Twitter - A Beginners' Guide

0: What is twitter?

Twitter, often called a 'micro-blogging' tool, is 2007's answer to social networking. Wherever you are, you can post short messages answering the question 'What are you doing right now', for others to view. Likewise, you can view what your friends and e-friends are doing too - or even use it for quickfire conversations.

I got into it quite a bit back when it launched, before losing interest as few of my friends would use it. I now have a few friends using it, so I've taken up the habit again, and I'm writing this guide in the hopes of getting a few more.


1: Getting started

Let's start with the basics :)

1.1: Register
The first thing you'll want to do is sign up for a Twitter account. It's a quick and painless process, and they won't sell your details to dubious 'adult entertainment' sites :)

1.2: Find your tweeting friends
Dancing With Myself was an 80's classic courtesy of Billy Idol, but Talking To Yourself is just a symptom of mental illness. Pop onto the Invitations page to find anyone in your Gmail/Hotmail/other address book already on Twitter and start 'following' them - or invite some more. Once you spread the word a bit more, other people will start following you, and you can then stalk watch them too.

1.3: Customise your Twitter page
Upon purchasing a new Role-Playing Game, any self respecting geek will spend the next 8 hours designing their character and picking a name for them. Likewise, I imagine you'll want to customise your page.


2: Set up your devices

Hard though this is for me to contemplate, but apparently Cool Stuff^TM can happen when you're away from a computer. Rather than just ringing a couple of your favourite people, why not tell the entire internet straight away?

2.1: Mobile Phone
On the devices page, you can configure your mobile phone to send and receive texts from Twitter. I personally just use the sending feature, as I got annoyed at being woken up at 3am to hear what people were drinking. Texts are just your standard network rate, and will count as freebies on any contract - and there's no charge to receive them.

2.2: Instant Messaging
Those enlightened few amongst you using GTalk or Jabber can add twitter@twitter.com to your friends and tweet directly from your IM client. The rest of you, just move along...nothing to see here.

You can even get other people's tweets sent to your IM client too - choosing which ones you want. Once again, set this up on the devices page.


3: Publish your Tweets elsewhere

Try though you might, you're going to end up with some friends who aren't geeks. They won't install one of the many Twitter readers, nor will they visit your Twitter page. But they do need to know what you're eating, and how it tastes. So let's get that important information a bit more in their face.

3.1: Facebook
There's a little Facebook app by the name of TwitterSync that can automatically synchronise your Facebook status with your Twitter updates. Unlike other Facebook apps, it won't ugly up your profile, and it's very slick, well featured and reliable. Highly recommended.

3.2: Windows Live Messenger
Twessenger is one of the few Windows Live Messenger add-ins you can currently play with, and it'll update your subline with your tweets. If you want to install it now, I'd pay close attention to the README.txt you get, as the interface is still only half-done from the Windows Live side. Works fine and safely for me though.

3.3: Your website or blog
Twitter Badges are customised so that with just a click or two you can have your Twitter feed on your Blogger blog, Live Space or other site. Alternatively, if you're the kind of guy or girl that likes to do things yourself, you can just use the RSS feed that your tweets generate.

As a final note, Twitt-Twoo should be your choice if you're on Wordpress.


5: Other random Twitter crap
Like every web 2.0 meme that exposes an API, Twitter has a million other applications which take advantage of it, or not - as the case may be.

5.1 Twitter/maps mashups
TwitterVision is a mashup of Google Maps and Twitter which shows you the most recent tweets worldwide, and where they were posted. It's a fascinating and time-consuming way to procrastinate, and an app in which you can lose yourself for hours at a stretch.

Some people have recommended GeoTwitter as an alternative, but I find it a bit clunky and ugly. TwitterVision's the way.

5.2: Rich Desktop Client (Windows or Mac)
twhirl is a gorgeous, flashy little desktop app built on the exciting new Adobe AIR platform. Super-powerful with multi-account support and online/offline support. If you've not tried AIR out yet, this is a good starter app.

5.3: Vista Gadget
Twadget - possibly the worst application to follow the Twitter app naming convention. Sounds more like something one could be arrested for in the middle ages. Useful if you're a Vista fan though.

5.4: Mac Widget
Twitterrific is your alternative if you've got a sexy little Mac and you haven't yet formatted it and put Vista on ;) Cool little Widget, and absolutely beautiful.

5.5: Outlook integration
Brought to you via OutTwit - not very good looking, but useful for those of you who live inside the world of Microsoft Outlook.

5.6: Firefox integration
The most popular Firefox plugin for Twitter is TwitterFox, which adds a little symbol in your status bar, which can then pop-up a textbox for updates. Personally though, I much prefer TwitterBar, which integrates slickly with your address bar, without getting in the way.

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That's all folks, hope it helps - and feel free to start following me.

Xx