Tweet and make it to the point.

The main thing that I am trying to convey: to add something valuable so you develop an admirable reputation online. Whenever you reply to someone, add something to the conversation.

Twitter is free communication; for a very low investment of time you can get your point to a lot of people in a very short time – what you think is cool or crappy or interesting. You get closer to people and get yourself known to them.

Want to know the fundamentals and some tips, the following sections will help!

What Makeup Twitter

In order to properly learn Twitter & use it, you must know the basics components of this social media platform. This Twitter tutorial 2020 is written to help you out.

Following are the details, go through them and maybe you will find something new if you are already using it:

Important: Most of the following Twitter tasks for mobile app of Android and iOS can be done the same way as explained below for a web browser, so you will be able to know how to tweet on mobile also. Most of the following procedure relates to web browser based Twitter access.

On the Twitter login screen, enter your e-mail/username and password to start exploring it.

Home Timeline

After logging into your Twitter account, the first screen presents you with your Home Timeline.

Your Home timeline provides the stream of Tweets from accounts you have chosen to follow on Twitter.

How To Sort Tweets

Twitter gives you options to sort these Tweets as per top tweets or latest tweets on your timeline. Just click the icon as shown by the arrow at the top of middle column and select top Tweets or latest Tweets:

Top Tweets are ones you are likely most interested in and are chosen based on accounts you interact with most, Tweets you engage with, etc.

My suggestion: Choose to sort Tweets as top Tweets first instead of the latest Tweets, like me. This will help you to see Tweets based on your interest.

Twitter Handle

A twitter handle is a unique username selected by a person to use on Twitter.

For example, Ahmer_Far is my handle.

Every handle has URL like https://twitter.com/username. for example https://twitter.com/Ahmer_Far

Tweet 

Posting A Tweet

When a user posts an update to their timeline, this is called a Tweet. It can only be of 280 characters – maximum!

Tweets can be thought of as small bursts of information. 

To create a tweet, click on the Tweet icon in the lower-left corner of the Twitter screen. Resulting popup box allows to compose and post the Tweet; shown in picture below.

While writing a Tweet, you will see a circle with an outline increasing. It shows the amount of characters left to write a Tweet.

There is a + sign on the right side which lets you add another Tweet so that both can be sent at the same time.

Options at the bottom of this box, shown by the arrow below, allow adding a picture/video, GIF, Poll or an Emoji.

After writing the Tweet and adding any other elements, click on Tweet to post it.

My suggestions:

• Try to post Tweets with videos whenever you can. Tweets with videos get many times more engagement than plain Tweets or Tweets with pictures.  
• Don’t try to post private information so much that it can compromise the safety of you and your loved ones.

Delete A Tweet

If you accidentally send a Tweet having bad words or a joke, don’t be upset. Tweet gives you the ability to undo your mistake.

Go to your timeline by clicking Profile on left side, locate the tweet and click on down arrow on the upper right side of it. The options that appear include Delete as shown below.

In addition to Delete, there is an option Pin to your profile which ties it to the top of your timeline so that it always remains there. It is very useful for keeping an important Tweet at the top of your profile.

Embed Tweet is for placing a Tweet on your site or app. 

The last one View Tweet activity shows the total number of Impressions and Total engagements that this Tweet managed to gain.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Remain updated about the world

Learn Twitter and you can keep on top of the news and current affairs by leveraging the content of this microblogging site.

Just follow popular people, newspapers, companies and your timeline will keep updating almost every second.

You can remain updated about an event on Twitter where an official hashtag of it is given, like hashtag of a conference. This enables attendees of the conference to track what everyone is saying about the conference.

Follow

Follow Someone

Following someone means that whenever that person will tweet, it will appear on the timeline of yours. Tweets appear in reverse chronological order, with most recent appearing at the top.

Simple select Follow on the profile page of that person or company to follow. This option is available under the header photo as shown below. It will change to Following.

Note: You can go to the profile of an account by searching its name or Twitter username in the search box at the top right of your home timeline screen. When it appears in search results, just click on it to open.

For mobile, search can found at the bottom of the screen by its icon.

Follow friends & family by searching their usernames or first & last name in the search box at the top right of the screen.

Unfollow Someone

In case you change mind and don’t want to receive updates, go to the profile of that person, site or company and hover over the Following button. It will change to Unfollow which can be clicked to get it done. It is shown below, arrow pointing instead to Notifications icon. My mistake!

My suggestion: A lot of unnecessary stuff also exists on Twitter. Follow those accounts that are beneficial to you in any way: in your profession, interests, hobbies, current affairs etc. so that you can get the most out of Twitter.

For example, I follow:

• Who help me to blog – @yoast, @syedbalkhi, @MattWoodwardUK, etc.
• Who helps me to follow Tennis – @Tennis, @ rogerfederer, etc.
• Who gives the news – @nytimes, @thenews_intl, @cnnbrk, etc.
• Tech leaders – @tim_cook, @satyanadella, @billgates, etc.
• Technology sites – @mashable, @PCMag, @TechCrunch, etc.

Retweet 

It helps to share a tweet that you like from someone else with rest of the Twitter community. Retweet is great to pass interesting stories & news on Twitter.

