CO PY RI GH TE D MA TE RI AL How Do I Get Started with Twitter?
Are you ready to share with the world select bits and pieces of your life, 140 characters (or less) at a time? I suspected as much. This means that you’re ready to get started with Twitter, the microblogging service that has taken the online world by storm. In this chapter, you begin, appropriately enough, at the beginning by learning how to set up and sign in to a Twitter account.
Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets Setting Up Your Very Own Twitter Account If all you want out of Twitter is to read a particular Twitterer’s updates, then you don’t need to bother creating your own account. Instead, point your favorite Web browser to http://twitter.com/user, where user is the person’s user name on Twitter, and then peruse the updates that appear on the page. This, of course, is no fun whatsoever.
Chapter 1: How Do I Get Started with Twitter? Don’t sweat the username choice too much because you can always change it later. 4. Use the Password text box to type a password for your Twitter account. More informational notes l The password must be at least six characters long. l As you type the password, Twitter rates the password strength: Too obvious (if it’s the same as your username, which is not a good idea!), Weak, Good, Strong, or Very Strong.
Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets 6. Click Create my account. Twitter does just that, and it then offers to look for your friends on services such as AOL and Hotmail. 7. You learn how to do this in Chapter 4, so click Skip this step. Twitter displays a list of famous, semifamous, or just plain infamous people who are on Twitter and asks if you want to follow them. 8. Again, you learn how to follow the famous in Chapter 4, so click Skip this step.
Chapter 1: How Do I Get Started with Twitter? Viewing Twitter’s Current Status Twitter puts the fun in funky and the hip in friendship, but it can also sometimes put the ugh in ugly. I’m talking here about Twitter’s occasional reliability problems. Twitter’s original infrastructure wasn’t built to handle the massive amount of traffic it now bears, so every so often there will be a hiccup, a glitch, or even an outright failure.
Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets You’ll also be happy to know that our friend the fail whale shows up far less often than he (she?) used to. Over the past year or so, Twitter has made impressive strides in not only plugging the leaks but also shoring up the foundations, so the service is now more reliable than ever. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it’s 100% reliable (online, nothing is). The fail whale still drops by unannounced on occasion, but Twitter also suffers from other gremlins from time to time.
Chapter 1: How Do I Get Started with Twitter? First, send your Web browser to http://status.twitter.com/ to open the Twitter Status page, which displays updates on Twitter’s woes and worries, as shown in Figure 1.4. Alternatively, visit the @twitter account by checking out http://twitter.com/twitter, shown in Figure 1.5. 1.4 Drop by the Twitter Status page to keep an eye on Twitter’s health. Ideally, you should follow @twitter so you see the service updates automatically.
Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets 1.5 Check out the @twitter account for the latest updates on the Twitter service. Changing Your Twitter Password When you forged your new Twitter account, you had to specify an account password, and Twitter is security-minded enough to rate your password on the fly: Too obvious, Weak, Good, Strong, or Very Strong.
Chapter 1: How Do I Get Started with Twitter? Fortunately, changing the password for your Twitter account isn’t much harder than what you had to go through in the first place: 1. Sign in to your Twitter account. 2. Click Settings. The Settings page appears. 3. Click the Password tab. 4. Use the Current Password text box to type your existing Twitter password. 5. Type your new password in the New Password and Verify New Password text boxes. 6. Click Change.
Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets Deleting Your Twitter Account I have the feeling that you’re going to love Twitter, but it’s also true that microblogging isn’t for everyone. The constant pressure to answer the canonical Twitter question “What’s happening?” may simply become too much after a while. If taking a short break doesn’t help (I’m talking about a few days or even a few weeks, not a few minutes), then you can walk away and move on with your life.
Chapter 1: How Do I Get Started with Twitter? 1. Direct your nearest Web browser to http://twitter.com/account/deleted. 2. Use the text box to type the username or e-mail address associated with the account. 3. Click Restore my account. You’ll receive an e-mail message that offers a link, and you click that link to restore your account. Yes, it is really that easy, providing you restore it when your account is still in that limbo period.
