Please consider going through the list below to see how you can donate to help the victims of the massive fires sweeping across Central Texas right now. Already tens of thousands of acres of land with people’s home and personal belongings have felt the wrath of this natural disaster. Although there is so much tragedy engulfing the area right now, neighbors, Texans, and people across the US are banding together in support of the cities. Below are links to the local Red Cross chapters, churches, food banks, shelters, and even baseball teams looking for donations of food, clothing, personal items, and money to help continue to fight the fires and the devastation left in its wake.

Picture courtesy of http://www.kvue.com.

EMERGENCY COUNTY BROADCASTERS

Check out information from the local emergency response government sites about the fires, shelters, and more detailed information here:

LOCAL NEWS

Local news channels and radios provide more links and donation facilities here:

DONATIONS

Donation stations accepting food and/or clothing and other supplies this week:

UPDATED (9/14/2011):  Blankets for Bastrop is recruiting crafty people to make blankets for the families once they relocate or get back into their homes:

http://blanketsforbastrop.wordpress.com

And learn about how you can donate supplies or precious quilts to keep them warm in the winter and bring love into their new surroundings.

Start following the tweets of your favorite conference or become their fan on Facebook with this all inclusive list! Don’t search the internet; I have it all here, ready for easy following! I was curious so I found them for myself to stick in my sports tweet list:

http://twitter.com/geekettebits/sportstweeps

but you can start following from your own accounts…check back for my next round of NCAA tweeps to follow!!

What are you doing on the 9^th day of the 9^th month of the 2009^th year at 9am/pm?

Sure a lot of people will get married and babies will be born on September 9^th, 2009.  Already appreciating September (the month of my birthday), I am excited to announce other ways people are choosing to celebrate this upcoming Wednesday:

1. One Million Random Acts of Kindness – @yokoono has been tweeting in support of One Million Random Acts of Kindness being executed on 9/9.

• Follow @BecomePeace2009 on Twitter (and help make #peace a trending topic!)
• RAK (Random Act of Kindness) – but BBC Radio also help start a growing RAK trend…read the blog to find out more (and print your own flyers or cards)!

2. FTD Good Neighbor Day 2009 – The flower experts are celebrating the 15^th annual FTD Good Neighbor Day holiday.

• Since 1994, FTD has encouraged all neighbors to foster community by offering (through local florists) same-day deliveries of beautiful, FREE bouquets.
• Customers are encouraged to keep one flower for themselves and offer the rest to their neighbors.
• Find your local FTD florist here.

3. Monopoly City Streets – Google (heard of them??) launches their Google Maps version of Monopoly!

• Buy any street in the world!
• Monopoly City Streets blog here.
• Play against your friends and finally get into the real estate market like you always wanted to, become a property mogul.

4. Beatles Revolution 9 – the iconic Beatles have a lot going on, 9/9:

• The Beatles Rockband – Comes out for Xbox 360, PS3, & Wii (check back for coupons – I’ll find them!)  Early review from CNET.
• Digitally Remastered – after 22 years, the digitally remastered versions of the Beatles studio albums will be released, as confirmed by press release:

Please Please Me
With the Beatles
A Hard Day’s Night
Beatles for Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles (The White Album)
Abbey Road
Let It Be
Past Masters
Yellow Submarine

5. World Day of Interconnectedness – “a shift from I llness to WE llness”…

• Starting in New Zealand, take time at 9am, to participate in interconnectedness (or oneness) opportunities (formal to informal acts.)
• Global Events – see what and when countries across the world are participating in.
• Email a friend
• Join the group.

6. @BarackObama – Don’t just follow him on Twitter, listen to him address a joint session of Congress on health care reform in prime time!

• Obama’s website highlights concisely.
• Obama Mobile – somewhat unrelated, text “HOPE” to 62262 for updates from Obama’s camp.

7. Independence Day – the Republic of Tajikistan declared independence on this day from the Soviet Union in 1991.

8. Father Laval Day – I’d be remiss to exclude Father Laval Day, the 9/9 national holiday for Mauritius, the island republic off the coast of Africa.

