Setting up :
Correctly
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About Twitter Created to serve as an online / internet SMS (Short Message Service). Twitter was launched March 2007. Twitter is considered a “Microblog”. Maximum length of a “Tweet” (Twitter message) 140 Characters. There are over 75,000 Twitter applications or apps available to interact with a Twitter account. Many of these services started out as free , but as Twitter’s popularity grew they became paid services.
The Fail Whale Twitter lives by the small business motto “Don’t worry about failing sometimes” They created the Fail Whale for when the site is over taxed or there are technical issues. Usually a quick refresh of your browser will fix the issue. If you continue to get the Fail Whale , Twitter maybe having technical issues. This has happened in the past.
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WHY set up a twitter Account? 600 “tweets” per second sent 80,000,000 Twitter members 50,000,000 “tweets” sent daily. Twitter is not just a whim. When marketing leaders begin singing the praises of Twitter, it’s worth doing a little extra research. Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch I get great insight when I ask questions I get traffic Followers on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh “We’ve found that Twitter has been a great way for us to connect on a more personal level with our employees and customers. We use it to help build our brand, not drive direct sales. It’d be like asking how does providing a telephone number for customer service translate into new business when they are mostly non-sales-related calls. In the long term, Twitter helps drive repeat customers and word of mouth, but we’re not looking to it as a way of driving immediate sales.” Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz "Communication is a key part of leadership—as CEO, I need to engage the market, inside and outside Sun, with whatever technology affords me the greatest possible reach. Through blogs, online news, social networking sites, or Twitter, the Internet has fundamentally changed how we communicate with one another. Today, we have thousands of employees participating, engaging customers and developers across the world, 24 hours a day. And whether it's via a half-hour streaming video or a 140-character Tweet, we need to reach everyone in the forum and format they choose— not what we choose."
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www.twitter.com The Twitter Home Page has changed quite a few times since the release of the site. However, to sign up for a new account the button has not changed click on Get Started Now
Ready, Set, Tweet www.microbusinessfanatic.com
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Join the conversation Full Name: This shows up on your Twitter Home Page but IS NOT your username. Username: This will be important. It is how you are known on Twitter and is part of your Twitter URL . www.twitter.com/username (Read our Checking Name Check Correctly Learning Guide first) Password: Creating a password with a mix of letters and numbers is always suggested. Email: Use your Gmail email address (Read our Setting Up Gmail for Social Media Correctly Learning Guide first) Terms of Service: It is the rules and regulations of Twitter. Your rights and theirs. Create My Account: By clicking on this button you are confirming the TOS and confirming your username.
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CAPTCHA The funny squiggly letters that need to be deciphered in order to enter a website or account is called a CAPTCHA and stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Twitter requires this in order to confirm that you are a human starting the account.
Twitter sends out many different pages when there is an error. You can always refresh your browser to try again. Twitter is still known to be glitch.
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find sources that interest you Suggestions: Twitter Suggestions are a directory of popular and highly followed accounts on Twitter, ordered into an array of groups. They signify just a tiny number of the many interesting accounts and information accessible on Twitter, but this list can be an outstanding place to get your FOLLOWING feet wet.
The more the merrier when starting your account. Follow as many accounts that interest you. You can always unfollow accounts that you do not find interesting later.
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find sources that interest you Friends: Twitter Suggestions are a directory of popular and highly followed accounts on Twitter, ordered into an array of groups. They signify just a tiny number of the many interesting accounts and information accessible on Twitter, but this list can be an outstanding place to get your FOLLOWING feet wet. To effortlessly fill your Twitter account with friends, family, and contacts, Twitter has a tool which assists in finding your contacts. The Twitter tool searches your email address book to find the Twitter accounts belonging to the people you have in your contacts. Note According to Twitter: Privacy Note: this search will only show Twitter profiles belonging to those of your contacts who have agreed to make their email addresses searchable on Twitter. Until a user has explicitly chosen to be found by email address, their corresponding Twitter username will not show up in anyone else's address book searches.
