What is Twitter?

Twitter is an online news and social networking site.

It is mainly used for micro-blogging, i.e. sharing one’s thoughts using a “tweet”.

A “tweet” can contain text, pictures, video and even links.

Once a tweet is posted, it will be read by your “followers”.

People can find you online using your Twitter handle. This consists of an “@” symbol followed by some text. For example @technesiumblog (click it).

Followers are similar to Facebook friends – they see what you post.

Why should I use Twitter?

Company Contact

Most companies today are on Twitter. Companies love Twitter because it’s one of the easiest ways to promote themselves and their goods/services.

Twitter is the fastest way to contact a company for customer support. Since the tweets are public, companies take them very seriously. Their response is usually quick.

So the next time you are having an issue with a company, follow them on Twitter and tweet to them.

Tracking Trends

When you are just starting out on Twitter, you may have only a few followers. Let’s say that you want to tweet something important and you want lots of people to read it, then you would include a hashtag (#) in the tweet.

For example, you could tweet, “Petrol prices are soaring #Petrol“.

If you were to click on #Petrol (try clicking now), you would be able to see all the tweets by everyone with the same hashtag! Your tweet would also show in the list.

Using hashtags is an excellent way of finding and following people with the same interests as yourself.

Trends are the most popular hashtags. They would indicate the topics which most people are tweeting about.

Track Celebrities, Politicians, People in Sports!

Imagine being able to know the thoughts of your favourite actor, sports person or politician! You could follow them on Twitter and even send them messages directly.

How do I get started?

Create an account here.

Once you have created an account, search for @technesiumblog (in the search bar) and then click on “follow”.

Send your first tweet!