Facebook re-sharing is basically the same as Twitter retweeting.

Retweet feature of Twitter provides amazing endorsement power. Whenever someone retweets any of your words, it means they recommended you as worthy of attention. It really provides a lot of value.

Retweets spread around the world solid, good content very quickly and efficiently.

How To Retweet

Simply click on double arrow beneath the tweet to send a Retweet.

Retweet will simply do it while Retweet with comment will give you the option to add comments and/or media before Retweeting.

My suggestion: Retweet with a comment to add your own thoughts and input. It’s much better. Use hashtags in your comment so that it will become more visible to the Twitter community. Your valuable words will cause others to notice you.

Media can include GIF, photos or a video.

It will be shared with all of your followers as a Retweet.

It is great to add comments with Retweet to put your own thoughts and insights.

That person will receive notification that you retweeted his/her tweet. It means you interact with him/her. Most probably, they will notice you retweet and may connect with you or even return the favor. Win-win for both.!

How To Undo A Retweet

Find that Tweet on your timeline, Retweet icon (double arrow) will be highlighted. Click on it and then click on Undo Retweet to finish.

You can only undo a simple Retweet not Retweet with comment in which comments are added. It will need to be deleted as explained above in the post.

Important Points About Retweet

• In your Retweet with comment, the original Tweet does not count towards the character limit.
• In addition to Retweeting other’s Tweets, you can also do it for your own. It is helpful when you want to repost one of your older Tweets that are now relevant again.
• Retweets are distinguished by the Retweet icon and the name of the person who Retweeted.
• You can see your Tweets that have been Retweeted by others in your Notification tab.
• You can turn off Retweets from a specific account if you don’t like their sharing. Go to the profile of that account and select Turn off Retweets from overflow icon – three dots – or the gear icon.

• The lock icon next to an account’s name on their profile page or on their Tweets means their Tweets are protected, and can’t be Retweeted.
• Retweets are included in your 1,000 Tweets per day limit.

My suggestion: Avoid Retweeting a lot and unnecessary stuff. Only do so when there is something meaningful to share. Otherwise, you may look like a spammer and result in being unfollowed, blocked or muted by some of your followers.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Do the research

You can ask questions and get answers from the Twitter community.

If you need to research a topic or get ideas, Twitter allows you to crowdsource i.e get a response from your followers or Internet users by asking them questions.

For example, I can ask people to give their opinions about which Antivirus software is the best by giving them choices through Twitter Poll.

Another one is to simply ask them; please give your feedback about how to improve my blog plexnof.com.

You got the idea.

Reply

It is a bit complicated, so please read carefully to fully understand it.

How To Reply

To give a response to someone’s Tweet click on the reply icon beneath the tweet to reply. A compose box will pop up. Type your message and click Reply to post it.

@username appears in reply (username is the name of that person on Twitter).

You can also manually reply to someone by using @ symbol instead of using “Reply” button. Click on the Tweet icon, simply start with @username message to send a manual reply. Message means the text that you want to send.

For example @Ahmer_Far how r u.

But that person you are sending a reply can only see your reply if he\she is following you. If they are not following you then it will appear on their “Notifications” tab, not on their home timeline.

Let Your Followers See This Reply

Also, none of your followers will see this if they are not following the person you replied to.

If you want every one of your followers to see this on their page then put a period (.) in front of @username at the beginning of the Tweet. For example . @Ahmer_Far how r u

Another way to send a reply to someone and have your followers receive it on their Timeline is to put @username in middle of or at end of Tweet to make it a regular tweet instead of a regular reply. For example  how r u @Ahmer_Far

These are all however public and anyone who visits your Profile page will be able to see all of your tweets.

Note: Reply from persons with protected tweets will only be seen by their approved followers.

You can remember all this by using these features regularly.

Mention

To include @ symbol followed by an account username anywhere in the body of the tweet is called “Mention” because you are mentioning someone’s name. It will be seen by all of your followers on their Timeline.

See below pic; I’ve mentioned @syedbalkhi in my Tweet.

These messages as well as all your replies, appear in the Notifications tab.

If multiple usernames are included in your Tweet, all of those people will see your Tweet in their Notifications tab.

I hope you are enjoying all this although it is a bit complicated 🙂

Why Twitter is so powerful – Promote business

Learn Twitter and it pays off. Why? because…..

Twitter is one of the most powerful brand building tool at your disposal.

Businesses can announce new products, promote them and announce press conferences as it gives direct access to both current and potential customers. They can use the feedback given by their users to improve products\services and show positive comments to the world.

A lot of people advertise their services, consulting businesses, and retail outlets with the help of Twitter Ads.

Internet advertising has far-reaching results as compared to traditional advertising of television and newspapers.

Your ad can become visible to the world on the Internet in no time as compared to geographical & time limitations of old advertising methods as mentioned above.

Based on the number of daily active users on Twitter, businesses can promote their products and monetize from it a lot.

Examples of business promotion using Twitter include:

• Hotels can provide recommendations for guests, announce new events, promotions, etc.
• Sports can leverage Twitter for breaking news, team and player information, preparation of players to get fans engaged.
• The food industry can announce menus, new deals, schedules for discounted offerings like midnight deals etc.
• Twitter itself uses @TwitterBusiness for promotion and help other businesses use its platform. It gives news, ways in which companies use Twitter, success stories, etc.

