You've resisted, you've called it lame, you've even mentioned how you don't want to be a twatter, or tweetist, or whatever. But you're wrong. This semester, get on Twitter. Try it, and if you hate it, I'll refund all your money. To make it easier on you, I'll even walk you through the process.
First of all, why is Twitter awesome? In a nutshell, Twitter is what's new. It's the ultimate instant, simple, opt-in communication and is increasingly the quickest source for breaking news, great stories and interesting things to check out and do. No matter what you're interested in, you can find people like you on Twitter and create an immediate community around almost any topic. It's fast, easy and useful for anyone.
Convinced? Good. Now, the next thing you need to do is pick a username. This is a decision that is too often taken lightly. Bear in mind, here, that you'll forever be known on Twitter as the name you choose - though you can change your name if you need to - so kittykittylicklickxx33 might not be the best decision. Names are getting increasingly hard to come by, but there are always a few good ones to try, like your first name, your first and last names or some (PG-rated) nickname you go by.
After you've got a name - or handle, as Twitter likes to call them - click "Settings" on your profile, and then fill out all the information there. Upload a picture - not having a picture makes you look like a scammer, and no one will pay any attention to you. Write a sentence or two about yourself, link to your Web site or your Facebook account and save your profile. You'll look like you've been there a while and seem both more personal and more interesting. It really does only take about two minutes and it's definitely worth the time.
So your profile's pretty and your handle's catchy. Let's find some tweeps! Twitterers. Tweeple. Call it whatever you want; let's find some people to talk to! There are a bunch of ways to find interesting and cool people, but none of these ways are obvious. The first is to start with, say, 10 people you're interested in. Google "whatevertheirnameis Twitter" and you'll find 'em. Then, once you find someone you want to follow, click the link that says "Following" on his profile, to see all the people he follows on Twitter. Interesting people tend to follow interesting people, and you'll head down a rabbit hole of discovery, finding your own niche within Twitter.
The second way to find interesting people, and probably the easier way, is lists - essentially curated groups of people grouped by a certain topic. To find thousands of lists, head to listorious.com, where you can follow an entire list, and it'll show up on your profile, or you can pick and choose individual people from within the list to follow.
Now that you're all set, stop going to twitter.com. Instead, download one of any of the 12 million - about - third-party applications available to Twitter users, nearly all of them free. They're an easier way to manage your friends and followers, send and read tweets and immerse yourself further into the network. A few good ones to try: TweetDeck (tweetdeck.com), Seesmic (seesmic.com) or Brizzly (brizzly.com). They're all free, and much better than the Twitter Web site.
After you start using Twitter, you'll notice a few new terms that people use. Here's a handy reference guide to the most popular. Reply: a public message, that all of your followers can see but that is addressed to a particular person; it's like a wall post on Facebook. Direct Message: a message that goes only to the other person and is private; it's like a message on Facebook. Retweet: someone passing on another person's tweet to their followers. @: The @ symbol comes before a username to show - and link to - the user being referred to. For instance, I'm @piercedavid, not just piercedavid.
You're now ready to be a lean, mean, tweeting machine! Now go and tell the world.
David's column runs biweekly Wednesdays. He can be reached at d.pierce@cavalierdaily.com.
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