• Father Laval – Roman Catholic priest and missionary to the local people.
• Mauritius – famous for being the only home of the Dodo bird!
• On this day, Mauritians (not Martians…) locals head to his tombs in hopes of benefitting from his post-mortem healing powers.

9. SA’s Bartender Bash w/ YVodka – YVodka who I first read about in @SavorSA’s blog, envisioned a vodka for the ’77-’97, you guessed it!!, Y-generation consisting of young professionals (and +21 college students) who appreciated a top-of-the-line bottle for a bottom-of-the-barrel price.

• Free Y Vodka to 1st 300 club goers!
• $2 YVodka all nite!
• Club Newsletters – Not close to San Antonio?  I imagine this is a BIG after-hours night for a lot of venues…sign up for their email subscriptions NOW to get alerts and coupons for Wendesday (and on your birthday, etc…)
• Follow @TheYVodka & @ClubRive on Twitter!

Technically it just another day…but make 9/9/09 memorable by taking the time and participating in several, if not all, of the events listed above.  (If you don’t make it to Martian, I’ll understand…)

3rd Main Way I find People to Follow:

1. Brute Force – you’ll know it when you see it…(consider this the “browse” option.)
2. Pattern Matching – You know who you want to follow, just need to find them…
3. Backtracking – someone’s following me…should I follow them?

Geekette Alert: Did you know the three I listed are also common computer algorithms? An algorithm is a problem solving method with specific execution instructions. See their wikis here: Brute Force search, Pattern Matching search, and Backtracking
algorithm.)

Backtracking

By definition, backtracking involves problems where you already have potential solutions, now you just have to figure out which one is the right one for you.  Similar to brute force, the first place to browse potential followings is your follower’s list.  In this case you go through your own list to see if there are tweets or profiles that catch your eye.  You can also this is on an individual basis, as you’re alerted to new tweeps following you (by default you receive an email per new follower, in real time.)

Before following them ask yourself:

• Is this a real person? It’s very easy for programmers to script a “twitterbot” which goes out and randomly starts following everyone!  A good indicator is the number of people following them versus the number of people they’re following.  If he’s a 500 people and only 2 people are following him, there’s a good chance he’s not worth following.  Check out his profile if the username or first/last name are not intuitive.  (Another reason to take your time picking a name…)
• Is it ok if this person sees the information I’m tweeting? (If your privacy is set to high, make sure you know who you’re letting follow you…)  Protect yourself, there are iPhone apps that give your exact GPS location…make sure you are comfortable with that information being sent out.

If everything checks out start following them.  If you don’t like their tweets you can always “unfollow” them (by click on the same button you clicked to follow them in the first place.)

Check out my next posts, I’ll go into details about specific Twitter tools I used for efficient delivery, calculating your Twitter grade (see how you’re doing…), and how to write your own Twitter program!

2nd Main Way I find People to Follow:

1. Brute Force – you’ll know it when you see it…(consider this the “browse” option.)
2. Pattern Matching – You know who you want to follow, just need to find them…
3. Backtracking – someone’s following me…should I follow them?

Geekette Alert: Did you know the three I listed are also common computer algorithms? An algorithm is a problem solving method with specific execution instructions. See their wikis here: Brute Force search, Pattern Matching search, and Backtracking
algorithm.)

Pattern Matching

You know exactly who you want to follow…you just don’t know their username, their official Twitter page (versus the other 300 that get returned), or how to start looking for them.

i.  Twitter’s “Find People” – Twitter’s tab at the top right part of the page (search engine.)  I kind of hate it…I find it hard to quickly find anyone…however there are a couple mildly redeeming tabs:

• Suggested Users - offers a list of probably 200ish tweeps to start following.  List ranges from celebrities to causes to companies.  Good way to get the blood going before you start brute force following.
• Find on other Networks – check your Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo accounts for Twitter users registered with a particular email address you have stored.  (I was surprised to find my mom registered…it can be an interesting task that takes 2 seconds.)
• Invite by email – paste in a comma separated list of emails you’d like to encourage to join and follow you on Twitter.
• Find on Twitter – Twitter’s uber excellent search tool, allows you to search by “Username”, “First Name”, or “Last Name”
  • This goes back to the importance of picking a good username AND specific first and last name.  Practice finding yourself using names, logos, nicknames people looking for you might also try.  Should be intuitive.

ii.  Twitter’s Search box – when on the home page (where all the tweets are displayed) there’s a text box to the right where you can search Tweets for usernames and hashtags.

