Introduction to Twitter. Part 2

Now you have an account, but it is rather bare and you are feeling a bit lost and lonely. There are a few more things you need to do:

Step 1: Click "Upload a profile picture".

Step 2:  Bear in mind that you can come back and change any of these details as often as you like, so don't worry about being perfect!

Picture: Click "Choose file" to select/open a photo or picture which you already have saved on your computer. It's nicer that remaining as an egg! The name of the file will appear but the picture itself won't show until you save everything at the end of this page.

Name: Leave this unless you wish to change it.

Location: You can fill this in or leave it blank.

Web: You can enter the URL of your blog or website here if you have one. You can also get the code here for embedding a twitter widget on your site.

Bio: It is a good idea to write something here to show who you are or what your interests are.

Now click "SAVE".

Step 3: Click "Home".

Step 4: Find people to follow:

You can enter the names of people you know into the box to the right and click "search".

Or, if you are Irish, type #gtie into the box at the top and click on the little magnifying glass to find other people with an interest in gifted in Ireland. Searching for #gtchat will find you gifted advocates from all over the world.

You can save your searches so that you can find them again easily.

Once you have spotted someone who looks interesting, just click on their name and their profile will come up to the right. If you still like what you see,   click on the "follow" below their name. Now each time that person tweets, it will show up on your page or stream, as it's called.

To begin with, I would suggest following just a few people till you get the hang of it...which will happen very quickly!! May I suggest Frazzlld and Dazzlld? (Beware the odd spelling. When we were signing up, the proper spelling version had already been taken) You can just watch for a day or two until you see what goes on. 

Now you're ready to dive in...

You will find that quite a few people whom you follow will follow you back.

Everyone is referred to with @ directly before their name. eg @Frazzlld is me.

Try breaking the ice by typing something like "Hello, I'm new to twitter" into the "What's happening?" box and clicking "Tweet".

Tweeting directly at someone: If you want to direct a comment at someone in particular, type @TheirUsername into the "What's happening" box followed by your comment. If you do this, only that person and people who follow you both will see it appear. Or, if you hover over a tweet, the option to "reply" will show up below it.

Retweeting: If you see a tweet that you want to pass onto your followers, you can retweet it. There are two options: Click "retweet" below the tweet and a window will appear asking you to confirm or cancel the retweet. Or, you can type RT into the "What's happening?" box and then cut and past the text in after it. This gives you the option of editing the tweet before it goes out. Make sure that you include the name of the original tweeter, though eg RT @Frazzlld........

You will be surprised how quickly you will become familiar with twitter. You just need to take the plunge now. Go on..I dare you!