How to Set up and Customize Twitter

Twitter is becoming ever more popular, but what is it and how do you use it I hear you ask!  Well Twitter is a micro-blog platform in that any updates that you post must be 140 characters or less.  The best way to think of it is as a quick and easy  way to send updates about  where and what you are doing to your friends and followers.  Follow this guide to set up and customize Twitter.

Set up your Twitter profile

Before you can Set up Twitter the first thing you must do is create an account.  Navigate your browser to www.twitter.com Simply enter your email address and choose a password.  If you would like people to be able to find you by your email make sure you click the checkbox for that.

The next step is to start following some people!  On the  “Find sources that interest you” page that follows registration, you can browse by categories such as business or entertainment, find friends using your email address book or search for people by name.

The next screen you see will be your home page; from here you can see the latest updates from the people you follow as well as a summary of  how many people you follow/follow you.  You can also click to see your profile as others see it from here.  Go ahead and click on “Profile”. Pretty boring isn’t it? You’ll want to personalise it a little.

Customizing Your  Twitter Profile

Click on “Settings”. Here you can change your profile picture (more on this in a moment), as well as adding extra info such as a bio and links to your homepage or website.

Ok, so lets start by adding an avatar picture.  Click ‘Profile’ >> Select ‘Browse’ to locate your image file >> Upload your image

It’s best to use a square picture for this as Twitter will automatically crop your picture to display a square thumbnail throughout the site. This needs to be either a JPG or a PNG file no larger than 700k.  Thankfully there is a handy online tool to make cropping a  picture to the right size easier http://mypictr.com

Next you’ll want to Change your Twitter background.   Click ‘Design’ . You can choose from one of the standard ones here or make your own (Max file size of 800k  JPG /PNG).  Alternatively you can download a range of templates from here.  If using your own follow the link at the bottom “Change background image” to upload your own.

HINT: If you wish you can use a small image and select “Tile Background” to repeat the image across the page.

Color palette: You may want to change these in “Change design colors” to better match your background.  You can change the colors for Text, Name, Link, Sidebar fill and Sidebar border as required.  You can use the color picker provided or insert your own hex format color code.

Start Tweeting

Now all you need to do is start posting your own Tweets!  At the top of the home page is a box labelled “What’s happening?”; simply type your update or message here.  You can paste hyperlinks here too if you wish to share a link with your followers.  When you’re done typing click “Tweet”

You can also reply or send a message to specific people by appending the “@” sign to the beginning of their Twitter user names and adding this at the beginning of your message e.g

@myfriendbob  your message here

Note: They do not have to be on your followers list you can message “@” anybody!

Now all you need to do is explore the site and follow people who interest  you.

Well that’s about it – all the basics covered!  You now know how to set up a Twitter account, customize it and start tweeting.

Oh, there is just one more thing – Don’t forget to follow me