• See Twitter’s advanced search here.
• Notice you can search by “Place” – another reason why your location should match that to what user’s are most likely to search by.

iii.  Google – good ole’ Google.  I normally use this before I try Twitter’s search.  Normally I search for “twitter <whatever I’m looking for>” as concisely as possible.

• Normally start search string with “Twitter” (don’t know if it always makes a difference but it has occasionally.)
• Use this technique if I’m looking for a company, business, entity, person
• If multiple results are shown there will be an indention in the search results that includes a link to “Show more results from twitter.com”…then you only see profiles (or content found in tweets) on twitter.com

Examples:

“Twitter half price books” found the correct @HalfPriceBooks

“twitter ruff ruff man” found my daughter’s favorite PBSKids show @RuffRuffman

“twitter sports illustrated” found @SI_24seven*

*Notice their username…even if the username is already taken (for example someone already has @sportsillustrated and @SI, I would’ve tried @SI24x7, @SI247, etc before picking something long with an underscore.)  I like their tweets and I’m already following though so I’m ok with it.    Just another consideration.

Listed below are 3 main ways I find people to follow:

1. Brute Force – you’ll know it when you see it…(consider this the “browse” option.)
2. Pattern Matching – You know who you want to follow, just need to find them…
3. Backtracking – someone’s following me…should I follow them?

Geekette Alert: Did you know the three I listed are also common computer algorithms? An algorithm is a problem solving method with specific execution instructions. See their wikis here: Brute Force search, Pattern Matching search, and Backtracking
algorithm.)

Today’s post will only cover the first, I have gone into detail and to combine all 3 would be a lot. I didn’t want to overwhelmed new Twitter users.

Brute Force

This option works well if you’ve done a preliminary sweep and are following those you wanted to. Also, this method works well when you’ve sat down at the computer for a no-brainer evening. Use the brute force method when you’re not in a rush and would like to browse potential tweeps.

Browse Following List: Be a copy cat and follow the people someone else is following. To browse their list, simply go to that person’s Twitter account and find the link underneath the number of people they’re following. If you know the name of the user you can go there directly by inserted the @USERNAME into the following URL:

http://twitter.com/USERNAME/following

i.e. http://twitter.com/MeeseMusic/following for @MeeseMusic

Click on the button to automatically start following anyone you’ve found interesting. Convenient because you don’t have to leave this page, and go to each Twitter profile to click follow. Quickly add several people instantly by going down this list.

The Twitter profiles are displayed in “Most Recently Added” order.

*The follow button is only available if you’re not already “Following” them. Since I’m following @JoeSingleFile in the second picture, I don’t have the option to follow him again.

Follow @geekettebits!!

*Check out who I’m following – I’ve kept it relatively clean and tended to added in groups (lot of food tweeps in a row, then sports, then beer blogs, etc.):

http://twitter.com/geekettebits/following

My list doesn’t have everything but there are a couple random ones you might enjoy…benefit from the time I took to go through a whole bunch of other people’s following list.

The brute force method is a great to use when you’d like to browse by a particular genre. For example, if someone is following significantly less people then they’re being followed by, see who they’re following. A lot of companies only follow local branches. Some bands only follow upcoming unknowns to help get the name out there.

Another good idea, while on their profile, check out who they starred in their favorites list. A chef might mark all the recipes he was particularly fond of, another person might mark a tweet with a special date.

Check back soon for the final two methods.

