After you set up and confirm your Twitter account… You should be on your Twitter homepage. At the top is the Twitter ribbon: This includes the Twitter logo; Search box; Links: Home | Profile | Messages | Who To Follow; New Tweet Icon; Your Avatar (which should look like an Egg right now); Your Username; Drop-Down Menu.
On the left panel:
This is your homepage @username
It’s looking mighty bare right now. When you follow people their updates will appear here. So go find some interesting people to follow!
You can tell the world what’s happening in the box above.
Note that your Tweets will be available publicly.
You can make your Tweets private on your account page.
On the right panel are 4 steps:
1. Follow your first 10 accounts
2. Get Twitter on your phone
3. Set up your profile
4. Write your first Tweet!
Click the Profile button:
Everyone (and you, when you’re not signed in — you can only view your homepage when you’re signed in) sees everyone’s Profile page on Twitter. To get you comfortable with the Twitter interface and introduce you to some concepts and features, look at @BarackObama‘s Twitter profile. Your page will look somewhat similar once you configure your settings, added some followers and entered some tweets.
The left panel of the Profile page contains the avatar, first and last name, username, and bio. Some users display a check mark next to their name:
Verified Accounts display a “Verified Badge” on their Twitter bio, which helps to establish authentic identities on Twitter. Look for this badge if you want to follow your favorite celebrity or whatnot.
Underneath the profile image is the Follow button:
You normally don’t see a Follow button on your page unless you’re signed out. But everyone has a Follow button, click that and the button turns green with a check mark. Additional options are also added:
What Is Following?
Following Rules and Best Practices
Following problems
Underneath the Follow button are five tabs:Tweets, Favorites, Following, Followers, and Lists:
By default, Twitter displays the Tweets tab showing a user’s tweets and retweets in newest to oldest order. You can also check a user’s favorite tweets, view who they follow, view who follows them, and check out their lists (lists they curate, lists they follow, and lists that follow them).
Scroll down the page and, when you reach the bottom, the lower-left panel displays a clock. If Twitter’s not busy, more tweets should appear. Just keep scrolling to display more tweets.
Click the Profile button on the Twitter ribbon to return to your profile page. Instead of the Follow button, you should see the Edit your profile → link:
Clicking Edit your profile → opens your Settings » Profile page.
Below that are the same five tabs: Tweets, Favorites, Following, Followers, and Lists. The right panel counts your Tweets, Following, Followers, and Listed (currently all set to 0). The right panel will eventually contain more information on who you follow, who is similar to you, and who to follow recommendations. It should currently display the 4 steps mentioned earlier.
Click the Home button on the Twitter ribbon. This is where you’re going to spend most of your time, if you’re tweeting from a browser. The left panel displays the What’s happening? box where you type and enter your tweet, and underneath that are five tabs: Timeline, @Mentions, Retweets, Searches, and Lists:
Your homepage displays your Home Timeline containing your tweets, retweets, your followers’ tweets and retweets (and possibly a Promoted Tweet — see, Financial Times: Twitter plans bolder advertisements).
Toggle between Profile and Home pages and notice the difference between each: Remember to Go Home to Tweet or go to your Profile page to view only your tweets and retweets.
Editing Your Account Settings
1. Click the drop-down menu on the Twitter ribbon next to your username.
2. Select Settings.
3. This opens the Account page.
Settings has 7 tabs I’m aware of, the seventh is Applications, which doesn’t appear until you’ve granted access to a third-party application. The seven Settings tabs are (links are to the Twitter support pages that provide additional information):
Settings » Account
The Account tab has the following options:
- Name
- Username
- Language
- Time Zone
- Tweet Location
- Tweet Media
- Tweet Privacy
- HTTPS Only (make sure this is checked to enable secure connections)
- Deactivate my account
From here you can change your Account Name, Username, and Email that you entered during the set up process. Unselect Let others find me by my email address (enabled by default) if you don’t want your email to be searchable (this is related to Twitter’s Contact Import feature).
Twitter enables your Language and Time Zone automatically, but you can change it here. If you’d like to help Twitter translate its site, check out the Translation Center. Tweet Location, I don’t normally use — check the link for more information (currently US only, but they’re working on an international rollout; this feature is off by default, you need to opt-in to use it).
When selected, Tweet Media automatically displays images and videos for everyone on Twitter — By default, you’ll only see images and videos shared by people you’re following, and not reveal those by people you’re not. I usually keep this one unselected so I don’t run into any surprises.
Tweet Privacy is set to Public by default — Accounts with protected Tweets require manual approval of each and every person who may view that account’s Tweets (and Profile). Several restrictions: You tweets cannot be retweeted, do not appear in search, @replies cannot be seen if a user doesn’t have permission to see your tweets, and permanent links to your tweets can only be seen by your followers. Additionally, if set to private, you cannot display your tweets on your blog. If you follow a protected account, the Follow button indicates “Pending” (more about this later).
Deactivate My Account: this is permanent (About Account Restoration) and takes 30 days to complete and during that time — usernames or email addresses cannot be used in the creation of a new account… Unless you change your username and email before deactivation, you will not be able to use them on a new account for 30 days. Remember, usernames can be changed. Instructions to deactivate your account and how to remove username/email prior to deactivation: How To Deactivate Your Account. If you need to restore a deactivated account, Twitter only restores accidentally or maliciously deactivated accounts. Submit a request to restore your account here by selecting Account deactivation/restoration from the Regarding listbox. Select Hacked or phished account if someone hacked or phished your account in order to delete it.
My main recommendation for this tab is selecting HTTPS Only. (Making Twitter more secure: HTTPS).
Once you’re done, make sure to click the Save button to save your configuration before leaving this tab.
Settings » Password
- Current Password
- New Password
- Verify New Password
- Forget your Password?
Change your password here. This is a good point to make sure you remember the password you created during set up. If not, click “Forgot your password?” and reset. Twitter will indicate, to the right of the New Password box, the strength of the password — make sure to create a strong password. You will need to re-authenticate any third-party applications with access to your account.
Click the Change button to change your password.
Settings » Mobile
Settings » Notifications
Settings » Profile
Settings » Design
Settings » Applications
Regulus in Virgo 