by Teresa Thomas, @themamateresa
My interview with Twitter newbie, Katie Borten (@ktborten)
Katie arrived at my “office” (one desk over from hers) with notebook in hand. She’s been saving up questions for this interview. Every time she’s heard Melanie & I talking about something in Twitter that makes no sense to her, she’s written it down in her notebook in anticipation of this interview. I’m not the greatest authority on Twitter in the place (*cough* @Sisarina *cough*) but I do know more than Katie does at the moment, so that makes me the “expert." We opened Twitter.com and TweetDeck to help facilitate our Q&A.
Q1 – What’s a Tweet Deck?
A1 – Let me show you the difference…..
TweetDeck:
For starters, TweetDeck shows a constant feed of incoming tweets so you don’t have to refresh. It also has some really great features like easy one-click actions and multiple columns that separate out tweets that mention you or are sent directly to you. You can also set up separate columns for different Twitter accounts, for following a particular hashtag and even for your LinkedIn, Facebook, Foursquare, and other accounts.
Twitter.com:
But some information is still more easily found on www.twitter.com. I go there to find out how many folks are following me and how many I’m following. I also like to look people up via twitter.com instead of TweetDeck simply because it’s easier there. My favorite thing about using twitter itself, however, is the ability to delete posts. Typos, misquotes, angry moments can all be deleted by going to twitter.com, finding the post and choosing the handy little trash can icon below it.
Q2 – How do I set up TweetDeck?
A2 – Go to www.tweetdeck.com and download the program. There are apps for your desktop, your iPhone/iPad or your Android phone
Q3 – What’s that @ symbol? And how do you make it “work” and be clickable?
A3 – The @ symbol is what alerts Twitter to the fact that what follows is a twitter handle, it will automatically make that name clickable so that you can see who that person is and what they tweet.
Q4 – What’s a hashtag?
A – The hashtag symbol (#) is another one of those twitter alerts that tells the system to make what follows it searchable. When you click on a word or mashed-up phrase that follows a hashtag, twitter will automatically give you a list of all the tweets that have also used that hashtag within the last few days. It makes “following” an event or a subject very easy. We use #DCTweetup for events and find out what people are saying about it.
Hashtags are also used sometimes as a post script, or an aside. It can be a clever way to say something without really saying it. #vaguemuch?
Q5 – Let’s talk about TweetDeck symbols.
A – In TweetDeck, when you roll over someone’s profile picture, 4 icons appear.
REPLY: The “swooshy” backwards pointing arrow is to “Reply”. This will put the twitter handle of person to whom you are responding at the beginning of what you write. This accomplishes 2 things. First, it tells everyone to whom you are speaking and secondly, it allows whatever system they are using (Tweetdeck anyone?) to alert them that someone is “speaking” to them.
RETWEET (RT): The straight arrow pointing right is the "Retweet". This is a way for you to move something someone else said into your own stream so that all the people following you are able to see it too. Tweetdeck will allow you to either simply repeat it, or edit it and then repeat it. See 5 Things No One Told You About Twitter.
DIRECT MESSAGE (DM): The envelope icon is for sending a "Direct Message" to someone. It will put a ‘D’ in front of their twitter handle and send your message ONLY to them. No one will see it but you. You can manually set these up by using a D followed by a space and then a person’s twitter handle without the @ symbol but please, please, please make sure this is set up correctly before tweeting some secret message. Better yet, don’t DM anything that would get you in trouble if seen by the public at large. And remember that you can’t DM someone who isn’t following you.
OTHER ACTIONS: The gear-looking icon is your basic catch-all, "Other Actions". It’s where you can do all sorts of things that no one ever really thinks about doing with their twitter stream, like emailing tweets to others and translating them. From here you can also view someone’s profile (um... You can also just click on their twitter handle for this), create a search column and follow or unfollow someone.
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Sadly, none of my answers to Katie were actually this coherent. Most of them consisted mainly of, “Here, let me show you,” followed by clicks and pointing fingers. Those, however, don’t translate well into blogs. I feel certain that you have some better answers for Katie or, at the very least, some intriguing questions of your own. Please share them in our comments!
