Twitter FAQs

Twitter Terror...

When discussing marketing methods with our clients we have noticed a bit of a trend which we are going to call ‘Twitter Terror’. Whilst facebook now appears to be an exceptable and popular way to promote your business online, very few of the businesses we’ve met understand twitter and quite frankly seem a little bit scared of using it, so we thought it’s about time we dispelled those fears for you with a selection of our Frequently Asked Twitter Questions...

• What is Twitter? Twitter is an online service that enables you to broadcast short, frequent messages to your friends or "followers." You can also choose other Twitter users you want to follow so you can read their messages or ‘Tweets’ in one place.
• What does ‘following’ someone on Twitter actually mean? Following someone simply means receiving the updates they post on Twitter – the same as if you are someone’s friend on facebook.
• How long can the messages or ‘Tweets’ be? Twitter messages are limited to 140 characters - Short and to the point.
• Can anyone see what I write? Twitter messages are automatically made ‘public’ so anyone can come across them in a search (great for businesses) but if you want a personal twitter account and don’t want the world to see your ‘Tweets’ you can change your profile to private.
• How do I find my friends, colleagues and other businesses? When you create an account, you can search for people by name or user name, import friends from other networks, or invite friends with an email.
• How to post a message or ‘Tweet’ – The most popular ways you can “Tweet," are from your computer or use a mobile application on your phone. Although, you can also tweet via other methods including SMS and IM. From the Twitter website, type your tweet in the ‘What’s happening?” box at the top of the screen. Then click the Tweet button to post it.
• Can I edit a ‘Tweet’ once I’ve posted it? No, in the same way as facebook, once it’s there you can’t edit it. However you can delete it by clicking the trash icon on the right end of the message
• What does it mean when people use the @ symbol? This has 2 uses; one is as a reply, so a public message sent from one person to another. To do that start your message with @username eg @viskomdesign (our twitter id).  The other is as a mention if you use it elsewhere within your message, for example “our lovely new website was designed by @viskomdesign. “
• What does it mean when people use the # Hashtag symbol? The hashtag is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. Use # before your keywords to categorise your tweet to appear easier in a twitter search. If you click on a #word in any message it will show you all other Tweets in that category. #words that become very popular become trending topics.
• What is a retweet? A retweet is re-posting someone else’s tweet on your own account. So if you like someone’s post and want to let all your followers know about it, retweet it and all your followers will then see it.
• Why is there a star at the end of my Tweet? The star is for you to mark an update as a favourite. People can view your favourites and you can view theirs by clicking ‘favourites’ in the profile page.
• What are direct messages? These are basically private messages sent from one person to another. Although they can only be sent between people who follow each other.
• Can I share images/photos on twitter? Yes you can, when you click inside the Tweet box on your homepage or on the New Tweet button, you will see a camera icon in the lower left hand corner for uploading an image.  The image currently must be in a .gif, .jpeg or .png format and Twitter will resize the image for you but keep the file size to under 3mb.
• Can you comment on an image? Yes you can, do this by replying to the Tweet containing the image

We hope these Twitter FAQs have dispelled some of your Twitter Fears and made it a little less scary for you. If you want to add twitter to your company website call us today on 01656 728901 or visit our viskom website In the coming weeks we’ll follow this post with how twitter can help you business, so keep checking our blog.

To register your twitter account visit www.twitter.com and remember to follow us @viskomdesign.