Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.
com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
Everything You Always Wanted
to Know About Twitter* (*But
Were Afraid to Ask)
The comprehensive cheat sheet that I’ve used to teach people,
organizations, and companies on how to use Twitter effectively.
James Garside
Apr 17, 2019 · 8 min read
Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash
I can teach you everything you need to know about Twitter with a
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 1 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
story about three witches. It gives you a framework for understanding
which Twitter strategies are most effective. I’ve Twitter trained
individual writers, journalists, and artists. I’ve provided internal staff
training to charities and managed the Twitter accounts of businesses,
third-sector organizations, and creative industries. I’ve also over
15,000 followers on my personal Twitter account so I must be doing
something right. Here’s a guide to get you started, some tips and
tricks, and that all-important story. You, Lucy Dan (she/h
WHAT IS TWITTER?
Photo by Kelsey Chance on Unsplash
Twitter is a Conversation
Imagine a party to which everyone in the world is invited. People talk to
each other, some louder than others, and you’re more than welcome to join
in. You can talk about anything with anyone — just try not to bore the other
guests.
FIRST STEPS Dirty Harry Wizard
Katy Velvet, Sandra Ebejer, a
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 2 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
Photo by Lindsay Henwood on Unsplash
Get Started
Sign up for an account: twitter.com/signup
Download the oDcial Twitter apps for your computer, tablet or phone
The quickest way to learn how to use Twitter is by doing it so jump right
in
@ Username
Your username is who you are on Twitter
People use it to tweet @ you, talk to you, and talk about you
Use your real name, company name or something sensible like that
Profile
Make your proJle as complete, attractive and professional as possible
The better your proJle the more likely people will follow you
Don’t tweet until your proJle is done
Don’t be an Egg
The default proJle picture for a new account used to be an egg
Change your picture as soon as possible or no-one will take you seriously
It’s best to have a picture of a real person (you) or your company logo
TWEET CHEAT SHEET Katy Velvet and Lucy Dan
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 3 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Tweets
A tweet is a message (originally of 140 characters or less) — the key
question to answer is “What’s happening?”
You can add other media such as polls, pictures, videos, animated GIFs,
links or your location
How you use Twitter is up to you but remember that when you tweet it’s
public and can be seen by anyone
People can like, retweet (RT) or share your tweets with other people
Following and Followers
You follow people whose tweets interest you (or vice versa) — but no-
one has to reciprocate or follow back
You can create lists of people to see their tweets grouped together —
whether you follow them or not
@ Replies
Start your tweet @someone to talk to them or reply to their tweet — this
can be seen by anyone following both of you
Mention @someone within a tweet — they’ll know that you mentioned
them but the tweet can be seen by everyone
Janis Cox
Anyone who sees a tweet can click on @someone’s name to go to their
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 4 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
proJle and see their tweets
Direct Messages
DMs let you talk privately with other Twitter users — they’re good for
quick one-to-one chats but that’s about it
Assume your DMs won’t stay private — there’s nothing to stop someone
taking a screenshot and sharing them
#Hashtags
Hashtags are clickable keywords preceded by # — use them to Jnd
related tweets, track topics or promote events
TIPS AND TRICKS
Photo by Rudi Strydom on Unsplash
Brilliant Bios
Use relevant keywords in your bio, include an attractive header and
proJle pic — make sure you pass the sni\ test
Link to your website in your bio as well as at the bottom of your proJle
(so that it appears in search)
Set your timezone and location — make sure that it’s clickable and
works with the map
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 5 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
Pinned Tweets
You can pin tweets to the top of your proJle that you want to draw
attention to
James Reed and Agnes Loui
Pinned tweets don’t move down your timeline until you unpin them
Hero Tweets James Reed
If you want a tweet to ‘go viral’ (and be shared lots) it helps if it’s
personal, striking, amusing, interesting or useful
Tweet something funny with a big picture and a call to action, such as a Janis Cox
link to your website, and people will share it
Pin it to the top of your proJle and even casual visitors to your proJle
will see it and respond
I call these ‘hero tweets’ because the hero image makes it perfect fodder
for pinning to the top of your proJle Barbara Radisavljevic
The best size for a hero image on such a tweet is so you can see it all
without clicking to expand Barbara Radisavljevic
You can even add more than one picture at a time so that they appear as
a gallery Barbara Radisavljevic
Twitter Doesn’t Have an Edit Button
Rachel Wayne
You can delete your tweets but you can’t edit them and you can’t delete
other people’s tweets
Even when you delete your tweets they may still be visible in other apps
or online
BEST PRACTICE
Peggy Gillespie Hazelwood
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 6 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
#RuleOfThumb
Play nice but don’t be afraid to be yourself
Talk with people, rather than market at them
Respond whenever you can
Share interesting stu\
Add to the conversation
How to Deal with Abuse
Agnes Louis
Adhere to your social media policy
You can report, unfollow, mute or block people
Agnes Louis and Barbara Ra
You can force someone to unfollow you by blocking and unblocking
them
Be warned that if you block someone they can actually still see your
tweets if they log out
Don’t Feed the Trolls
Exercise caution if you respond to people who make derogatory or
challenging comments about you via Twitter
Internet ‘trolls’ do this to provoke an emotional response or disrupt
discussions for their own amusement
Concicts can escalate quickly so it’s often best to hold o\ or not engage
Katy Velvet
FAQ
Katy Velvet and Agnes Louis
Agnes Louis and Alice Aced
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 7 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash
What’s the best time to tweet?
