How do you use Twitter?

[Caitlin]

I feel kinda stupid asking this question but how do you use Twitter? I'm new to Twitter so I don't really know too much about it accepted the blog site. I'm new to Twitter and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Chris]

Basics:

Posts must be <= 140 characters.

You can tag someone in a post by including their @username in a post. That user will see this post in their tweets.

You can include a #hashtag (popular/trending or new created by you) to express yourself or a sentiment succinctly to save on characters. For instance instead of saying "I'm so lazy today" you can just say #LazyDay or whatever.

You can search for tweets by username or hashtag, and can save those searches so you can always follow a particular person or topic easily.

There are features to create lists (i.e., a list of all your favorite celebs) so you can see posts from all your celebs in one place without seeing a bunch of non-celeb posts. Again, I'll say "or whatever."

You can include links, but these take up some of the characters available.

You can retweet "RT" what someone said using the button they give you, this will just make the tweet you are RTing show up to all of the people that follow you, even if they don't follow the user you are retweeting.

You can favorite a post to indicate you agree with the user or like what they've said.

Beyond that I'll leave you to explore more resources (below) and just dig in and try it. You'll see how people use it and learn from what they do.