10 Quick Twitter Tips for Beginners

Make the most of your time on the social network

Are you new to Twitter? The popular microblogging platform has been around for years now, but that doesn't mean you missed the boat. With a few essential Twitter tips, you can be a pro tweeter in no time. Here's what you need to know.

Decide Whether You Want a Public or Private Profile

Twitter is an open and public social network where anyone can see your posts and interact with you. By default, your profile is public. However, you can make your Twitter activity private so that only people who follow you (which requires your approval first) can interact with you.

Twitter's settings with the 'Protect Your Tweets' option highlighted

Observe How Users Interact on Twitter

Before you jump into tweeting, consider checking out other user profiles to see how they use Twitter. You can learn a lot by observing other people's behavior and habits. Looking at how other people act on Twitter gives you a good idea of what sort of Twitter etiquette exists.

Some of the things you can do right away to build your Twitter following include:

  • Scheduling tweets for maximum exposure.
  • Adding visuals to your tweets.
  • Tweeting more often.

Learn How Retweets Work

Retweets are a huge part of Twitter and often make certain pieces of content go viral. Retweeting is a way of sharing another user's tweet and is simple to do, but there are a few ways of doing it.

Retweet Icon
Flickr

You definitely want to figure out how Twitter retweets work and how automatic retweets differ from manual retweets. You should also take a look at quote retweets, which let you add comments to posts you share.

Understand How Hashtags Work

Hashtags categorize tweets on Twitter and make it easier for users to find posts according to a specific theme (marked by a hashtag). When you use hashtags correctly, you can attract new followers and interactions.

You can find hashtags for new movies, political causes, news items, and more. Check out the Search tab on Twitter to see what's trending in your area, nationally, or around the world.

Tweet When Your Followers Are Most Active

Depending on who your Twitter followers are and where they're located in the world, your best tweets may not be visible if you post at a time when your followers aren't paying attention to their feeds.

You may want to experiment with tweeting at different times throughout the day to see what results in the most interaction.

Use Twitter From Your Mobile Device

Twitter is great to use from the regular web, but it really shines from a phone or tablet. You can take your mobile device with you and tweet about what you're doing or whatever thoughts pop up at the moment.

If you're not impressed with the Twitter mobile app or want to see what else is out there, you have other options. There are plenty of third-party Twitter clients available that you might like more.

Post Photos to Make Your Tweets More Visually Appealing

Tweets with photos attached receive more engagement from followers. That's because these tweets are hard to miss in people's feeds. They grab attention right away. Tweeting a GIF, photo, or image is especially visible on mobile platforms.

Select the image icon in the tweet composer to add up to four photos.

Get More Involved With Conversations by Joining a Twitter Chat

Twitter can feel lonely if you're only connected to users who tweet once in a while. Joining a Twitter chat or two can be a great way to:

  • Interact with other like-minded users in real time.
  • Find more users to follow.
  • Attract more followers.
  • Expand your network.

Automatically Tweet Your Newest Blog Posts

If you have a blog, use a tool to automatically tweet new posts when you publish a new blog post. This saves you the time and energy of doing it manually. Use IFTTT to link your blog to your Twitter account and send new posts to your followers automatically.

IFTTT.com.

Use Social Media Management Tools to Schedule and Automate Your Tweets

Speaking of Twitter automation, there are all sorts of third-party social media management tools that connect to your Twitter account and allow you to manage it more effectively. You can also write a tweet today and have it automatically scheduled to post tomorrow.

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