Twitter for Dummies!

[Rev]

I've never been on Twitter, not really seen the point while I could see what's posted through links on here.

Now however, it stops you scrolling down and reading threads if you're not a subscriber, so I'm thinking about joining, seeing as it seems to be the default choice of communication nowadays.

Can anyone offer any pointers on how to get the best out of it, for someone who's never used it? 

What should I do, and more importantly what should I not do?

Any help gratefully received.

 

[Eddie]

Just let @RoyMac5 do the work.

[RoyMac5]

9 hours ago, Eddie said:

Just let @RoyMac5 do the work.

Lol. I'm not the best at Twitter either, but copying links is easy!

Been signed up to it a long time now and I guess I just use it as an information source much more than an interactive medium.

But when I do interact then I just remember that unless your account is 'private', everyone can see everything you write even if not intended.

[TigerTedd]

11 hours ago, Rev said:

I've never been on Twitter, not really seen the point while I could see what's posted through links on here.

Now however, it stops you scrolling down and reading threads if you're not a subscriber, so I'm thinking about joining, seeing as it seems to be the default choice of communication nowadays.

Can anyone offer any pointers on how to get the best out of it, for someone who's never used it? 

What should I do, and more importantly what should I not do?

Any help gratefully received.

 

I’m very much the same. Social media started and ended with Facebook for me. And now I prefer just private little groups on WhatsApp. I’m not even going down the Twitter path. I’m happy that anything I need to know about anything will be posted on here by someone. 

[May Contain Nuts]

11 hours ago, Rev said:

What should I do

Stay strong

11 hours ago, Rev said:

and more importantly what should I not do?

Join Twitter.

Edited January 30, 2022 by Coconut's Beard

[Boycie]

Just never have a low battery and no signal on a train, that’s @David’s advice.

[Day]

17 hours ago, Rev said:

I've never been on Twitter, not really seen the point while I could see what's posted through links on here.

Now however, it stops you scrolling down and reading threads if you're not a subscriber, so I'm thinking about joining, seeing as it seems to be the default choice of communication nowadays.

Can anyone offer any pointers on how to get the best out of it, for someone who's never used it? 

What should I do, and more importantly what should I not do?

Any help gratefully received.

It's not massively different to other social media platforms.

First off after joining, follow the people you would be interested in. 

Be careful of parody accounts, it's littered with them, look for the verified tick next to their username which identify them as official.

Peasants such as myself, the dcfcfans account won't have one, they are saved for celebs, popular outlets and journalists. 

(side note, I've somehow locked myself out the dcfcfans account so don't expect to see anything from that)

Now find the the star at the top of your homepage or phone app, click/press that and then select latest tweets, this will put your timeline in chronological order rather than what Twitter thinks you want to see.

A retweet shares a tweet on your timeline, a like simply likes it and will show on your profile under likes, so don't go liking any ladies in bikinis if your missus knows your username.

You can protect your account in your settings, these prevents anyone from seeing your tweets, likes, who you follow unless you approve them to follow you.

If you do this though, when tweeting someone that doesn't follow you, they will never see it. 

Any mention of Leeds at all and their fans will be all over you, so be prepared for that.

I could go on but don't want to overwhelm you, fire any questions across and I'll try to help.

[Boycie]

If you pretend to have an interest in American Football you’ll get a few follows from likewise Derby fans.

[Carl Sagan]

If you just want to read posts linked on here, you never have to tweet yourself, or follow anyone else.

But it can be really useful and thoughtful. The extension to 280 characters plus pictures helped with that. And you can do a clever thing where you create threads to provide longer content.

If your account isn't private, be aware anyone can read your tweets, even if they're a reply to someone else (ie start with the @ symbol or are a response to someone else's tweet). That's unless you send a direct message (DM) but you're only generally allowed to DM someone if you both follow each other.

Like every social media platform, shareholders require ever greater engagement (ie clicks). Like every platform, the algorithms think this is best done (and are probably right) be causing discord and division. Stay away from it. Count to ten. There's no point engaging with argumentative people.

But Twitter can be a supportive place too. It really helped get everyone together for the march. It's connected me to global space, writing and academic communities. 

