SigneT Help on Twitter

Explaining Twitter - a SigneT Class Owners Association help page

by Paul Nicholson

Contents:

What Twitter is

Twitter is one of the social networking, or social media, tools; you may also know of Facebook. Twitter allows you to share information with the world in up to 140 characters at a time (called a "tweet"). Tweets go to one's "followers", and can be viewed through a website, or accessed by a plain old link. Twitter can also be received on computers, smartphones, and tablets indeed written to from computers, smartphones, and tablets.

Overview of how Twitter works

It allows people or organisations to post messages/updates no longer than 140 characters to the internet.

This is called "tweeting" and a message is called a "tweet".

So tweeting is a bit like texting on a mobile phone except that it goes to the internet for all to see.

Tweets are posted to the author's "timeline" (list of tweets) on Twitter on the internet. A Twitter timeline can also be called a Twitter feed.

If you have a Twitter account, then as well as seeing your own tweets, you can select other people to follow, and your timeline will include your tweets and those of anyone you are following on Twitter. Conversely, anyone who has chosen to follow you will see your tweets in their timeline.

Unlike Facebook, you don't have to mutually agree to follow each other: you can follow others without them following you back and vice versa, and it's this broadcast ability that makes it ideal for transmitting Latest News.

Timelines are usually arranged with the most recent tweets first, or else the most popular tweets first.

If you see a tweet you like, then you can click on a heart-shaped symbol to add yourself to the list of those who like the tweet, and it makes it easier for you find it again.

And if you find something particularly interesting/useful/quirky/amusing/etc., then you can relay it to your followers by re-tweeting it ("RT" for short).

Twitter is free and you can sign up for an account at twitter.com.

But you don't have to have an account to see tweets, though you miss out on some useful functionality, such as receiving alerts by email or on your device whenever an account you're interested in tweets.

Don't forget that you can delete tweets, and of course never say anything you wouldn't say in person, nor anything defamatory/libellous.

there is a facility on twitter for Directly Messaging ("DM") another twitter user, but I can only see any value in this if you're not connected with them by phone or email.

How the SigneT Class Owners Association is using Twitter

The SigneT Class Owners Association is using Twitter as another medium for getting latest news to you. To access this, do one or more of the following:-

Follow SigneT Class from your Twitter account (search for "sailsignet" in the "Find People" Twitter option)

Go to the Home Page on the SCOA website; this now has a Twitter-generated table displaying the latest Tweets.

View the SigneT Class Tweets on Twitter at twitter.com/sailsignet.

What the SigneT Class Owners Association is using Twitter for

Some examples of who is using Twitter: