Why do twitter

Blogging offers an effective and inexpensive way to disseminate and publicise research, as well as involve research participants and end users. It allows an online community to share thoughts and opinions, and debate a subject. There are several ways of creating your own blog, including using blogging platforms such as WordPress or setting one up on your website. If you go to the effort of creating a blog then you probably want to ensure that you attract as many relevant visitors to it as you can.

You can do this by:. Videos can be a useful and innovative way of getting your message across, but they must be appropriate for the target audience. They can be relatively expensive. However, there are free apps that make videos easier than ever to produce. If you do decide to produce a video you should find a unique angle and avoid the typical corporate video.

Among the most popular video-sharing sites are YouTube and Vimeo. You can also embed YouTube and Vimeo videos on your own website. Many users will find videos through searching using specific keywords. You need to make sure that your videos have clear and meaningful titles and descriptions. These will affect how a video performs on social media sites as well as in search engines like Google.

Podcasts provide a cheap and effective way to deliver audio content to your audiences. They are particularly useful for broadcasting interviews, debates and lectures. You can also record podcasts remotely, via Skype or telephone, with people that you cannot meet face to face. Before publishing your podcast you should ensure that anyone who participated in the podcast is happy with it.

The technical side of producing a podcast can seem daunting but it is usually a relatively straightforward process. NOTE Council web content is being transitioned to this website — let us know if you have feedback or would like to help us test new developments. Choosing what social media you use. Among older users, these differences are similar.

In terms of political ideology, Twitter users are less likely than U. At the same time, similar shares of Twitter users and U. Twitter users as a group express distinct opinions relative to the public as a whole on some political values, particularly when it comes to views having to do with race, immigration and gender.

They are also more likely than the U. In other ways, the views of Twitter users differ only slightly from those of all U. By definition, the most active tweeters produce a large amount of content relative to the rest of the Twitter population. But the scope of these differences is profound. The behaviors of these highly active tweeters also differ from the rest of the Twitter population in ways that go beyond tweet volume.

And these most active tweeters are much more likely than others to say they post about political issues. Despite the differences between highly active tweeters and those who are less active, other instances show these active users differ only modestly — or not at all — from the rest of the Twitter population.

Although prolific tweeters report tweeting about politics with great regularity, their overall partisanship is not out of sync with other Twitter users. In times of uncertainty, good decisions demand good data. Parts of a Twitter profile Your Twitter profile has six parts: your Twitter handle, username, profile picture, bio, header image, and a pinned tweet. Your Twitter handle is your name, your identifier on Twitter. This is the name at the end of your Twitter page's URL and the name other tweeters will use to tag you in posts.

It can be up to 15 characters and should help people find your business easily. Your username, or display name, appears above your Twitter handle on your profile and can be up to 50 characters. This would be the name of your business or brand.

Your profile photo is displayed on your profile and in every tweet you post, so it should visually represent your business and brand. Many brands use their logo. For your bio, you have characters to describe your business. Include information such as your location, business hours and website URL.

You can use the header image behind your profile picture to highlight promotions, events or news about your business. Unlike your profile picture, this image should change regularly.

Your pinned tweet is the first tweet people see when they visit your profile, so make it an interesting one that represents what's going on with your brand. As with your header image, you can change your pinned tweet whenever you want.

Twitter terminology These terms are important to know when using Twitter for your small business. When you click on a hashtag, Twitter automatically shows you other tweets with the hashtag.

This makes it easy for people to follow topics and events. Block: If you block an account on Twitter, they can't follow you, add you to Twitter lists or see your tweets. You also won't see their tweets.

Bookmarks: Similar to bookmarks in an internet browser, the Twitter Bookmarks button allows you to save tweets so you can find them easily later. This is particularly helpful if you want to read an article or watch a video linked in the tweet but don't have time at the moment.

If one of your customers or followers has a question, they can ask you via DM. There is no character limit on DMs, so your response can be as detailed as necessary. However, if someone you don't follow messages you, their message will show up in the "requests" folder by default, so you might not notice it immediately.

