Twitter, twitter, and twitter. Be it Lalit Modi or Sachin Tendulkar, twitter is in the headlines recently. With just 140 characters, twitter is surely creating a buzz. If you've recently joined the tweetosphere to follow your favourite celebrity and are not able to make anything out of it, you're not alone.
Here's a quick walkthrough through the terms used in twitter.
Username: You choose yours when you join Twitter. You can change it through the settings page, anytime if your desired username is available. Don't be confused if someone asks you what your twitter handle is; handle is the term which tweeple use for username. Now, don't ask me who tweeple are.
Bio: They give you twenty characters more. 160 Characters is all you get to let the world know who you are, what you do or what your interests are. It all goes here.
Mentions: One can mention you by typing @yourtwitterhandle at the beginning of their tweet. You can check the tweets in which your friends have mentioned you by clicking @yourtwitterhandle on the right, in your homepage. You can also reply to these tweets by hitting the reply button below the tweet. This will begin your tweet with @theirtwitterhandle, which is a mention again.
Retweet: Retweeting is a sign of showing apprecitaion to a tweet or letting your followers know about it. If you want your followers to read ssomeone's tweet, which they wouldn't be following, you can always retweet it. This would be as good as you tweeting it, but will come along with the handle of the person who tweeted it originally.
Hashtag: I bet you've come across #blah and #bleh among your friend's tweets. You can also start your own #blehblah by just typing it anywhere in your tweet.
If more people tweet with your hashtag on it, you can track all the tweets which come under your hashtag with the help of the search box. So, start enhancing your tweets. Hey, #iloveidly or #ihatethisheat are some suggestions for you to begin with.
Trending topics: IPL, CSK, Sachin and Kasab were some of the trending topics in the recent past. When a lot of people tweet with the same word(s)/hashtag, it begins to trend. One can click on the respective trending topic to follow all the tweets under that category.
The rest is quite simple. You follow people. People follow you. You can set a picture for your profile via the settings page and choose your location for a more personalised profile page. I'm pretty sure this would help you to begin with. And, please don't ask me why Justin Bieber is ever trending.
Krishna is a Std XII E1 student at PSBB K.K. Nagar
