Twitter FAQs for new users

If you’re new to Twitter the site can at first seem a bit overwhelming. Here’s a run down of a few frequently asked questions about the social media network and how things work:

What is twitter?

Twitter is a social media network where you can post status updates of up to 140 characters known as tweets. These posts then show on your profile, the newsfeed of fellow tweeters that follow you and in twitter search.

How do I find people to follow?

You can invite your connections to follow you via email, import your connection from other networks or search for people to follow by their name, username or keywords. Twitter also suggests people with similar interests to you that you might want to follow.

How do I know who is following me?

You can set your email preferences so that you are notified via email every time you get a new follower. You can also check under the ‘Followers’ tab where you will find a list of all the people following you.

What are @replies?

@replies are when you direct your tweet to a specific person by using @ followed by the username of the person. When you click the reply button on someone else’s tweet it will show as an @reply.

What are direct messages?

Direct messages, or DM as they are also known, are private messages between twitter users. These messages don’t show up in your newsfeeds and so won’t be visible to the public. You can only send messages to people that follow you.

What a retweet?

This is basically when you share someone else’s tweet. You are ‘retweeting’ their content. You can do this either by clicking the retweet button directly on the other persons tweet or by placing RT in the status update. You can also retweet using third party applications but these may show up differently on your newsfeed as the tweets are not considered official retweet by twitter.

What are hashtags?

Hashtags are the # symbol followed by a keyword and are used to categorise tweets. Hashtags make it easy for particular topics to show up in Twitter search.

For more FAQ’s check out the Twitter help centre.