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find sources that interest you Anyone: Use Twitter's people search to find people who currently use Twitter. Search for a first, last, or user name , and see if you find who you are looking for. Twitter allows you to search full name as well as the username fields to give you as many chances as possible to find your contacts.
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ADD A LOCATION To YOUR TWEETS Tweeting with your location is disabled by default , If you want to add your location then it must be enabled from your Account Settings. If you have chosen to opt-in to Location, you will be able to add your location information to individual Tweets as you compose them on Twitter.com. The location information that is shared publicly can be either your exact location, your coordinates, or your place ,like a neighborhood or town.
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TOP Menu The Top Menu consists of these main areas on Twitter: Home Profile Find People Settings Help Sign Out We will go over Home, Profile, Find People , and Settings in detail. Help and Sign Out are quite self explanatory.
The first Twitter Bird was not designed just for Twitter , but was purchased from istockphoto. Twitter paid between $10-$15 for the image which means the designer was paid between $4-$6.
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Home You officially have a Twitter Home Page . This is where you can send your tweets from the What’s Happening box. The tweets from anyone you follow will appear below the home title. The more people you follow the faster they change. Following: Following someone on Twitter means getting their updates in your personal timeline. Followers: These accounts are following you. Listed: Twitter accounts can organize users they follow into groups, or lists. @username: All of your replies are visible in the @username tab in your home page sidebar. Tweets with @username in the tweet are also collected in your sidebar tab. Direct Message: You can send followers private tweets, called direct messages. If someone is following you, you can send a direct message from the web via the "message" link on the profile page. www.microbusinessfanatic.com
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Profile Your Profile page on Twitter is your Twitter Presence to the world. It is where your Twitter URL www.twitter.com/username will point everyone. This page can be customized with your own personal background and all the background and font colors can be customized. This will be discussed in the settings section. This page can always be accessed by clicking the PROFILE link in the top menu.
The most popular Twitter profile belongs to @aplusk . This account is registered to Actor Ashton Kutcher. The account grows daily , but has well over 4 million followers.
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FIND PEOPLE This page allows users the option of finding and adding new accounts. It is very similar to the pages presented when a Twitter account is first registered. New accounts can be found through the tabs: Browse Suggestions Find Friends Invite By Email Find On Twitter
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setting : Account Name: This is the name that appears on the account but is not the username. Username: The username can be changed after the account is set up. However, if the name is changed any Search Engine ranking that is connected to the page will be lost. You will need to confirm this through your email account again. Email: The email address can be changed on the account here. There is also the box below that can be checked if you would like users to find you by your email address Language: This will change the language of the instructions and navigation of the site as you see it.
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settings : Account If you scroll down further on the account page you will be able to change additional information: Time Zone: This identifies your time zone to Twitter. Tweet Location: Twitter requires you to approve the use of Tweet Location. This will allow other users to see where you are tweeting from. Tweet Privacy: This will require you to approve followers in order for them to see your tweets. Twitter is a public forum though, even if your account is protected DO NOT post anything you would not want the world to know. This applies to all Social Media. Deactivate my account: This is only to be used if you want to shut your entire account down.
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settings : Password This area will allow you to change your password. If you change your password you will need to change it on any applications you maybe using it with such as Facebook or Ping.fm. Always be careful with your password and who you share it with. Hints From Twitter We want Twitter to be a safe and open community. This help page provides some information and tips to help you practice safe Tweeting and keep your account secure. Here are some basics: Use a strong password. Watch out for suspicious links, and always make sure you’re on Twitter.com before you enter your login information. Don't give your username and password out to untrusted thirdparties, especially those promising to get you followers or make you money. Make sure your computer and operating system is up-to-date with the most recent patches, upgrades, and anti-virus software. We're working to improve our responses to security threats, but user accounts and computers can sometimes become compromised by phishing, hacks, or viruses
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settings : MObile The mobile setting will keep your smart phone buzzing so choose wisely. You can receive a text anytime someone new follows you, anytime you are sent a direct message, or you can follow someone and get a text every time they tweet. Many smart phones offer programs such as Tweet Deck or Hoot Suite to follow Twitter on your mobile device. These two programs are much more efficient than the mobile setting on Twitter.
