Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners

1. Choosing a Username: A lot of Twitter users choose nicknames that are unrelated to the information they are offering. If you are using Twitter for personal use this is okay, however, if you are going to use Twitter to offer high quality information related to your area of expertise, you should choose a username that reflects your area of specialization. When people see your username they will know exactly what you are about.
2. Retweets: Retweet are also known as RTs and are used to resend a message sent by someone else. You can forward the person’s message to other users that will also see the content of the message as relevant and useful. To send a retweet simply type “RT @name” in front of their message and then post it. When you post the tweet, remember to give credit to the person who created the message.
3. Communicating with the @ Sign: The @ sign is used to reply to people who have posted tweets. If you wish to post a reply, simply place an @ sign in front of their username and then type in your message.
4. Locating Your Friends and Searching for Topics of Interest: You can use the Search function to find your friends and topics you may be interested in.twitter.com. It works just like a search engine except you are searching the Twitter site to locate people and read information that is of interest to you.
5. Receiving Mobile Tweets: If you have a cell phone you can receive tweets from Twitter on your mobile device by simply entering your cell phone number under the Devices tab in your Twitter account settings online.
6. Mobile Twitter Clients: Twitter provides mobile clients which enhance your experience with using Twitter. The clients include Twitterific and Twitterberry and work with a cell phone that contains Wi-Fi.
7. Categories: Twitter provides a way for you to categorize your Tweets so other Twitter users can easily locate them. If you are creating a tweet about a subject that is currently popular on Twitter, simply place a # sign in front of the subject on your tweet.
8. URL Addresses: URL addresses are website addresses that you can provide in your tweets if there is a page you want others to view. More often than not, website URLs are long and exceed the 140 character limit. For this reason, Twitter users use shortened URLs by using URL shortening services.
9. Direct Messaging: Any tweet you post on Twitter, the message can be seen by everyone, however, you can use the direct messaging service to send private messages.
10. TweetDeck: If you end up using Twitter on a frequent basis, it is a good idea to install a Twitter desktop client such as TweetDeck on your PC. A desktop client application will help you to easily manage all of your communications on Twitter

There are a lot of other ways that Twitter can be used but these are the top 10 Twitter Tips that will help you understand the basics and get started using Twitter.

About the Author: If you are interested in more Twitter tips to improve your efficency and productivity, visit the Twitter Tips Central blog.