Gotta get good info on your candidate out on Twitter, and it’s not as hard as it looks. You just can’t use a lot of words to do it. That means someone like me has to be really careful! lol
I’ll be posting more in later posts, but here is a basic introduction from Twitter on how to set up a Twitter account.
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From:
https://support.twitter.com/articles/100990-how-to-sign-up-on-twitter
How to create an account:
Navigate to http://twitter.com/, enter your full name and click the yellow button on the right hand of your screen, or simply navigate to https://twitter.com/signup.
Fill in the first field with your full name.
Select a username from one of the usernames we’ve suggested, or create your own. We will automatically suggest available usernames based on the real name and email address you’ve entered. Try to pick something that describes you - whether it’s a nickname, an interest or a hobby.
Enter a password. Be tricky! Make sure your password contains letters, numbers, and symbols.
Enter your email address.
Fill in the Captcha to prove you’re human, not a machine!
Pick sources that interest you (more on this below).
Search for Friends, and follow them.
Choosing a Username: Tips and Tricks
Your username is the name your followers use when sending @replies, direct messages, or Retweets.
It will also form the URL of your home timeline. We’ve provided a few available suggestions, but feel free to choose your own.
Please note: You can change your username in your account settings at any time, as long as the new username is not in use.
Usernames must be fewer than 15 characters in length, and cannot contain ‘admin’ or ‘twitter’ in order to avoid brand confusion.
Tip: Entering Your Email
We use this to confirm your account before you can finish the signup process. Be sure to enter an email address that you actively use. Emails can only be tied to one Twitter account at a time in our system.
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1. Finding Sources That Interest You
Twitter is more useful and fun when you’re getting regular updates relevant to your interests, so try the following:
Select some of your interests from the top of the screen, or scroll through the interests listed below.
Browse the sources listed accounts you might like to follow. (A new list of suggested sources is generated every time you click an interest.)
Clicking the ‘follow’ button next to a user’s name will add them to the list of users you are following. This is indicated by the number in the green square above the list.
After you’ve followed users suggested in one area of interest, select another and find more sources to follow!
When finished, click the blue ‘Next: friends’ button in the lower right hand side of your screen
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2. Getting Personal: Contact Import
If you choose, Twitter can scan your email address book in order to find contacts that are also using Twitter. It’s a fast and easy way to find your friends.
Simply type your email address and your email password into the boxes, then hit ‘Find friends.’ Twitter does not store your login, and we will not use your email address without your permission.
When you see a list of the friends and colleagues found in your address book, follow them!
Follow all of them by selecting the blue ‘Follow All’ button on the right hand side of the results
Or if you’d like to see updates only from specific people, you can choose to ask to follow your email contacts individually using the grey ‘send request’ button next to their information.
Click the ‘Next: others’ button at the bottom of your screen.
A box will pop-up with your remaining contacts who are not on Twitter. To invite them to join Twitter, check the boxes next to the contacts you wish to invite - or click “select all” at the top.
Please note: if you click ‘select all’ and proceed, it will invite all contacts in your address book.
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3. Finding Friends with Twitter Search
You can also search for anyone else you would like to add on Twitter. This example will demonstrate searching for Biz Stone, who did not show up in my contact import.
Type the name of the person you’re searching for into the search box.
Tweets related to your query will show in the center of the page. A list of matching accounts will show on the right hand side of your screen.
Click the Follow button next to any you wish to begin Following. A confirmation message will appear
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I’ll be back with more info to help you with this process and how you can find places to “re-tweet” things your candidate would like to have out there on Twitter!
Doing a “search” after you have an account set up.
First see what people are saying all over Twitter!
We are not to “Re-tweets” yet which is one way to get your candidates info out, but this is a great way, once you have your Twitter account set up, to see what others are saying about your candidate.
I’m posting Twitters directions for a Twitter search below, but it’s really easy to do.
In my own words, once you have a Twitter account and have signed in, you’ll be on your home page.
You probably won’t have much there since you are not “following anyone” (kind of like Facebook friends or Facebook likes” nor is anyone following you yet.
But when you are signed in and on your homepage, go to the top where you have a little search box, and type in something you might like to see people are talking about, find out what they are saying.
Twitter is NOT like Facebook in that so long as your search input is tweeted by someone, you’ll see it there.
So, let’s try a search.
Sign in and go to the search box. Write in something like “ gop debate “ into that search box. Whalla. You’ll see a bunch of people’s tweets in front of you, and you can see what people are saying AND seeing links to articles and blog entries which people are promoting all over Twitter.