Class Objective: Friends and Followers

• Considerations when making friends on a new playground
• Finding friends to follow

First Day of School – How to be a Follower

It’s hard to be the new kid in the cafeteria…while some people jump in head first, most like to dip a toe in first.

Q: How do I start following @MeeseMusic
on Twitter?

A: @MeeseMusic
can be followed doing the following:

Go to their page: http://twitter.com/MeeseMusic

If you are not already following them, you’ll get the option to “Follow” them. Click on the button.

Before: Option to follow

After: Confirmation you are now successfully following
@MeeseMusic.

Numbers don’t lie, so keep the numbers in mind. (I minored in math so I <3 any numerical).

@MeeseMusic has 789 people following them (at post time.) However they are only following 56 people:

Number of Followers >> Number of Following

I.e. 789 >> 56

Normally in this case (where the numbers are so significantly different), the people @MeeseMusic are following people are the only people they want to show they care about. This is a good indicator that these tweeps are well worth following and time has been invested to only follow a select subset.

Why do some tweeps not follow everyone following them? Possible (and perfectly valid) reasons:

• They have 2 million+ followers and know they won’t be follow that much tweet traffic (remember twaffic) so they only follow pertinent tweeps they’re more likely to respond to.
• They appreciate being followed but only want to see tweet messages they know about.
• They are already a household name and don’t need to follow people to be followed. A lot of times, to get to the word out about your tweets, you’ll follow people to get them to follow you back. Your number of tweeps grows from this over time.
• They want to promote specific tweeps. For example, @GoogleVoice has almost 17,000 followers but they’re only following 3. These three are part of the Google Voice team…anyone looking at their profile will instantly ask, “Hmmmm, why is @GoogleVoice only following 3 people?” You feel compelled to find out who are the 3 and why!? They were very specific about who they followed because they wanted to attract attention to other tweeps. Consider if it’s important for people to know who you’re following before you start following everyone under the sun to your timeline.

  Many restaurants only follow the local chains on Twitter; this is the case with many businesses. *Will you have multiple twitter accounts specific to location, etc.? Take the time to create a standard naming convention: twitter.com/MAINzip or MAIN<[4 char of street name, etc.]> That way, regardless of where you are, the user can find your business again in another area. (Keep it short and simple.)

  For example: Bello Pizza has restaurants all over America and each one will have a Twitter page.

  @BelloPizza will be the main head quarters/HR department…and @BelloPizzaSATX & @BelloPizzaLACA will be regional locations that can offer specific discounts or events.

Several ways to find people to follow:

I’ve only been actively been using Twitter for about a month now and a half so I’m not expert follower. (However, to instill confidence I HAVE already written a couple Perl programs with the Twitter API – details in a subsequent post…)

3 Main Ways I find People to Follow:

1. Brute Force – you’ll know it when you see it…(consider this the “browse” option.)
2. Pattern Matching – You know who you want to follow, just need to find them…
3. Backtracking – someone’s following me…should I follow them?

Geekette Alert: Did you know the three I listed are also common computer algorithms? An algorithm is a problem solving method with specific execution instructions. See their wikis here: Brute Force search, Pattern Matching search, and Backtracking
algorithm.)

Although I originally planned to keep all this information in 1 post, my next 3 posts will highlight these three methods, turned out to be just too long for 1 post!

Future Twitter posts will also include details about specific Twitter tools I used for efficient delivery, calculating your Twitter grade (see how you’re doing…), and how to write your own Twitter program!

Class Objective: Twitter Terminology

• 1. Find out what everything means.
• 2. Understand Twitter ettiquette and syntax.
• 3. Learn what you can do with Twitter and why you might want to!

Now that you’ve setup your account you might think it’s time to starting making friends on Twitter! Nope, that’s the next post. Before you make your Twitter debut (which technically you should assume you’ll only be making once) take a second to understand everything you can and can’t do on Twitter.

You’ll save time by not having to stop and learn as you go. You can be organized from the get go and avoid any Twitter party fouls.

Twitter Term: Are you a Leader or Follower?

On Twitter you can be both!