It provides companies and businesses to have a close relationship with their consumers & take care of their concerns immediately. It helps to act them proactively before any minor issue becomes a major one.

For example, if anyone shows concern about the prices of a product or rate of anything on Twitter, the concerned company can react and try to resolve that person’s concern.

Like 

Liking a tweet means to show appreciation for it. Simply click the Heart icon below a Tweet. It will turn red.

To undo a Like, click the red Heart icon again.

View The Liked Tweets

To see the Tweets that you liked in the past, click the Likes tab on your profile page.

It can also be done by going to the profile of that account and clicking the overflow icon – the one with three dots. Select [email protected] from the options.

How To Unmute

You can undo it by going to the profile of that account and select Unmute@username from the menu where you muted it before.

Important Points About Mute

• The muted account will still be followed by you and it can also follow you.
• It can also send you a Direct Message.
• No push notifications or SMS notification will be received from that account.
• Replies and mentions from that account will appear in your Notifications tab.
• All tweets from that account will be removed from your Home timeline.

Want to take the extreme step?

Block 

Block a person means to not allow a person to follow, see tweets or contact you. It also unfollows you and him\her from one another.

You can block someone for various reasons like harassment, spam bots, any unpleasant interaction or finding its Tweets not interesting, etc.

How To Block

• To block from a Tweet, click the down arrow on top of the tweet from the account that you wish to block.  Click [email protected], and then select Block to confirm.
• To block from a profile, go to that account’s profile and click on three dots icon. Click [email protected] from the menu and then Block to confirm. It is shown below:

If you visit the profile of an account that has blocked your account, then a message will alert you about the block like this:

Share & Bookmark A Tweet

Sharing an informative Tweet is a good way to spread knowledge. Sharing is easy and can be done through a Direct Message and email.

Share A Tweet via Direct Message (for PC)

• On a Tweet to be shared click on Share icon (up arrow) next to Like icon.

• In the resulting menu, click on Send via Direct Message.
• In the resulting box, enter the name of the account to send a message or choose from the suggested list.
• You can also Add a comment at the bottom.
• Click Send (the right-pointing arrow) in the right bottom corner.

Share A Tweet via Email

• In the same menu as shown above, there is an option Copy link to Tweet.
• Click on it to copy the Tweet’s URL to your clipboard. 
• In your e-mail client, past the URL in the e-mail that you are composing.

Note:

• A protected Tweet (covered later) can’t be shared through a Direct Message.
• For mobile apps, click on Share icon next to Like icon on a Tweet to be shared. Select the option to Send via Direct Message, Copy link to Tweet or Share Tweet via…

Tip: Sharing a Tweet via Direct Message is a great way to spark a conversation with a group of friends.

Bookmark A Tweet

There may be times when you need to refer to a Tweet later on.  It can be saved by bookmarking.

How To Bookmark A tweet

Bookmark it by using the option as shown in the last picture above, Add Tweet to bookmarks.

To view saved Tweets, click on the Bookmarks icon in the left column as shown here.

Remove Bookmarks(s)

A bookmark can be removed using the same option where you bookmarked a Tweet.

Additionally, you can tap the more icon (three dots) at the top of your bookmark page to remove all of your bookmarks at once.

Note: On mobile apps, bookmarks option is also available where sharing a Tweet is. After bookmarking, click on your profile icon at the top & go to Bookmarks.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Scan friendly

The big appeal of Twitter also lies in the fact that it is very easy to check updates. You can track hundreds of interesting Twitter users, and read their content with a glance. This is required in today’s attention-deficit world.

Scan friendly is the result of message size restriction imposed i.e. 280 characters or less.

Notifications Timeline

What Notifications Show

This timeline shows how others are interacting with you. Here you can see:

• Which of your tweets have been liked.
• Retweets of your tweets.
• Tweets as replies to you and mentions of you.
• New accounts that became your followers.

Notifications View

In the picture above, there are further two tabs in Notifications:

• All tab shows likes, Retweets, mentions and new followers.
• Mentions tab shows Tweets that only contain your username

Notification Filters

You can filter the notifications received through 3 options. These are

• Quality filter: filters low-quality content like duplicate Tweets and automated content
• Muted: to block certain words or phrases that you don’t want to see in notifications
• Advanced filters: allow you to avoid receiving notifications from certain types of accounts.

Here’s how to set them:

• Go to the Notifications tab as shown in picture above.
• Click on gear icon in the top right corner of the middle column.
• Under Notifications, set the filter accordingly as explained above.

For mobile apps: Click the Notification icon – the bell – at the bottom of the screen to go to Notifications timeline.

How To Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts

In case of having more than one account on Twitter, you can add them while having logged in one account. You can then access them with just a couple of clicks instead of having to log out and log in repeatedly.

Here’s how:

• On twitter.com (using a web browser), click on more icon.
• Next click on + sign in top right to bring the following pop-up:  

• Click Add an existing account and then log in to that account.
• Now you can just switch between them by clicking on more icon and then tapping the additional profile icon in the top right corner.