You can change this in your settings. Follow: When you follow an account, you're subscribing to see that user's tweets in your timeline. Followers: Twitter users who follow you can see your tweets in their timelines. Like: You can like a tweet by clicking the heart symbol under it. You can see all of your likes on your profile. Lists: You can make public and private lists of other users you find interesting. You don't have to follow a user to include them in a list. For example, you may make a list of local news outlets or writers, your competitors, influencers in your industry, or important customers.

Retweet: Retweeting is similar to sharing someone's post on Facebook. If you like a tweet and want your follows to see it, you retweet it. Then, the tweet shows up on your followers' timelines and your profile. Timeline or home timeline : Your timeline displays the tweets and retweets of the people you follow as well as promoted tweets. You can see trending topics on the left-hand side of your Twitter homepage in the "trends" box.

You can customize your trend display to show what's popular in your location or with the people you follow. Tools of Twitter Keeping your account s organized needs to be a priority.

TweetDeck , which is owned by Twitter, is free to use and has a sleek user interface with customizable columns where you can organize lists, notifications, and your feed.

You can also track hashtags in separate columns, schedule tweets in advance something you can't do on the Twitter website or mobile apps and add multiple Twitter accounts to manage several users at once.

TweetDeck is accessible via web browser. Hootsuite , which lets you manage other social media accounts besides Twitter, operates similarly to TweetDeck, allowing you to schedule your tweets, manage your replies, respond to messages and tweets, and generally automate your account's management. It is arguably not as sleek or simple as TweetDeck, though, as it uses tabs for each profile you connect to it. How to set up a business Twitter account Twitter and other social media platforms often adjust their setup process, so these steps may change in the future, but as of February , these are the steps to set up a Twitter account for business use: Create an account.

Visit the Twitter homepage and click "sign up. Be sure to pick a Twitter handle that clearly represents your business, but you can adjust it later if needed. Verify your account. Once you complete the first step, Twitter will send a verification code to the phone number you provided.

Enter that code in the provided space and click "next. As you should when signing up for any account online, make sure that this password is hard to guess and not in use for any of your other accounts.

Use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters to make it unique and complex. Complete your profile. Now that you've supplied the basics, you'll be prompted to fill out your profile. You will need these components for a complete business Twitter profile: Upload a profile picture. This is often your company's logo or, if you're creating a personal account to use for business purposes, a professional photo of yourself. Upload the picture approximately by pixels and adjust if necessary.

Write a bio. Tweets can contain links, photos, GIFs, or videos. But if you're tweeting text, you're limited to characters. It used to be , which was even more stifling, but once you get used to it you'll learn to love the brevity. It helps make your tweets pithy, and there's much less rambling you have to read when scanning other tweets.

Some even say Twitter helps us become better writers. Stepping into the Twitter stream unprepared can leave you feeling rudderless. Who to follow? What to tweet?

Does this show up on my Twitter page? Am I missing things my friends post? What's an RT? Follow our tips to get started on Twitter, and set yourself up for a more fulfilling experience. Step 1: Go to Twitter. The "Full name" that you provide will be your display name, but unlike Facebook, you can change your display name to whatever you want as many times as you want, so it's really easy to stay anonymous if you so choose.

Step 2: Enter in your phone number. This is a form of authentication that will help in case you ever lose access to your account. You'll want to use a phone you actually have access to because the next step will ask you to verify a number sent via text. Step 3: Pick a password, and make it secure! You don't need a troll getting a hold of your account and dismantling the reputation you've worked so hard to build. Step 4: Choose your interests. This will help with the next step, which is where Twitter will give you suggestions of people you can follow.

You can also skip both of these by saying "skip for now" in the top right hand corner. That will be your username, or handle, and people can notify you by typing in front of your username in a tweet. Choose something you like that you think isn't taken, but also something easy to remember for others. Step 6: Pick an avatar. The default picture is a silhouette, but you can make your avatar whatever you want your face, a dog on a skateboard, the possibilities are endless.

Just click the silhouette and head to "Profile" and then click "Edit Profile" on the right underneath the blue bar. You can update your header photo from this place, too. Be sure to read Twitter's rules for avatar images to make sure what you pick is not in violation.