For good or evil, Twitter remains a central piece of the social media puzzle.
For many of those looking at Twitter from the outside, it’s a firehose — a never-ending torrent of bite-sized commentary, references, and conversations — that threatens to drown the reader. It’s also a refuge for scoundrels of all sorts; heck, we’re still learning about how Russian trolls flooded Twitter with specific messages during 2016. Nonetheless, there’s significant value to be had from Twitter, even if one just glances occasionally into the Twitterverse from the outside. So, if you’re thinking about sticking your toe in the Twitter ocean, this guide is for you.
“Do I HAVE to get a Twitter account?”
Many folks say things like “I want no part of that cesspool”, “I don’t want yet another social media account”, or something similar...so let’s start by talking about things you can do without having a Twitter login.
a) View/watch a public user’s tweets.
If you know their Twitter handle (which most folks write with an @ sign, as in @wesmorgan1), you can point your web browser to https://twitter.com/username (without the @) to view their user profile and recent tweets. So, if you wanted to keep up the latest from the Daily Kos Elections team on Twitter (@dkelections), you could set a bookmark for https://twitter.com/dkelections and visit at your leisure.
Note that if you leave the browser tab active, it will automatically update with new tweets; click on “View X new Tweets” when it appears, and the page will refresh to include the new tweet(s).
b) View/watch a public Twitter list.
A “Twitter list” is nothing more than a list of Twitter accounts built/curated by individual Twitter users. You’ll usually see these referred to as “@username/listname”, e.g. @wesmorgan/us-dod, and you can point your browser to https://twitter.com/username/listname and peruse the list to your heart’s content. If you leave the browser tab open, it will update with “View X new Tweets” as new information arrives. Note that the quality of the list depends entirely upon the Twitter user who curates it. I’ve seen lists where 90% of the list’s members haven’t tweeted in months, and I’ve seen lists so busy that I have to scroll back and forth to keep up with the flow.
There’s no central directory of Twitter lists, and you can’t browse beyond a Twitter user’s profile page (to see their lists) without a Twitter account of your own, so those of you without Twitter accounts will probably learn about these by word-of-mouth. To get an idea of what some fairly busy Twitter lists look like, check out a few of my lists:
@wesmorgan1/us-dod — 270+ feeds from US Department of Defense organizations
@wesmorgan1/world-football — 280 feeds from first-division football leagues/teams worldwide
@wesmorgan1/bluegrass-area — 750+ feeds from Central Kentucky businesses, schools, government, nonprofits, and media feeds
@wesmorgan1/world-news — ~60 “daily news” outlets (TV, radio, newspapers — no magazines) from around the world
We’ll talk more about lists later...
c) See the reactions/responses to public tweets.
I’m sure you’ve seen folks embed tweets in Daily Kos articles and/or comments. Here’s an example; it’s a tweet that I sent out as folks were preparing for Florence’s landfall.
If you want to see any replies to the tweet, just click the date/time line; you’ll see the tweet in question and any subsequent replies/discussion. If the tweet is part of a thread, you’ll see the entire thread.
Now, this is all well and good, but if you want more — like being able to respond to, retweet, or ‘like’ tweets or build your own Twitter lists of interesting people, you’ll need to get your own Twitter account (email address required) and start using a Twitter client.
OK, I signed up for a Twitter account — what now? What client should I use?
There are quite a few Twitter clients out there, so I’m not going to get into “I like this client because” or “That client stinks because” stuff; this diary is already running long, eh? Instead, I’ll talk about the client that is freely available to anyone with a web browser — Twitter’s Tweetdeck.
Tweetdeck occupies one browser tab and allows you to set up columns, like so:
The “Home” column is your personal timeline — in other words, tweets from people you specifically follow. By default, the Notifications column shows you when people mention you by handle (e.g. @wesmorgan1) in a tweet or reply to one of your tweets; however, it can also show when people retweet you, like your tweets, or follow you. Hey, remember when we looked at Twitter lists earlier? Well, Tweetdeck allows you to dedicate columns to lists; you can see that I’ve done so with two of my lists, which means I can see the tweets from those 700+ sources without following them in my home timeline. (There’s another default column — Messages — for private messages to/from other Twitter users, but I didn’t include that in the screenshot for obvious reasons.) You can configure/move individual columns by clicking on the settings icon in the top right of each column.
You can have as many columns as you want in Tweetdeck, but keep in mind that more columns will slow performance and could eat up your Internet connection.