Maybe you don’t plan on requiring a huge fan base for your business or entertainment group…but you want to find out particular information, as it becomes available – you’ll probably spend more of your time looking for interesting people/places/things to follow, then getting people to follow you.

Maybe you’re a new band (like the one that opened for the Fray – @MeeseMusic) who is looking for another channel to get their music, concerts, and other events out there…you’ll probably be looking for more followers then people to follow..

@GeeketteBits is following 655 and has 415 followers.

Tweeting!

Ok, so now you’re ready to start tweeting. What does that even mean? Below I’ve listed common Twitter actions/terms:

Re-tweet (RT)	Re-Tweeting Tweep’s Tweets – reposting a snippet someone else posted and giving them FULL credit. Now everyone following them AND everyone following you will see the message. * Tweeps take this as a compliment as many’s main goal is to get to word out. geekettebits Thanks 4 this info! RT:@weatherman – it’s going to rain Sunday! fisherman RT: @geekettebits Thanks 4 this info! RT: @weatherman – it’s going to rain Sunday! Notice the first time I re-tweeted a message someone posted. It will automatically pre-pend my message with my Twitter name – my examples are what they’d look like in someone’s timeline. The second time @fisherman thought others could use the information and they gave credit to @weatherman delivering the news and to @geekettebits for finding it. If you want to get your message out, make it easy to re-tweet! A lot of times I have to abbreviate a lot of the message – which takes time, each time. Short, concise messages are much easier to copy paste. (Remember you only get 140 characters, with URLs and ) *NOTE: Right now there is no re-tweet button on Twitter’s website. They are in the process of adding this functionality incorporating RT functionality into its website.
@username	Within any Tweet (message), a “@” followed immediately by a Twitter name will automatically create a hyperlinked reference to that person. Happy Birthday @BarackObama! That way, anyone reading the message can easily go to that person’s Twitter profile.
Mention	Whenever you name drop in a tweet, normally a “@username” in the middle of a tweet. (Normally not the first word in tweet, see Replies.) Happy Birthday @readersdigest, hope you had a good one! @orangecup always posts the BEST specials on frozen yogurt.
Reply	Official Reply - Click arrow next to each message to respond to THAT specific message. Each message has a unique ID so other Twitter tools can easily display entire “conversation” threads. Unofficial Reply – Replies normally start with @username in front of the message. @Dove_Chocolate, I’m replying to an official msg OR I’m just letting you know I had a great time at dinner.
#hashtags	Hashtags – a label/tag that hyperlinks automatically to other tweets with the same #search term. Twitter search is no Google search. Interest groups use the same #hashtag to easily find each other’s tweets. Businesses use them to easily find what their customers are saying, for example: #usaa. You can have multiple tags on the same message. Use this code to get #FREE movies @blockbuster #movies #coupon #promo Now everyone using the hashtags “#free” OR “#movies” OR “#coupon” OR “#promo” will potentially see my message…instead of just the people directly following me. People use this to find Tweeps with similar interests. One very popular hashtag is #FollowFriday (or #FF) – where you let your followers know who you think is worth following. Remember you get only 140 characters so another way to let your readers know who you follow is listed below.

Timeline (Home)

The “timeline” page is the homepage which displays tweets from all the people you are following. On the sidebar (column on the right of each Twitter page)

*Notice that the screenshot in the previous section is what’s displayed in my PROFILE – different sidebars!

• Profile Sidebar – public information, displays my micro-bio, location, website, my favorite tweets/tweeters, and friends that I’m following.
• Timeline Sidebar – private, for my eyes only.

Other Fun Twitter Terminology

Now that you know what it means to follow, be followed…and post and respond to tweets, check out my next post for the best people to follow on Twitter and reasons to keep in mind. We’ll also go over ways to organize those lists so you can cleanly keep track of messages without accidentally missing one. After that we’ll start talking about more advanced functionality within Twitter including responding to tweets, even when you’re not home and finding out what kind of grade your scoring, compared to the rest.

By reading my blog posts, you’ll save hours from trying out multiple accounts and functionality…take advantage of the work I’ve already done.

