What to do with Twitter
The following is a little primer on what you can do with Twitter.
Searching
Twitter allows you to find friends, celebrities or organizations, or specific topics you're interested in. Type a any of these into the search boxes and you’re ready to go.
DM
Twitter's direct-messaging lets you send a private 140-character message to another user. You can only direct message Twitter users that are following you. These messages are private and can not be viewed by other users.
The @ sign
To create a reply or credit someone on Twitter, simply place an @ sign in front of their Twitter name. If you reply, the @ sign must be the first character of the tweet. To see replies to your tweets, click @Replies on your profile page.
The RT
To retweet, copy someone else’s tweet, but be sure to credit them. The proper way to retweet is to place "RT @name" before the copy of the tweet. This shows that you like the tweet and that the other person should get credit for it. The number of time a message is retweeted is an indicator of its popularity.
Get small
Be sure to use tinyurl or another url shortening service. A long url can eat up a lot of your 140 characters. Check out tinyurl.com.
Use a Twitter client
It can be easier to manage all of your tweets, especially if you follow a large number of people, by using a client such as TweetDeck. These systems allow you to organize your tweet and keep track of what friends are online. they often offer handy alerts when there is activity on your account.
James Lambert is a Vermont newspaper editor, more specifically the design editor at the Rutland Herald. He is also an MSIT student at Marlboro College and enjoys developing Web sites, SEO and online social networking. He blogs here from time to time about these topics. His portfolio is at www.jblambertdesign.com