How do you use twitter?

[Penny]

How do you send a tweet message on twitter? How do you send a personal tweet? How do you reply to a tweet? How do you ask to be followed? How do you see people person stuff on twitter such as their pictures and personal web pages? How do you find celebrity sites to follow?

[Abob]

Wow a lot of questions!

There are many opinions on to how to use Twitter. I see many people spending all day trying (begging is more like it) to get followers with no clue as to who or why someone is following them. In my opinion, the best part of Twitter is having complete strangers follow you over time based on what you Tweet and the fact that they find your Tweets interesting.

How do you send a tweet message on twitter? Just Tweet anything up to 140 characters in the big box at the top of your home page that says "What's Happening?"

How do you send a personal tweet? You can Tweet anyone by just adding a "@" in the front of their profile name. Instead of typing a real name, you substitute their Twitter name. For example...OMG, I just got home from the @taylorswift13 concert and it was amazing!

How do you reply to a tweet? You can click on the reply link (lower right corner) of any Tweet. Understand that if the person is following you, they will see it immediately, but if they are not following you, they can see it only if they search through all the Tweets that mention them. So in the example above, Taylor Swift is not following me (someday she'll come around...lol) and won't see that Tweet right away, but if she loves her fans and searches the Tweets that mention her, it will be there in a sea of millions of other Tweets.

How do you ask to be followed? I don't ever ask. I figure if someone finds my Tweets interesting, they'll follow me. Getting followers takes a little time and in the beginning you'll find some SPAM bots will end up following you...yuck! But don't get frustrated. Start with friends and family and watch things grow.

How do you see people person stuff on twitter such as their pictures and personal web pages? Twitter is unlike Facebook or MySpace in that profiles don't have pictures or videos, etc. However, some people post links in their Tweets to all types of stuff.

How do you find celebrity sites to follow? Celebrity following can be tricky as there are many fake profiles out there. Twitter has a "Verified Account" (blue circle with a white check mark) marker that they add to popular profiles. But not all celebrity profiles are verified. Shannon Elizabeth (Nadia from American Pie) is one of the more popular and active Twitter accounts and her profile is still not verified. One easy way to find celebs is to visit their official web page and look for their Twitter link. Some are hard to find like Ashton Kutcher's profile is @aplusk which doesn't mention his name at all. Another way to find more celebs is once you find a few, look to see who they are following as the celebs tend to follow each other.

Just try it out and begin Tweeting. Email me if you still have more questions or if you want a list of the celebrities I'm following.