Class Objective: Twitter Terminology

• Twitter Basics – Who, What, Where, When, Why
• Account Considerations – selecting the name, bio, and logo that will make your BEST statement.
• Creating an Account
• Settings – what everything means, preparing your account for the public!

Although it’s easy to setup an account, the site is not completely intuitive. Instead of fending on your own in frustration and time-consuming troubles, I have created a series of posts on Twitter. Most people have heard at least heard about this micro-blogging site but don’t know much more than that. Take my Intro to Twitter and you’ll be tweeting with the best of them (or at least following them!)

Twitter:

Who: Anyone including but not limited to businesses, restaurants, stay at home mom’s, deal finders, finance experts, politicians, retailers, bloggers, know-it-alls, celebrities, chefs, the family cat…anyone with 140 characters on their mind…there is even a dust bunny.

What: Twitter is a social-networking site where users post concise status updates (140 letters, numbers, and other characters or less per message.)

Where: Tweets are submitted online, through SMS text messages, and many other online and desktop applications created for Twitters.  Right now tweets come from all over the world!

When: Frequency ranges from monthly/yearly users to weekly/daily/hourly or even every couple of minutes. Tweet when you want to spread the news, vent, alert people of bad highway traffic, congratulate someone else…limitless.

Why: Why not? Find concise information in one spot based on information interesting to you. You only read tweets from people you are interested in. No two Twitterers are the same.  Some people treat it like a forum or chat room, some only tweet with themselves and make to-do lists that friends can view and remind them.  Businesses have used Twitter to communicate changes, triage poor customer service experiences, alert consumers of great deals! Politicians make announcements, movie stars tweet about their set and location while filming, support groups are easily formed.

I did not jump on the Twitter bandwagon immediately. It took me some time before I started using Twitter…and even longer for it to catch on. However, everything I’ve included in this post were roadblocks I ran into and resolved. Your experience will be a much happier one.

This series of posts will not only include the basics (how-tos), it will also include information to take into consideration when creating an account and planning your social media campaign, automating as much as desired (best Twitter tools I’ve found…), finding people to follow (and getting people to follow you.) I will even look at it from a slightly geeky perspective, introducing you to the Twitter API (if you’d like to write your own Twitter app…) and also explaining the different standard Twitter URLs…making your experience as pleasant as possible.

Before you get started:

You hear how Twitterpated everyone around you is and you’re ready to jump onboard.  Here’s how and some things to take into consideration when creating an account:

1. Twitter username:

• Does not have to be your full [company] name – actually better if it’s not.  You only get 140 characters so the longer the name, the less content you’ll get when people share your content with others.
• That said, name should not be obscure, should easily tie back to your originating identity.

2. Availability:

• What’s in a name?  EVERYTHING!  Found this on Digg – it includes 3 great sites to check for name availability, checking across 100s of social networking sites, read here.  After deciding on your name, you make sure your name is available across not just Twitter but also YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc…Consistency is KEY!  Followers should easily find you on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and anywhere else.

3. Logo:

• For branding purposes (and to be incredibly efficient), already have square version of your logo prepared.  When users click on your logo, they’ll view a larger version.
• Image should be clear, simpler is sometimes better.  Not everyone will be on a computer when their reading your Tweets – will your logo look as good on a tiny cell phone screen?

4. Bio:

• You guessed it!  140 characters or less here too!  Describe yourself as succinctly as possible. Displayed on your public profile, this is the only glance people get – you don’t just talk to strangers, engage and connect them immediately to your brand.
• If you’re a business or blogger wanting to push people to your website, suggest that they check it out and give them good reasons why!

Getting Started:

Now that you have everything together you’re ready to begin!  (Trust me, it’ll make the account setup quick and easy…a little extra time spent now saved you having to change names, create new accounts, search for pictures, get additional approval later.)

