You've heard all the rage about Twitter and are now ready to jump in! In this 4 Part series, we'll give you some quick tips and how-to's to make your first experience a pleasant one as you get signed up, tweeting, and mingling.
Setting up your Twitter account
Before signing up on Twitter there are two things you'll need to think about: a Twitter screen name and an avatar picture. Here's a quick illustration to help you in picking a screen name and an avatar:
A Twitter name that smells so sweet
Picking a Twitter screen name is important because:
- Eventually people will mainly know you as your Twitter name over your real name unless of course you use your real name
- A memorable or catchy name is easy for people to remember, and it helps build your online presence if you desire to pursue a career or some kind of influence online.
Smile, you're on Twitter
Smiling faces make for the best avatars mainly because people like to follow those who look friendly and warm. If you are tweeting anonymously or are not quite comfortable yet showing your face, that's okay, no rush. Twitter does provide generic avatars but really do you want to look like this...
Even when using a generic image, pick an avatar that best reflects who you are because your avatar will be seen everywhere and is much easier to recognize than your avatar because people have an easier time remembering visuals over names. A basic rule of thumb in picking a picture: clean and simple.
What's your line?
For your account, to boost your profile, you will need to create a 160 character or less one line bio. Again, you don't have to put a bio, but that one line helps people get a glimpse of who you are and what you're about. A good bio will include descriptor words of what you're about and what you can offer.
For example in my one line bio, I put:
Deliciously creative blogger of The Everyday Blogger, Back in Skinny Jeans, and Noshtopia. Founder. Helping people live their most healthy and authentic lives.
So right away, you as a potential Follower get a gist if I seem interesting or useful for you.
Your backdrop is quite delicious
An opportunity for you to get even more creative and expressive on your Twitter account is in your Twitter page background image. Again, when starting out, I suggest just going with one of the Twitter supplied backgrounds as they are pretty cool.
Later on, you can get really fancy, like some of these folks in the Twitter Backgrounds Gallery. Do visit because it is very inspiring. Some people are so creative! Here's one I think is very cool, by @bejust.
Now that you have your account set up, we'll get you tweeting, in Part II: Easy as 1-2-3, Let's Get Going with the Tweets.
Related posts:
Part III of IV: Finding People to Follow, Where Following is Good not Stalkerish