For mobile apps: Click your profile icon and then tap more icon ( 3 dots) or down arrow depending upon the app. Now click Add an existing account to finish the task.

Turn On Twitter Notifications 

If you are following a lot of Twitter accounts and don’t want to miss updates from specific persons, then notifications is the solution.

Looking at the picture above, there is a bell icon with + sign beside Unfollow button. Click on it and it will change to one with tick icon. Now notifications are ON.

But the work is half done:

In order to receive them, push notifications also need to be enabled. Here’s how to do it on the desktop:

Go to Setting and privacy by clicking on More as already told before in this post. Click on Notifications in the middle column, then on Push Notification on the right side. The resulting screen is shown below:

Turn on Push Notifications, and make sure Tweets is checked as shown by arrow in below screenshot:

Note: On mobile, push notifications are turned on by default when you download and login to your Twitter mobile app.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Community of people

You can build up a following by letting people know that you are on Twitter. Encourage them to follow you and receive what you Tweet. When they follow you, by etiquette you also need to return the favor.

This circle of people, known & following each other, results in valuable information shared among them and they remain informed to the latest happenings – the real benefit of Twitter.

Twitter is one of the technologies that contribute to community building. In today’s busy world it is difficult to keep track of others, Twitter makes it easy and fun.

It is a great tool for making new connections, networking with people, promote something and building communities.

Here’s how to keep things confidential:

Direct Message

Direct Message – sometimes also called DM – is a must feature to understand if you want to learn Twitter.

Every tweet that you send is public (unless you have changed your privacy setting to send only private tweets, more about this later) and can be seen by anyone, so what if you want to send a private message to someone which can’t be viewed by anyone else.

Twitter’s “Direct Message” feature allows you to do this. It's just like whispering in a person’s ear. Only he/she can listen, no one else.

How To Send A Direct Message

In order to send a Direct Message:

• Click on the envelope icon as shown below by right arrow. Messages tab will open and then click on New Message, as shown below:   

• Search name(s) or @username(s) of the person in the search box and select.
• Click Next, type your message, attach any picture\video or GIF if you want to and then click on Send – the right-pointing arrow in the end.

That message will appear on the Messages tab.

Note:

• In order to start a new line in a message, press the shift and enter keys at the same time. Pressing only the enter key will send the message.
• If you select multiple accounts to send message to, it will become a group conversation where multiple people can discuss a topic. Anyone in conversation can add other participants.

Note: For Android or iOS, tap the envelope icon to go to Messages. Click the message icon shown by an envelope with + sign to create a new message. Rest is the same as above

How To Delete A Direct Message Conversation

You can delete a conversation:

• First, select the conversation to be deleted.
• Tap the information icon, as shown below:  

If you enable this option then anyone can add you to group conversations.

Note: For mobile apps, tap your profile icon. Now select Setting and Privacy, then tap Privacy and Safety. Adjust the settings accordingly under Direct Messages.

Other settings include Quality Filter and Show read receipts. The first one is to block low-quality messages by Twitter as it seems appropriate. The second one enables you to see if others have read your messages or not.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Engage people with conversation

Twitter can let you start a conversation, just by asking a simple question. Yes, it can be done!

Twitter is a two way street unlike Google and YouTube where you search and get the answer, that’s it.

Twitter can take you really far, really fast because as you speak, someone answers, another one also gives an opinion, then you speak about their responses and it goes on…..

For example, you can ask “Is there any AI expert who can help out with my blog post?” You are reaching out to thousands of people. They will start to ask about you & your blog, what AI topic you are covering and which aspect you need help for.

They get to know you & your work and that’s the main point. You are building brand equity.

Want your Tweet to be seen by a lot of people, here’s how:

Hashtag

Hashtag is one of the most important & interesting features used on social media. One of the features that I like the most. 

Keep reading & know how to use Twitter hashtags most effectively.

Hashtag – written with a # symbol – is used to group or index tweets according to a specific topic or keyword that people are interested about. They are shown more easily in the Twitter search when people want to find their favorite topics.

A hashtag automatically becomes a clickable link when you Tweet it. When you click on any hashtagged word in a Tweet, the most recent Tweets that include it will be shown.

Use can use hashtags to search a topic.

My suggestion: Hashtag existing words in your Tweet instead of putting them again at the start or end of your Tweet. It saves characters.

For example, read my pinned Tweet below to get an idea:

#Blogging is the way to express yourself, share your #Knowledge with world and gain a lot during the process.

How To Add Hashtag

It works by just adding a pound sign(#) without any space in front of a word in a tweet.  Shown in the below picture with arrows.

For example: I like to blog about #Technology.

It is very powerful and is used by people a lot who know its advantages. If I make the above tweet then my tweet will be part of topic Technology, so if anyone searches this topic, my tweet can be seen by him/her.

It may result in my tweet liked, retweeted or replied to. Or maybe if anyone likes it and visits my profile page there is a chance that he/she will follow me.

So it all means more exposure for a person, business or blogger, etc. So try to use hashtags in your tweets.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Find & follow celebrities/leaders

Celebrities mostly use Twitter as compared with other social media in order to build a personal connection with their fans and admirers. You can search for a popular person on Twitter and follow them.

