How to Customize and Set Up Your Twitter Page

Lets pick up right where we left off in How to Sign Up for a Twitter Accountand jump into setting up your page.

When you first reach your Twitter page after the sign up process you will see a pop up notification asking you to “Add a location to your tweets“. This function will include your geographical location from where you MAKE the tweet. You may or may not want to add this, we can address it in a later article, for now I will click “Not now” (you can always access this under the “Settings” tab).

At the top left of the page is the question “What’s Happening?” above an empty text box. This is where you will write your tweets (which are limited to 140 characters). The “140″ above the right hand corner of the box is a countdown indicating how many characters you have left before you reach the length limits. Below your “Tweet” box is a list of the most recent tweets by the users you “Follow” – this is only viewable to you. On your right hand side panel you will see your profile picture, username and counts on the number of tweets you have made, the number of people you are following, the number of people following you, and the number of “Lists” you are on. Underneath this you will find Text labels like “Home” (which is where you are now), @username (my demo account has the username “@vampirepandas” - if you click this you will see all the times you have been mentioned by other users), “Direct Messages” (these are short

private notes sent between you and other users), “Favorites” (these are Tweets by you or others that you have “starred” as a favorite for any reason–To “Favorite” a Tweet move your mouse over the top right hand corner of that tweet and a hollow star will appear. Click the star and it becomes yellow and will show up in your “Favorites”), and “Retweets” (which we will delve into later). Below this list is a blank white search box where you can enter text and search for that term as it occurs in real time all over Twitter. Next we have “Lists” and current “Trending Topics” all over the world. If you would like to see what the Trending Topics are for your specific location, click the word “Change” underneath “Trending: Worldwide” and choose which city you would like to monitor.

At the very top of your page on the right is another navigation bar with the words “Home” (where you are now), “Profile” (which would be how others would see your Twitter page), “Find People” (which is a search tool) “Settings” (which is where we change all preferences, account info, and design of your Twitter), “Help“, and “Sign Out“.

Settings

Let’s start customizing your Twitter page! Click the “Settings” tab in the top navigation bar. The first page we come to is for “Account” Settings. Here you can change things like your email address, language, timezone, location, and make your account private or public (if your account is marked as private, users will have to request permission -Twitter will send you an email- to view your account). The “Password” tab allows you to change your password. “Mobile” will walk you through the process of setting up your phone so that you can text message your tweets to your account. “Notices” gives you control over when Twitter emails you about new followers, new direct messages, and newsletters. “Profile” and “Design” is where we will customize your page.

Click “Profile” under the Settings tab and we are greeted with the options to change your profile picture, real name, and location, add a website, and enter your short bio information. If this is a company you may want to upload a picture of your logo, enter your company name, add your company website, and provide a tidbit about what you do (limited to 160 characters).

Next click “Design” and a collection of colorful squares come into view. Each of these are “Themes” or pre-set designs that you can choose from that will change your background image and colors. (You can also get third party themes in many other places, but for now we’ll just work with what Twitter gives us.) Clicking a square will immediately change your facade. When you find one you like, click “Save Changes” at the bottom. If you want to further customize your site, you can choose the background image by clicking “Change Background Image” and uploading a different picture. You can also manually change your color scheme to match your brand’s colors by clicking “Change Design Colors“. Just be sure to click “Save Changes” when you’re done!” Click “Profile” to view what your new site looks like to the public. Click “Home” to go back to your access page.

Now that you are all set up, start tweeting! Find your friends, follow people or companies that you like. It will take a little bit of time to build up followers and relationships, but stick with it, don’t spam or overpost and be yourself!

Helpful Hint: Following is one way – if someone follows you then you must follow them back if you want them to appear in the feed on your home page.

Next Step: Anatomy of a Tweet – Definitions of Common Terms and Symbols

For more Social Media 101 advice check out our video series with Emily Paterson covering Introduction to Web 2.0, Blogging 101, and Twitter 101

Tags: Corrie Davidson, design, how to, Social Media, social networking, tutorial, twitter

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 10:41 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.