1. Create an Account:

• After going to the home page, click on “Join the Conversation“

2. Filling the Form:

• Registration process – incredibly simple
• Full name – this will sometimes display instead of your username (email alerts sent to followers displays your name with your username in parenthesis.) Do you want people to know your real name? (I keep my full name and username exactly the same.)
• Keep in mind, users can search by Real Name – is knowing your name important? You might want to include your real name for classmates. If you’re a business, are consumers going to find the name of your company or company appointed tweeter?
• Same thing with location. Although “Beautiful Aloha” is refreshing and fun, when people are searching by specific places, they might miss your profile based on semantics.

You have now created your new Twitter account!  Please stop now and take a mental break or continue on to “Setting Settings”.

Setting Settings:

Don’t jump the Twitter gun, take the time to personalize your account!  You only get once chance to make a first-impression, if you’re looking to collect followers, take the time to setup a worthwhile page instead of them hitting one under construction with a faceless, colorless profile!

Click on Settings on the top right corner to mess with the following:

1. Account:

• Modify display name, username, see URL.
• URL will always be twitter.com/USERNAME
• Time zone – some apps and search engines pull information based on timezone, also allows people to include you in searches for that time zone.
• More info URL – Do you have a website?  Include it here…
• One Line Bio – this will be the About Me in 160 characters or less…
• Location – there are several Twitter apps that display users based on locations (“Click here to see all Twitter users in THIS place.”)  Other GPS apps dynamically update status with location, or show what people are Twittering about in THIS area.
• Protect My Tweets – check this box if you’re using Twitter to network and Tweet between friends, or even just yourself.  You don’t want the rest of the world reading your 140 chars and that’s fine.

2. Password:

• Change password – do yourself a favor and use a strong password.  While writing this post, Google returned over 41 million results for “twitter account hacked“.
  Many celebrities and businesses have fallen prey to hackers who get into your account and spam your followers.  Immediate turn-off when a big name spams its Twitter followers.  Take the time to make a STRONG password.

3. Devices:

• Twitter from your iPhone or other mobile device.
• This tab asks for your mobile number, including country code.  Then sent txts to Twitter that will automatically post!

4. Notices:

• Spam much? Check these boxes if you want to get an e-mail every time someone new starts following you or sends you a direct message.  (See Twitter Terminology in next post.)
• Consider this – some people want to know when someone new follows their website…they can immediately send out a personalized note, welcoming them! Others get 2,000 new followers a day and getting an email each time is unrealistic.

5. Pictures:

• Logo – you’ll already have this ready from your initial planning period, immediately upload the image.

6. Design:

• Select a Theme – 12 standard themes for the unimaginative (or content-based Twitterers.) People know what comes in the box, if show your readers you took the time and made effort.
• Change background image – a little more creativity?  Upload your own image (either use full-sized or tile.)  My background is actually the same square image, tiled, over and over again to make a pattern. I made mine on this AWESOME website – used the same on my website and Twitter page giving a nice, consistent look.
• Change design colors – pick the html colors (maybe specific colors that correspond to your website?)  Use this site to pick out complementary colors, find one color you like and it’ll suggest the exact matching/complementary colors to use.
• IMPORTANT - Play around with the colors and images on different browsers (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome – when downloading new browsers don’t forget to UNCHECK “make this browser my default” unless you don’t want links to automatically open in new browser) and different mobile devices (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.)  Will it look the same on Windows as it will on a Mac?  Quality is a determining factor for many.

7. Connections:

• Connections – which Twitter apps are you using?  These apps pull information from your account…use this tab to verify you have allowed them to.  We’ll go into much better detail on my post on Twitter Tools and Applications.
• Twitter Download – The download page shows possible apps you might consider using, based on your Twittering needs.  I’ll go into detail on future posts, but if you’re tech savvy, be my guest and let me know!

Now is a good stopping point, let everything sink in.  Next post will discuss what everything else on the site means…as well as commonly user Twitter talk.

Future posts will also include information about scheduling posts, analyzing your Twitter metrics, and finding the best tools for your Twitter purpose in life.

Now that you have an account – don’t forget to start following me @geekettebits! I post a lot coupon and promotional deals that can also be found on my blog, without a Twitter account here.