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settings : Notices You can be notified by Twitter as much or as little as you wish. New Follower Emails: Check this if you wish to be sent an email every time someone new follows your account. This would mean if you have 1,000 followers, you would have received 1000 emails. Direct Text Emails: Only those accounts following yours can send your account a Direct Text. This feature will fill up your email inbox quickly because everytime some sends a direct message it will be on Twitter and your inbox. Email Newsletter: Twitter does not send our newsletters very often. If a message is sent directly from Twitter it tends to regarding a large outage or a change in Terms of Service.
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settings : Profile The Profile area is important because information is pulled from this section when seeking other users to follow. Picture: Upload your profile picture. Name: This is once again not your username. It is the Business Name or Personal Name that the account represents. Location: This is the location the account is operated from. It can be general like Sunny California or Beautiful Lanai. However, if it is not an actual town then users can not search by location. Web: This will most likely point to your website. If you do not have a website it can point to any URL. It must include the http:// . Bio: Tell Twitter about you. This is an outstanding place to fill with keywords for your business. This area gives you 160 characters.
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Profile picture 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Uploading your profile picture is easy. Click on Browse Locate your profile image. Click Open The location of the picture will appear in the box next to browse. The picture will appear after the save button on the bottom of the page is clicked.
It is a good idea to create multiple profile pictures in different sizes. Twitter displays the profile picture at 73 x 73 pixels. You can create a 73 x 73 image just for Twitter though a 100 x 100 static picture will display just as clearly.
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settings : profile
Make sure all areas are completely filled out. Click the save button.
Your picture will appear at the top of the page and the information is now part of your profile page. www.microbusinessfanatic.com
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Settings : Design The Design area allows users to change the look and feel of their profile page. Twitter supplies themes that can be used or Twitter users can upload their own background and choose their own color theme.
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change background image Clicking on the Change background image button will allow you to upload your own custom made background.
ABOUT CUSTOM BACKGROUNDS Custom backgrounds can be very tricky , because it changes depending on the viewers screen size setting. Keep your background simple and something that can be cropped and still be visually appealing. Think about your use of colors. Make sure you are using the same colors on each Social Network.
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Design : Change Background image Once you have created a custom background it is just as easy as your profile picture. 1. Click the browse button 2. Find the location of the background you have saved. Please not this file must be saved as a .gif , .jpg, or .png. 3. Click Open 4. The location of the background will appear in the window next to browse. 5. Click save. 6. Go back to your profile page to view results. 7. If something does not look quite right, you will need to edit the graphic file you created.
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design : CHANGE DESIGN COLORS This will change the look and feel of your profile just as much as your background choice. Click on the block of color under the title.
This will open a color chooser. You can either select a color or type your specific color number in the box. If you have created a branding page the color number should be included on that page. Click Done when complete.
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PLEASE CONFIRM ACCOUNT You might have noticed the yellow box at the top of your Twitter page. You will need to return to your email account in order to confirm your Twitter account. Find the email from - Twitter : Confirm your Twitter account , username!
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Confirm your twitter account This part is pretty easy just click on the blue text link.
your account has been confirmed You will be taken back to your home page with the message Your account has been confirmed, Thanks! www.microbusinessfanatic.com
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hello, new twitter-er! After you have been taken back to your home page you will receive another email from Twitter. This email will contain all of your account information. Save this email.
Welcome to Twitter Community!
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FOLLOW microbizfanatic We would like to follow you! The best way to have us follow you is to follow us. We follow back everyone who follows us. Make sure you are logged into your account. Visit www.twitter.com/microbizfanatic Click the follow button. We will be following you in 24-48 hours.
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