It enables industry and world leaders to put their thoughts and activities before the world.

These personalities let the world know what they’re thinking about, their habits, how to achieve success as they did, etc. So you see, it provides a lot of value.

Trending Topics

Trending topics are the hashtagged words that have become very popular. 

A great way to use Hashtag is to see the Trending Topics on your Twitter Homepage. They appear on right-hand side of page and list the top 5 (more can be shown) popular topics based on your location preferences.  

I have selected Worldwide below for these trending hashtags by clicking the wheel icon:

These are the topics that people are mostly talking about in that particular geographical area.

Important Points For Hashtag

• Hashtags can be included anywhere in a Tweet.
• Spaces or punctuation can’t be added in a hashtag.
• If you write #mobile device, your message will be categorized under #mobile. Same is the case for a punctuation mark like comma used in a hashtag.
• Hashtags used in a Tweet on a public account (not private) can be found by anyone who searches for it.
• It is recommended by Twitter to use no more than 2 hashtags in a tweet, otherwise it will look messed up.
• Go to the search bar on Twitter and type a hashtagged keyword to discover content and accounts based on your interests.
• Hashtag can’t contain only numbers, like #1 or #123. A letter must be included in a hashtag for it to work correctly.

My suggestion: I always try to add hashtags to my Tweets or Retweets, 1-2 max. You also need to do so and try to hashtag existing words in the Tweets instead of adding them again. This helps to save precious Tweet characters.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Write better

The more you use Twitter, the more you write better! Why?

Because of the character limit – 280 maximum. It forces you to be concise and to the point, which is the quality of good writing.

Do you want to get answers from the Twitter community?

Twitter Polls

Polls on Twitter is an interesting option to give an opinion on questions posted by other people. You can also create your own poll, and get people to vote for your topic.

How To Create A Poll

• First, start to compose a Tweet by using the option at the top of the homepage timeline or Tweet button in the left navigation bar.
• Click the Add Poll icon as shown here:  

• Type poll question in the compose box using the full character limit of 280 characters. There must be text included in the question.
• Insert your poll options in the Choice 1 & Choice 2 boxes using a maximum of 25 characters each.
• Click on the + sign to add more options. Maximum 4 options are allowed.
• Poll duration default is 1 day. It can be changed: the minimum is 5 minutes and the maximum is 7 days. As you can see in the below picture, I have used a hashtag in question in order for the poll to have better engagement and response.  

• Click on Tweet in the bottom right to post the poll.

Note: Pictures can’t be included in a poll.

Details About A Twitter Poll

• You can click or tap the option that you like in order to vote. Your selection is indicated by a checkmark.
• You can only vote in a poll one time. Total votes and time left are displayed.
• After a poll ends, winning choice appears in bold. You will get notification about the result.
• Participation in a Twitter poll is not shown to anyone. Poll creator and participants can’t see who voted and how they voted.

Twitter Lists

A Twitter list is basically a group of Twitter accounts which only shows the tweets from those accounts.

You can create your own lists – to have only the Tweets compiled from your favorite accounts in one location.

&

You can also subscribe to other accounts lists.

How To Create A List

• Click on the Lists icon in the left navigation bar to go to Lists tab.   

• Click on create list icon – paper with + sign – at the top right middle column.
• In the box that appears, write the name of the list and description. The name can’t begin with a number.    

• Next, check the option at the bottom to make it private – lock icon appears to indicate it is private – so that only you can view the list. Keep it unchecked so that it remains public and anyone can subscribe to the list.
• Click Next and search for accounts to add. Click Done when finished.
• You can see the list that I’ve created below:     

Note:

In the picture above, Lists tab show Owned, Subscribed, Member tabs.

Owned tab has the lists that you created.

Subscribed tab means the lists you will receive Tweet updates from. These are created by other accounts.

Member tab means whenever you Tweet, it will appear on these lists and other members will see it. You don’t have the option to become a member yourself. The creator of the list makes other accounts the member.

How To Add/Remove Accounts From Your List

• On an accounts’ profile, click the more icon – one with 3 dots. You can add an account even if you don’t follow it.
• Click Add/remove from lists.
• Check next to the list that you want to add to or uncheck to remove it in the pop-up that appears.

To Edit Or Delete A List

• Click on the Lists icon to go to the Lists tab.
• Click on the required list under the Owned tab.
• Click on Edit List.  

• Update list details if required.
• Add or remove members by using the options given.
• To delete a list, click Delete List at the bottom.

To Subscribe A List Of Other Account

• Tap more icon on an account’s profile and tap View Lists.
• Click the list that you want to subscribe to and click Subscribe. Click on Subscribed to unsubscribe for that list.

Additional List Tasks & Info

• To share a list address: Go to that list and copy the URL that appears in the address bar of your browser. Paste this address in the message that you want to send to someone.
• To view Tweets of a list: Go to your List tab and click the list that you want to view. The Tweets of accounts in that one will appear.
• Remove yourself from a list: You need to block the creator of the list that you are a member of.
• There is no option that enables list owners to send a message to every account.
• Accounts with protected Tweets can be added to a list but their Tweets will only be seen by accounts that have been approved to follow that account.
• If the recently created list is not visible, try refreshing the page or clearing your browser's cache.

