Chapter 2. Hello, Twitter World!

In This Chapter

  • Getting your Twitter party started

  • Coming up with a good Twitter name

  • Mixing it up: Making friends and saying hi

  • Standing out with a unique Twitter profile

  • Getting SMS tweets on your cellphone (or not)

Twitter is a deceptively simple, yet powerful conversation platform that enables users to broadcast short messages to the world and to connect more closely with people they care about. Intrigued about why this simple-looking tool is so well-loved and popular? Then this chapter is the place to get your feet wet. It usually takes a while of using Twitter to get what about it could be really interesting and valuable to your life. Luckily, Twitter is not only easy to use, but it's also quick to set up and a piece of cake to get going.

In this chapter, we go over the very basics of Twitter: getting a username, beautifying your profile, finding people to communicate with, and getting yourself situated and ready to start tweeting like a pro in no time.

Signing Up

For many Web services, signing up is the easiest part of an otherwise complicated process. With Twitter, using the site is just as easy as signing up.

To sign up for a Twitter account, follow these steps:

  1. Use your Web browser to navigate to the Twitter Web site at www.twitter.com.

    The Twitter splash page appears, as shown in Figure 2-1.

  2. Click the large green Sign Up Now button.

    The signup page appears, as shown in Figure 2-2.

    Figure 2.1. The Twitter splash page.

    Figure 2.2. The very short and simple ...

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