Twitter is an online social networking tool in which users post 140 character updates (tweets) of what is going on in their lives along with links to things they think are interesting, funny, or useful to their followers (“following” being essentially what “friending” is on other sites). People use twitter in many ways, some as a newsfeed by following prominent people or networks, some as a pseudo-chatroom by limiting their followers and whom they follow to close friends and family, and some as a microblog for updating people about the work they are doing and their personal lives.

Like Twitter, YouTube lets you post your opinions to the world through video. What’s fun about YouTube is that you can find just about anything in the world, with a video explaining or talking about your chosen subject. Welcome back to Twitter. Sign in now to check your notifications, join the conversation and catch up on Tweets from the people you follow.

“twitter users”

@mymom
follows @me and @mybrother

@mycat
follows @me

@totalstranger
doesn’t follow any of us and we do not follow her

Twitter users choose who they do and do not follow. They have total control of what tweets they see in their home feed. When I refer to your “Home feed”, I’m referring to what you see when you first open the twitter app (or open twitter in the browser). This is different from your personal twitter feed (essentially your “profile” twitter.com/yourusername or the “Me” tab on mobile) which contains all tweets you have created (aside from replies to others, see section below on @ replies. You can have an unlimited amount of followers, but only follow a select few people if you want, making it easy to stay in touch with the people you care to stay in touch with. You cannot control who follows you unless you set your account to “private”, in which case you would need to approve every new follower. Generally, even if you have a public account with lot of strangers following you, it doesn’t alter your experience very much as most will not directly engage with you. (FYI these are fake twitter names, my (the author’s) actual twitter username is @jessicahische.)

who sees what

the person tweeting is pictured • their tweet is the large text
very important information is in red

me Jessica Hische
I am a compulsive oversharer!

• anyone that follows @me will see this in their Home feed

• this will show up on my profile (Me) page

fanperson John McGraphicdesign
@me OMG ME TOO! It’s like a disease!

• because I do not follow @fanperson, this does not show up on my Home feed, instead this shows up in my Notifications (Mentions) feed

• because @fanperson put my username at the beginning (this is called a reply or @reply), it does not show up on @fanperson’s followers’ Home feeds, unless they follow us both

• because this tweet begins with my username, it does not show up on their profile (Me) page

me Jessica Hische
@mybrother hey bro, que pasa?

• by putting another person’s username at the start of a statement, it limits who sees it

• @me, @mymom, and @mybrother see this on our Home feeds because we all follow each other

• people that follow both @me and @mybrother will see this on their Home feed

• people that only follow one of us will not see this on their Home feed

• @mybrother will see this in his Notifications feed as well as his Home feed because we follow each other

mybrother Jessica’s Brother
Not much, @me. What’s good?

• anyone that follows @mybrother will see this on their Home feed, whether they follow @me or do not follow @me

• If a username is not at the start of a statement, everyone that follows @mybrother can see it

• I will see this in my Notifications feed because my username is used within the tweet

• This is generally the incorrect way to reply. There are times when you want to share a reply with your followers (e.g. if your reply contains something useful for your followers) but not in this circumstance or similar circumstances

mymom Jessica’s Mom
.@mybrother only ate pizza from age 5 to 25. #turtlepower

• if you DO want to share a reply with your followers, you can put any character before their username (typically a period) and this allows all of your followers to see it. It takes the person’s username and puts it “in the middle” of the tweet.

me Jessica Hische
@mymom @mybrother so. full. of. pizza.

• @me, @mymom, and @mybrother see this on our Home feeds because we all follow each other

• people that follow @me and @mymom (both of us) will see this on their Home feeds

• only the first user mentioned at the beginning and my username control who sees this tweet, any users mentioned after, even directly after, does not affect this

totalstranger Mary O’Internet
Have you seen @me‘s new zany website thingy??

• because I do not follow @totalstranger, this does not show up on my Home feed

• instead this shows up in my Notifications feed—as long as your username is somewhere in their post, it will be in your Notifications feed

• because my username is in the middle of the statement, this does show up on @totalstranger’s followers’ Home feeds

• because my username is in the middle of the statement, this does show up on @totalstranger’s profile (Me) page

• @totalstranger does not follow me, but can still @mention me (use my username) in a tweet and I will see it in my Notifications feed

me Jessica Hische
This morning @mycat puked on my bed, not cool.
reply • retweet • like

mycat Billy Kibbles Hische
@me I iz sorries!
reply • retweet • like

me Jessica Hische
@mycat It’s ok, you are still my everything <3
reply • retweet • like

• @mymom @mybrother and @fanperson do not see this conversation on their Home feeds because they do not follow both of us, but they do see my original tweet

• @mycat and @me will see each others tweets in our Notifications feed as well as our Home feeds because we follow each other

• all users can see all replies to a tweet by clicking on it—the replies are threaded together chronologically, so you can see the full conversation surrounding any given tweet. Usually the only people who do this are those participating in the conversation or those interested in what others might have said on a topic. For instance, if someone tweeted “Any recommendations for a restaurant in Mitte, Berlin?”, others interested in those recommendations might click to see what has been said. There is a difference between “replying to” a tweet and simply beginning a tweet with a person’s username. The former will keep the conversation in tact, and the latter will not.

• because you can see a reply thread by clicking on a tweet, any tweets that you write are not 100% private even if directed at another user. The only way to make sure a conversation is 100% private is to exchange direct messages (see the Messages tab in the browser or on mobile)

Direct Messaging

Direct Messages (Messages) are private tweets that are exchanged between two users that follow each other. You cannot message someone that does not follow you and vice versa. Direct messages are the only private way to converse on twitter. “DM’s” as they were once called (now probably just called Messages) are basically like emails. They are unsearchable on twitter.

Retweeting

me Jessica Hische
Check out this cat vid! tinyurl.com/2funnycats

me Jessica Hische retweeted by mybrother
Check out this cat vid! tinyurl.com/2funnycats
reply • retweet • like

mymom Jessica’s Mom
RT @me Check out this cat vid! tinyurl.com/2funnycats

Retweeting is used when you want to share a tweet from another user your followers (for instance something you found funny or a link to a helpful article). There are two ways to do this, a Retweet (which just reposts a user’s tweet to your followers)

Twitter Is Like....