There’s much more you can do with Tweetdeck; check out Twitter’s “How to use TweetDeck” page for more information.
Got it! Now...how do I find people to follow?
Well, we’ve reached the point at which folks are putting their Twitter handles on business cards, in email signatures, and on their webpages...but there are ways to find more folks to follow:
a) Twitter offers a “Who to follow” link on your web profile page, but let’s just say that their algorithm isn’t the best; it often suggests that I follow Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul and Donald Trump. *chuckle* Nonetheless, I have found some worthy folks there.
b) If you visit your Twitter profile page on the Web, you’ll see a “Search Twitter” box in the top right corner; hit Return after entering a name or subject, and you’ll be taken to a search results page where you can select “People” and scroll through the list of results. I like this method because it displays each user’s Twitter bio, like so:
From there, just click on the “Follow” button of anyone who looks interesting.
c) See who your friends are following, and see who follows them! Once you find a few people to follow, hit their profile page on the web and you’ll find that (since you’re now logged into Twitter yourself), you can click on their “Following” and “Followers” lists and look for interesting people.
d) In Tweetdeck, you can view any user’s profile by clicking on their name in any tweet; you’ll get a popup like this:
From here, you can check their recent tweets, open their followers/following pages, view the Twitter lists they maintain or follow, see what lists include them, follow/unfollow them, etc. Note that you’ll also see if anyone you follow is among that user’s followers.
e) There’s a Twitter tradition called #FollowFriday (or #FF), where users send tweets with those hashtags to recommend other users to their followers. You can look for those in your timeline every Friday, or simply search for those hashtags; I’ve picked up quite a few folks to follow (and have been followed) from #FollowFriday recommendations.
Hmmm…but what about privacy?
You can, if you wish, make your Twitter account private. This means that no one can follow you without your permission (you’ll receive a notification if someone asks to follow you)...but it also means that ONLY the people who follow you will see your tweets; the general public won’t see them, your tweets won’t show up in other people’s Twitter lists, etc.
As you’re navigating the Twitterverse, you can identify private Twitter accounts by the lock icon on their name, like this one from my Followers page:
Note that even though this person follows me, I cannot follow them without their permission. If you go to a private user’s full profile page on the web, it will read “This account’s Tweets are protected.”
Remember that a private Twitter account doesn’t make you invisible; you’ll still show up in people searches, and your profile page and bio will still be visible to the general public. A private Twitter account ONLY protects your tweets, follower/following lists, Twitter lists, etc. from public inspection.
Personally, I don’t need a private Twitter account, but if (for whatever reason) you’re looking for a quiet or “read-only” Twitter experience, this approach may be for you.
Yeah, now, about the scammers, trolls, and jerks…
Make no mistake, there are LOTS of folks on Twitter who I would classify as trolls, frothers, and the like. Given that, by default, everyone can see everyone’s tweets, you’re sure to encounter such folks at some point. Well, Twitter gives you three means of dealing with such folks:
a) Blocking them. This means that they can neither follow you nor comment on your tweets. This basically banishes them from your Twitter presence.
b) Muting them. This simply means that YOU won’t see anything they say. They can still follow you, and other users can see the replies they may make to your tweets, but you won’t have to see them.
c) Reporting them. This simply sends notice to Twitter’s Terms-of-Service folks that you think the user is in violation. I reserve this for the folks who try to sell stuff (“Ray-Ban for $19.99!”), send porn tweets, etc.
To do any of these from Tweetdeck, click on their username in the tweet. You’ll see their profile pop up, and clicking on the “three dots” icon gives you this menu, which includes “Mute”, “Block” and “Report”:
I’ve never had to block OR mute anyone; two things trolls cannot abide are being ignored and a reasoned response, so they don’t engage me all that often.
A word of warning before replying, retweeting, liking, etc…
There are many, MANY fake and parody Twitter accounts. Before taking something at face value where public figures are concerned, look for the “blue check” verification icon:
as opposed to THIS guy:
If you don’t see the blue check, be VERY careful about responding to the tweet, retweeting it, etc.
In the end, you can build a low-noise, high-content Twitter presence, but it takes work; basically, you’re going curate the voices you choose to hear in that medium.
Well, this is definitely the longest diary I’ve written at Daily Kos...and I just scratched the surface. Please feel free to share questions, tips and tricks, etc. in the comments...and I hope to see you on Twitter!