For Mobile Apps: Click on your profile icon at the top, and then click on Lists to manage them. Most of the tasks are similar to above and you can easily find your way around.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Meet & befriend new people

The whole world uses Twitter so there is a chance that you stumble across someone who is like-minded or interesting. You can build up relationships with them even if they live on the other side of the globe.

In my case, there can be people for me who are experts in the Technology field whom I would have never met otherwise. These relationships may prove very fruitful in the future – get knowledge or start a new project.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Increased blog/website traffic

It increases traffic to your blog or website whenever you Tweet a link to a new blog post.

Make use of 280 character limit & hashtags to send compelling and thoughtful Tweets. Doing so, new people will see this Tweet, and some of them may become interested and have a look at your site’s update.

They can become a subscriber or purchase something if the content of your site appeals to them.

They can even recommend your site to someone else also.

It can have a viral effect. Before Twitter, it took months if not years to generate this kind of publicity, now it just takes a few days.

In order to have a visual understanding of different Twitter features, the following video makes them more clear:

Get to know how far you can go:

Twitter Imposed Limits

In order to ensure a smooth experience and reliable service, Twitter has imposed some limits as explained below:

General Twitter Limits

• Direct Messages: There is a limit of 1000 messages per day. After reaching that, you can’t send any more that day.
• Tweets: You can’t send more than 2,400 per day. Retweets are counted as Tweets.
• Changes to account email: 4 per hour.
• Daily Following: You can follow a maximum of 400 accounts per day
• Account-based following: Total 500o accounts can be followed by an account
• Media: You can have up to 4 photos, 1 GIF, or 1 video in a Tweet.

Twitter List Limits

• 1000 lists permitted per account
• 5000 accounts permitted per list
• List names cannot exceed 25 characters
• List names cannot begin with a numerical character

Note:

• These limits may temporarily be reduced during heavy site usage periods. It will be notified on the Twitter status site. 
• The error indicates when and which limit has been reached.
• For time-based limits – Direct Messages, Tweets, and changes to account email – you can try again after that particular time period has elapsed.

Forget Google for the time being!

Get Advantage Of Twitter Search

The search feature of Twitter is great to find specific Tweets, accounts or ongoing conversations but it takes time to get used to searching for information on Twitter.

Finding the right information on this popular site is not straightforward. This section will try to help with this issue.

You can find tweets of yourself, friends, businesses, entertainers and world leaders, etc. By searching for specific keywords or hashtags, you can follow conversations about breaking news or personal interests.

How To Do Search On Twitter

Twitter gives control over search results through safe search mode. It has filters to exclude potentially sensitive content, muted or blocked accounts, from search results.

Web search (done through a web browser like Chrome or Firefox on a PC) is slightly different than that of Twitter for iOS or Android apps. I’m explaining it for the web, please find your way around apps because if you understand it how to do it for one then it is easy to do it for others also.

• Enter your search query at the top right of the homepage.
• Your results will include tweets, people, photos and videos as shown here by arrows. Filter by clicking on them as required:

• Use the search filter options to filter your results further. It is also clear in the above screenshot. It is evident that people wise and location wise results can be obtained by selecting From anyone or People you follow, and Anywhere or Near you.
• Advanced search feature lets you select Language also if you scroll a bit down in it.
• Click on more icon – three dots – and then click Search settings.
• These are safe search settings as shown in below picture. Options available are Hide sensitive content and Remove blocked and muted accounts. Keep them enabled or disable them as required. Changes to this setting may take several minutes to become effective. In my opinion, these should remain checked i.e enabled to avoid unnecessary information showing up.

• Save search lets you save this search term.

Note: Searching in Twitter for iOS or Android apps starts with the search icon at the bottom, shown below for Andriod.

Tip:

If you compose a Tweet while on a search page, that Tweet will start with the hashtagged word or @username of the account that you are searching for. A quick way to send a Tweet including those terms.

Using Advanced Search 

It can fetch some very concrete results.

This search is only available when you are on twitter.com i.e. in a web browser. It can’t be found in mobile apps.

It is a powerful way to tailor your search results as per your needs like specific date ranges, people, words and more. It all helps to find specific Tweets.

Follow the guidelines below for making an effective search:

• Go to Advanced search; its option is already shown under Search filters in the picture above. The resulting box looks like this:  

• Words options include: all of these words, exact phrase, any of these words, none of these words, hashtags. Examples below them explain for easier understanding.
• Language option enables to see results in your favorite language.
• People options are available to sorts tweets as per who sent them, replies or mentions.
• Additional options include engagement, dates, etc.

Examples Of Advanced Search Use

Get an idea from following to use advanced search in a more effective way:

• Search for Tweets about a specific event in a particular language at a particular date. For example, you can search for Tweets in English with the hashtag “#WorldCup” sent in July 2014.
• How many Tweets with a specific hashtag were sent since a particular date.
• How many tweets a particular account sent and in a particular language.
• Tweets containing a particular keyword (not hashtag) sent by a specific account.
• Find tweets from an account on a particular topic, then you can use Accounts in combination with a Words search.
• Brands can use Mention filter to search for Tweets containing mentions of their brand account or their competitor’s. This can be used after launching a campaign to find out if it was successful or not.
• Generate leads by searching for your competitor’s brand mention with some negative opinion word. This way people not satisfied with that rival can be contacted and convinced to use your brand.

