I am new to Twitter. Well sort of. I first joined in 2009, played with it for a week and gave up. I did not understand how Twitter worked.
I found an outlet for my thoughts and frustrations by posting comments on newspaper sites, mainly the Independent and discovered I was reasonably well regarded. But, during 2011, the Independent started to make it harder to post any comments about a growing range of subjects. Many interesting commenters gave up in their droves. I also felt frustrated by the paper's overt censorship.
So I tried Twitter again in December 2011 and after a little perseverance it suddenly clicked what it was all about. Twitter is many things but the main thing it is about COMMUNITY.
I started by FOLLOWING a few famous Twitterers and looked for people and organisations I felt I may like to FOLLOW. Little happened during the first month. I tried to keep my FOLLOWING/FOLLOWER ratio at 2:1. I wanted to keep my Twitter experience as true as possible. I didn't slavishly FOLLOW all my new FOLLOWERS. I only FOLLOWED if I thought they would add to my experience. I still keep to my rules.
My TWITTER COMMUNITY suddenly started to develop in the middle of January 2012. In my case it was based around current affairs, politics, health, autism, injustice and comedy. I found many great people to FOLLOW and some FOLLOWED me back.
So how does Twitter work? The important question should be "How should I work for Twitter?". The better the quality one puts in the greater the quality one will get out of Twitter. Twitter is about getting noticed, a rather selfish ideal. I value every new FOLLOWER who I would want to follow back and will continue doing so. It gives me a sense of pride that the number of my FOLLOWERS grows at a steady rate. But I have a responsibility to both my FOLLOWERS and those whom I am FOLLOWING by interacting with them by either RE-TWEETING, REPLYING or MENTIONING them. Here again one mustn't be slavish about it. The quality of one's TWEETS is not just what you write but what you wish to share by RE-TWEETING others.
Gaining FOLLOWERS is a game. It is fun and can be very rewarding. Just posting comments will help, but there is much more to it than that. Firstly your TWEETS need to be RE-TWEETED by your FOLLOWERS so that their FOLLOWERS see them. If I am subsequently RE-TWEETED by someone I don't recognise I always check them out. I click on their USER NAME, then click again to see their PROFILE PAGE. I study their previous TWEETS and will FOLLOW if I like what I see. Quite often, in time, they will FOLLOW back especially if I RE-TWEET a number of their posts. If a potential FOLLOWER is within my COMMUNITY they will tend to FOLLOW back.
Another useful facility of Twitter is FAVOURITE. FAVOURITING someone's TWEET can do several things other than the obvious. FAVOURITE can be used as a recognition response to someone that you have noticed their TWEET without RE-TWEETING. FAVOURITE is personal between you and the TWEETER.
Another important operation Twitter has is the #HASH-TAG facility. #HASH-TAGGED subjects are part of the TRENDING. TRENDING happens when a particular person or subject becomes popular on Twitter. Twitter displays what is currently TRENDING and one can join the conversation using the common #HASH-TAGGED phrase. TRENDING can be very fast moving so one's TWEET needs to be punchy to be noticed by anyone other than one's FOLLOWERS. Twitter is a complex array of algorithms which offer many functions and TRENDING can also occur because of a commonly group of words or names without the need of a #HASH-TAG.
I found that once I was FOLLOWING around 400 people I just couldn't keep up and do justice to my COMMUNITY. Reading just one TWEET and responding I would find that 50 to 100 new ones had been posted and to scroll through them just wasn't practical. By luck I heard about TweetDeck and installed it. It did mean installing Google Chrome. TweetDeck groups one's LISTS into columns. One can has as many columns as one wants but only 4 are shown at once. TweetDeck comes with 4 automatic columns: HOME, @ ME, TWEETS and MAIL. Unlike twitter.com TweetDeck automatically scrolls so that the HOME column is fast moving but easier to read than clicking NEW TWEETS on twitter.com.
LISTS are a function of Twitter where one can group one's FOLLOWERS and FOLLOWS. It is particularly for applications like TweetDeck. I have 4 LISTS. On TweetDeck I also use @tweetminster LISTS which offers a number of optional columns. I use UKMPs by tweetminster, Peers on twitter by UKHouseofLords and thelobby by tweetminster.
Remember a few basic rules regarding Twitter. Be courteous, don't bully, don't troll, don't attack someone unless they deserve it and can fight back and do not TWEET something you wouldn't be prepared to shout out in a market square.
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