Twitter masterclass: Learning the basics

Here we'll cover the very basics; if you're already tweeting, head for page 7 to read about following other users.

Getting started

To get going, head to twitter.com and click 'Join the conversation'. It's interesting that Twitter now sees itself as a conversation between users, moving away from the one-way communication of the original concept.

Picking a name

You'll need to create a user name, which can be anything you like. If you want, you can set Twitter to display your user name and your real name in search listings, or just your user name if you want to maintain an air of mystery. You might want the user name to be easy for people to guess, especially if you're starting a Twitter profile for a company or service.

Your user name will generate the URL for your Twitter feed: ours is CNETUK, so our URL is twitter.com/cnetuk. You can change your user name at any time, but this will change the URL and will cause problems if someone has bookmarked you in their browser. It won't affect your existing followers, who will still see your tweets in their feed.

Find your friends

If you have email acounts with Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail or MSN, you can enter your password and Twitter will tell you if any of your contacts are already tweeting away. You'll also be offered a list of famous tweeters. Tick any you're interested in and they'll appear in your feed. You can remove them later if you want.