All these features will take a while to sink in but don’t give up.

Twitter General Settings

There are different settings available to customize your Twitter account. I’ll try to help explain them in the following sections:

Customizing settings is a must if you want to learn Twitter.

Update Your E-mail & Phone Number

It is very much required to keep both of them updated from time to time so that you never lose access to your account.

That’s why I’m explaining it first:

• Go to Setting and privacy by clicking on more icon ( 3 dots) in the left-most column.
• On the Settings screen, click on options as shown under the Accounts tab. Make sure that they are the most current.

Customize Your Profile

Profile changes include profile and header photos, name, location, birth date and pinning a Tweet, etc.

How To Change Profile

• Sign in to your account on the web or mobile app, and go to your profile.
• Click Edit Profile
• Change Header Photo, the big one ( 1500 x 500 pixels recommended). Change profile photo, small one (recommended 400x400 pixels). Try to contain file size to 2MB. Click the camera icon to upload a photo. Photos format can be JPG, GIF or PNG.      
• Change the name, bio, location, and website.
• Change birth date. You have the option to show full birth date including year to everyone, or just the day and month and hide the year. 

• Click Save at the top tight.

Note: It is important to have a profile photo, as most people don’t follow those without a picture. It is very much a sign of a spammer. This also applies to location, bio and website etc.

Pin A Tweet To Your Profile

It is a very important feature that lets you attach an important Tweet at the top of your profile so that it remains always there. It will be the first Tweet that visitors of your profile will see.

Pinned Tweet can pass a significant message.

• Go to your profile and find a Tweet that you think is worthy of a pinned Tweet.
• Click down arrow the top right of Tweet.
• Select “Pin to your profile”.
• It can be unpinned the same way it was pinned.

See here how I’ve pinned a tweet:

I’ve selected black color for the background and reddish one for links.

It looks cool, isn’t it?

Don’t ignore security.

Secure Your Twitter Account

Security Recommendations

Before we explore different Twitter security settings, following are the recommendations from Twitter that you should follow in order to remain secure:

• Use a strong password having a minimum of 8 characters including numbers, uppercase & lowercase letters and special characters ([email protected]#$%^&, etc.).
• Don’t use the same password for Twitter that you are using on other online accounts.
• Use two-factor authentication – very important nowadays
• Beware of suspicious links & attachments in e-mail. Never open them unless from an authentic source.
• Use a Password Manager like LastPass to store your online information securely.
• Use Password reset protect (explained later) option in your account to require your e-mail address or phone in order to reset your Twitter password.
• Whenever you are asked for Twitter login credentials, make sure to check that you are on twitter.com i.e. https://twitter.com or https://twitter.com/login.
• If you become a victim of phishing or hacking, change your Twitter password as soon as possible.
• Twitter will never ask you to provide your password via email, Direct Message, etc. Also, it never asks its users to download an attachment or software.
• If there is a suspicious login to your account or login from a new device, you will be notified via Notification tab or through e-mail. In case if someone else logged in by compromising your account, you must immediately change your password and follow the instructions received in email.
• In case the email address associated with your account is changed, you will receive an email on your previous e-mail address. In case if it wasn’t you then take steps mentioned in email received to secure your account.
• Please choose any third party application for Twitter with care. There are many built by external developers. Be very cautious in selecting third party applications and ensure they are reputable. They ask for your account’s username and password; so get complete control of your account. Worst-case scenarios include locking you out or take actions that cause your account to be suspended. Reviewing third party applications is described here. Read it so that you can eliminate extra and suspicious apps.

Tweet Protection

When you start using Twitter, your Tweets are public by default: anyone can see and interact with them and anyone can follow you without permission.

When you opt to protect your Tweets, a lot of things change! For good or bad, you can decide.

Protecting Tweets enables you to show your Tweets to only your followers, not to the rest of the world. You will then need to approve or deny every account that tries to follow you.

How To Protect Tweets

Enable it if you want as shown below. You’ll be asked for your password.

After enabling it, the people who don’t follow you will see a lock icon at your profile instead of your Tweets or information.

Unprotect Tweets by removing the check from the option shown above.

My Recommendation: I would suggest you not to protect Tweets as it is going to seriously limit your experience of Twitter. More the people follow you and see your Tweets without any restriction, more exposure and popularity you gain.

How To Manage Follower Requests

After having your Tweets protected, you will need to approve or deny follower requests. Here’s how:

• Go to your profile.
• Click on Followers as shown below:

• Click Pending follower requests to check which accounts have shown interest.
• Click Accept or Decline.