When your audience is awake — there are more scientiJc answers but that’s
what it amounts to.
How do I keep up with everyone’s tweets?
Don’t try to read all of your timeline — that way lies madness. Use lists and
third-party apps to manage what you see.
Who should I follow on Twitter?
Friends, colleagues, and people of genuine interest or strategic importance
to you or your social media strategy.
Does it matter how many people follow me?
Your Twitter ratio is important as ‘social proof’ — it’s best to follow less
people than follow you but don’t stress about it. James Reed
How do I get more followers?
Be remarkable, relevant, entertaining and/or of interest to your audience.
Barbara Radisavljevic
How do I get LOTS of followers?
Be famous. If you can’t be famous, be funny. If you can’t be funny, be
friendly. If you can’t be friendly, BE CAREFUL.
What’s the big secret?
There are three main strategies to use on Twitter — Black Hat, White Hat,
and Grey Hat. The secret is in the grey.
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 8 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
TWITTER STRATEGIES
Agnes Louis, Oswaldo Lairet
Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash
Three Witches
Imagine there are three witches (Black Hat, White Hat, and Grey Hat) and
each of them uses Twitter in a di\erent way. Black Hat uses her powers for
evil, White Hat uses her powers for good, and Grey Hat falls somewhere in
between.
Black Hat
Black Hat is the bad stu\ that nobody should do. Some of these strategies
may appear powerful at Jrst, and you can learn from them, but to use them
will upset your followers, hurt your brand, or damage your reputation.
Stephen Leatherdale
For example:
Buying followers
Automated Direct Messages or Replies
Churning (aggressively following and unfollowing people just to
accumulate follow-backs)
Spam, Bots, or any other sort of fake engagement
Trolling (saying hurtful, incammatory, or controversial things just to get
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 9 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
attention)
White Hat
White Hat is the good stu\ that everybody should do. These strategies are
the absolute best practice for Twitter, and you should use them Jrst, but
used in isolation they won’t necessarily take you as far as you need to go.
For example:
Fill out your proJle with accurate information
Be genuine, honest, and participate in the conversation
Share and retweet other people’s content
Engage positively with other Twitter users
Grey Hat
Grey Hat is the murkier strategic stu\ that falls somewhere in between
Black Hat and White Hat. You might dislike these strategies but they’re
essential if you’re serious about building a following and using Twitter as a
platform.
For example:
Stephen Leatherdale
Scheduled tweets
Growth Hacking (and other marketing strategies)
Modeling your proJle on successful accounts
Unfollowing inactive or unresponsive accounts
Strategic following of accounts (not based solely on interest)
Which Witch is Best?
Do you want to be Black Hat, White Hat, or Grey Hat? Would you use these
strategies exclusively or in combination? At Jrst, you should be White Hat.
Make sure your Twitter proJle and content is as good as it can be. By all Melissa Miles McCarter
means, learn about Black Hat strategies but steer clear of them. When
you’re ready to grow your proJle and want to get your hands dirty, it’s okay
to go Grey Hat for a while. A healthy balance of White Hat and Grey Hat is
probably the best combination. Just remember that Grey Hat is where the
magic happens.
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 10 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
DON’T PANIC
Barbara Radisavljevic
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
Get Help
Help is always at hand — reach out to people on Twitter if you get stuck
Twitter has its own help pages, tutorials and support forums:
support.twitter.com
I can help you too — especially if you want to get more advanced — any
questions?
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 11 of 12
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Twitter* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) | by James Garside | HackerNoon.com | Medium 26/03/2021, 22)34
Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash
James Garside is an independent journalist and writer. You can join
him on Patreon and chat with him on Twitter.
Sign up for Get Better Tech Emails via HackerNoon.com
By HackerNoon.com
how hackers start their afternoons. the real shit is on hackernoon.com. Take a look.
Get this newsletter
Not you?
Twitter Social Media Marketing Growth Hacking Tech
Learn more. Make Medium yours. Share your thinking.
Medium is an open platform where 170 Follow the writers, publications, and topics If you have a story to tell, knowledge to
million readers come to find insightful and that matter to you, and you’ll see them on share, or a perspective to offer — welcome
dynamic thinking. Here, expert and your homepage and in your inbox. Explore home. It’s easy and free to post your
undiscovered voices alike dive into the thinking on any topic. Write on Medium
heart of any topic and bring new ideas to
the surface. Learn more
About Help Legal
https://medium.com/hackernoon/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-twitter-but-were-afraid-to-ask-f8d65edb462b Page 12 of 12