Hashtags are good ways of discovering content (they're  hyperlinks within tweets) , and many people use #dcfc and #dcfcfans for Derby news. In instagram hashtags are always lower case, but in Twitter you should capitalize the first letter of each word.

Also it's often the best way to contact a company's customer support if you have a problem!

 

 

[RoyMac5]

8 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

Also it's often the best way to contact a company's customer support if you have a problem!

Yes, this bit is certainly worth thinking about.

A couple of times it's been the only way to get customer service to notice/deal with a 'problem'.

[angieram]

Never post photos of black and white flags you've just put out at Pride Park unless you want to be trolled by thousands of Forest fans! 

[ilkleyram]

5 hours ago, angieram said:

Never post photos of black and white flags you've just put out at Pride Park unless you want to be trolled by thousands of Forest fans! 

thousands, @angieram?  Surely not.

[BucksRam]

I'm a bit of a NOOB on Twitter but I've found it fairly intuitive.  It's great for seeing updates, news articles or for contacting companies, i.e. Sky, as your request will be public, so they tend to respond.  There's all sorts of topics and hobbies you can follow too, which can be good. 

It's not so great for being full of absolute poo brains who think that by hiding behind an anonymous profile name, they're within their right to post completely defamatory and hurtful comments, so be aware of that - for example innocently post a supporting comment for DCFC's case against Gibson, then expect to get a stampede of Florest, 'Boro, Leeds supporters viciously slagging you off.  Key rule really is if you post, then be aware it's public so will be open to anyone replying with their own views.  Sometimes supportive, sometimes not. Oh and I'd say avoid the "promoted" posts, usually badged with seductive or intriguing photos to lure you in.  99% of the time it's just pure clickbait. 

Overall, I like it, you just need to set yourself a few ground rules.  

[angieram]

3 hours ago, ilkleyram said:

thousands, @angieram?  Surely not.

I went viral. It was horrible! 

[Rev]

I think to be honest, I'll follow @Coconut's Beard's advice and leave it, it sounds more trouble than its worth.

Thanks for the advice though.

[uttoxram75]

3 hours ago, Rev said:

I think to be honest, I'll follow @Coconut's Beard's advice and leave it, it sounds more trouble than its worth.

Thanks for the advice though.

If you use it just for information rather than trying to debate its ok.

You can quickly get a summary of latest news with little effort. I can get news from countries where my son is working for instance.

I mainly use it to search for latest news, sport, trending. You can sometimes stumble on something that leads to links for bigger reads on subjects that you may find interesting.

Also handy for watching goals and highlights if your on your travels!

 

It is mostly poo though.?

Edited January 31, 2022 by uttoxram75
couldn't even beat the filter and I'm a ducking mod

[BaaLocks]

13 hours ago, Rev said:

I think to be honest, I'll follow @Coconut's Beard's advice and leave it, it sounds more trouble than its worth.

Thanks for the advice though.

Best way to handle Twitter, create an anonymous account, don't follow any friends but use it to follow topics you might have interest in, post what the flippety heck you want and don't give a tinkers cuss for what you get back - they're just shouting at nothing.

[Guest]

I think you can still read and  scroll through stuff without being a signed up account holder

when the screen suggesting sign up or log in appears click either one and the x to close the page will then appear on the click through taking you back to the original page - seems to work for me anyway! 

[Ewe Ram]

I’ve been on Twitter about 10 years. I got to virtually never accessing it until all this admin stuff blew up. In my opinion it’s a cesspit of trolling and spite. But at the moment I’m trying to sift out decent tweeters. My blocked list must be huge.  
Be warned, if you stick your head above the parapet as a Ram you will be told every day to ‘stop crying’, that you are ‘a cheat’, that you were laughing when you thought Mel had ‘everyone on strings’ and you’ll be barraged with morons tagging you with the #liquidateDerby narrative. It’s depressing.
Someone said I look about 68 years old. Interesting seeing as I’ve never posted a picture of myself and my profile picture is a rams badge. Full of sad acts. 

[TomBustler1884]

I enjoy Twitter. Lots of news, lots of idiots but came into it's own after the last couple of weeks.

I get lots of people giving out abuse, generally ignore most of it, call out the odd one with over the top politeness, at which point they vanish. 

It seems people aren't able to debate or change their points of view anymore!