Some Important Points Of Tweet Protection

• If you enable this option, then the person you mention in a Tweet of yours has to be one of your approved followers to see your Tweet. For example, @TwitterSupport has protected Tweets, @twitter won't be able to see their Tweets unless @twitter follows that account.
• Anyone following you before enabling this protection will still remain your follower unless you block it.
• Your followers will not be able to Retweet your protected tweets.
• Protected Tweets can only be searched on Twitter by you and followers only.
• Tweets that were public before enabling Tweet protection, will no longer be public and will be seen by you and your followers only.
•  Tweets protected before will become public after removing protection.
• Make sure to approve or reject follower requests before making Tweets public or those accounts will have to follow you gain.

Two-factor Authentication – 2FA

In today’s time when every other day we come across incidents of hacking and compromised accounts, only password security has proved to be insufficient. So Two-factor authentication or 2FA comes into the picture.

It is basically an additional security measure through which an additional code or security key is required after entering the password. Mostly it is the code that you receive on your smartphone.

2FA thus ensures that you and only you can get access to your online account.

How To Enable 2FA

Twitter and many other online services like Gmail, Namecheap provides 2FA security. Follow the steps below to configure it on twitter.com i.e. through a web browser like Google Chrome.

• Go to Settings and privacy then Account and then Security. You must have become used to these settings by now!
• You can see Two-factor authentication at the top right of the screen. Click on it.
• There are 3 methods available: Text message, Authentication app & Security key. We’ll use the Text message option as it is the easiest one.

• Click the checkbox next to the Text message.
• Read info then click Next.
• Enter your password and click Verify. If you don’t have any phone number associated with your account then Twiter will prompt to enter it.
• Next, a confirmation code will be sent to your phone number and you will be asked to verify it.
• Type the code and then you will see a confirmation with a backup code. You need to save this code for the future if you lose your mobile phone or change your phone number.
• Click Got it to finish.

Now when you login to your account on the web or mobile apps of Android/ iOS, then a six-digit code will be sent to your phone for login.

Note: You can turn off 2FA by unchecking the option that you used to enable 2FA before i.e. in our case you need to uncheck Text message.

For mobile apps: It is the same to go to your profile icon, then Settings and privacy and then Account. Finally, tap Security and Two-factor authentication to configure it.

Additional Password Protection

This is another security check that requires you to verify your phone number if you request a password reset. That phone number will the one associated with your account.

Here’s how to configure it:

• Go to Settings and privacy then Account and then Security.
• Click Password reset protect under Additional Password protection on the right lower side.
• You will be asked for the account password. Provide it and it’s done.

Why Twitter is so powerful – Leverage Twitter search

Twitter search is one of the most powerful features that this microblogging site has. I’ll tell you why:

You are an expert of something or related to some business. For example, you know a lot about Windows 10 operating system and you have written guides explaining its features – a basic guide which is free & an advanced one which is paid.

You search for Windows 10 and a lot of people are asking for help regarding its features like where is the start menu or how to manage tiles.

You answer them by replying with your free guide link to get answers. If they’re convinced and click the link, they may become subscribers to your blog. That’s conversion.

And who knows they might like your advanced guide for Windows 10 and buy it. That’s great conversion & an achievement.

Now here are some fun facts:

Interesting Twitter Statistics

Daily Active Users

Currently, Twitter has 145 million daily active users.

Tweets Sent Per Second

As per Internet Live Stats, 8900 Tweets are posted every second on Twitter.

Most Followed Twitter Accounts

Following are the 5 Twitter accounts, having the most followers:

Note: Barack Obama is the former US president, while the rest four are all musicians.

If you need to see more, then check List of most-followed Twitter accounts.

Oldest Twitter Accounts

These are the 14 accounts that were created in March 2006 belonging to Twitter employees including @jack (Jack Dorsey), @biz (Biz Stone), and @noah (Noah Glass).  

Fastest Pace To Million Followers

Caitlyn Jenner, an American TV personality, who joined Twitter on June 1, 2015, collected a million followers in just 4 hours and 3 minutes.

Most Tweeted Moment

During the airing of a film Castle in the Sky by Japanese TV, fans simultaneously tweeted the word balse after it was said in the climax. It peaked globally at 143,199 tweets in one second, beating the previous record of 33,388.

Most Discussed Sporting Event

2014 FIFA World Cup semi-final between Brazil and Germany on July 8, 2014 is the most discussed sporting event ever on Twitter.

Largest Source Of Breaking News

With 40 million tweets sent on the day of the 2016 US presidential election, Twitter was the largest source of the latest news.

Country With The Most Twitter users

Americans use Twitter the most: 30 million use on a daily basis, which is around 20% of daily users.

Japan and the UK come in second and third places respectively.

More Engagement

Tweets with hashtags get 100% more engagement. But use 1-2 only as more cause decline in interest.

Conclusion

Twitter is best learned by using it. Don’t just read this post but start to follow instructions and get going. It will be fun and joy in meeting people online.

I have tried to convince you to use Twitter by presenting its advantages and main features. I accept that its features a bit confusing in the beginning, and it takes a while to learn how to use basic Twitter features. But once you start to use it they will become more clear and easy for you.

Please share your thoughts through comments; you liked this post or not, any question, any errors or corrections needed regarding content, how this post can be further improved. Your feedback is very important to me.

The last thing that I want: if you liked this post then please do me a favor by subscribing to this blog, and keep getting detailed posts of different Technology topics in your email.