Twitter FAQ
- What is Twitter?
- Do I need anything special to use Twitter?
- How do I find my friends?
- What does it mean to follow someone on Twitter?
- How do I know who I'm following?
- How do I know who is following me?
- What are follow limits?
- Who reads my updates?
- What are the basic Twitter Commands?
- Can I block people from following me?
- How can I send updates to Twitter?
- Why is there a star at the end of updates?
- Can I put my Twitter updates on my blog?
- What are @Replies?
- What are Direct Messages?
- Can I edit a tweet once I post it?
- What is the difference between an @reply and a direct message?
- What does RT, or retweet, mean?
- How do I post a picture to Twitter?
- Why wont my feed reader take my @reply RSS feed?
- Is there a Twitter API?
- I'm an app developer, how do I get white listed?
- Does Twitter allow html in web updates?
- How do I report spam?
- Why is my account suspended?
- Where can I find out more information about Twitter's Terms of Service?
- How do I submit a complaint about copyright, impersonation, trademark, or other Terms of Service issues?
- What is Get Satisfaction?
- Is there a place where I can find out if there are problems with Twitter?
- How do I tweak my settings?
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What is Twitter?
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called "tweets" of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile or your blog, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search. Just take a look at this small video:
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Do I need anything special to use Twitter?
All you need to use Twitter is an internet connection or a mobile phone. Join Twitter here! Once you're in, type your first update into the web box. To get an idea of what other people are saying or doing on Twitter, check out Twitter search to see what Twitter's all about. You can search by keyword or just check out the trending topics to what's hot on Twitter right now.
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How do I find my friends?
When you create an account, you can search for people by name or user name, import friends from other networks, or invite friends via email. If you don't want to do that, follow some of the people we've suggested. Once you've found your friends, follow them to start getting their updates.
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What does it mean to follow someone on Twitter?
Following someone simply means receiving their Twitter updates. When you follow someone, every time they post a new message, it will appear in your Twitter home page. New messages are added to your home page as people post them, so you always get the updates in real time. When you log in, you can see what the latest updates are. Twitter offers other ways to follow people too: you can get updates from certain people on your phone!
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How do I know who I'm following?
After you click the follow button on someone's profile, you're following them. The follow button will change to a box that says "Following" with a drop down option to remove a person if you want to. If you've registered your phone with Twitter, you can set up text preferences for a person as well. See a list of people you're following by clicking on the following link on your profile or your home page's sidebar.
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How do I know who is following me?
Twitter sends you an email when someone new follows you. Set up your email preferences to notify you when you have a new follower. The followers link on your profile page or home page's sidebar will also tell you how many followers you have.
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What are follow limits?
Twitter recently added follow and update limits for stability and abuse control. You can read more about this here.
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Who reads my updates?
It's up to you. Your followers read your updates, and anyone else who comes across them in a search. All public updates are posted to the public timeline (accessible from your home page in the Everyone tab.) Your Twitter profile is public by default; if you're hesitant to have strangers read your updates, protect your profile to approve followers and keep your updates out of search.
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What are the basic Twitter Commands?
Think of Twitter as a room full of people, all sitting in a circle. It’s a conversation. When you update your status, you are speaking to the whole group. Everyone can hear what you have to say.
Replies. If you want to direct your comments to one specific person in the circle, but loud enough that everyone else can hear, you use the “Reply” function. You address the person by using their Twitter user name preceded by the “@” symbol. For example:
@spencesmith I get my haircut at Dion’s South in downtown Franklin.
Everyone who is following me will see the message, but I am specifically directing it to Spence.
You can also use the Reply function to refer to someone by name. For example:
I’m headed to dinner at Tin Angel with @gailhyatt and @meghyatt. I am looking forward to trying the new menu.
The thing about replies is that they are “clickable links.” If someone who is following me, clicks on one of the names, they will automatically go to that person’s Twitter page. This will give them the opportunity to follow that person, too.
Direct Messages. Continuing with the metaphor of a conversation with a room full of people, you can also use the “direct message” function. This is like whispering in one person’s ear. They can hear you, but no one else can. You are directing the message to them and only them. For example:
d lnobles Can you bring my Business Review notebook down to the cafeteria conference room?
Or:
d gailhyatt It looks like I will not be able to leave the office for another 30 minutes. Bummer.
Tracking. This is straight out of the Twitter FAQ: “Tracking is an SMS or IM only feature that allows you to receive all twitters that match a word you’re tracking. For example, if you send ‘track Obama,’ you will receive all updates that match ‘Obama.’ All updates sent from tracking will begin with parenthesis. You can easily stop getting these messages by sending ‘untrack Obama’.”
Other Commands. You can add people you want to follow from your cell phone. Just type in “follow [username].” For example:
Follow dearkaren
You can check your stats—the number of people you are following plus the number of people following you—from your cell phone by typing “stats” without any additional text.
To stop all Twitter updates to your phone, send:
off
To turn them back on send:
on
Did you know: you can perform certain actions, like following or marking a friend's update as a favorite, by using the designated Twitter commands? Use the commands listed below from your phone, the web update box, or your favorite third party application.
Fun Stuff: friends, favorites, and stats!
There's more to Twitter than OFF and ON! Use the commands below to send private messages, mark updates as favorites, or even remind someone to update their Twitter page if you're wondering what they're doing!
- @username + message
directs a twitter at another person, and causes your twitter to save in their "replies" tab.Example: @meangrape I love that song too!
- D username + message
sends a person a private message that goes to their device, and saves in their web archive.
Example: d krissy want to pick a Jamba Juice for me while you're there?
- WHOIS username
retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter.
Example: whois jack
- GET username
retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the person.
Example: get goldman
- NUDGE username
reminds a friend to update by asking what they're doing on your behalf.
Example: nudge biz
- FAV username
marks a person's last twitter as a favorite. (hint: reply to any update with FAV to mark it as a favorite if you're receiving it in real time)
Example: fav al3x
- STATS this command returns your number of followers, how many people you're following, and which words you're tracking.
- INVITE phone number
will send an SMS invite to a friend's mobile phone.Example: Invite 415 555 1212
Noteworthy Facts
- using on/off username from your phone only stops notifications to the place the command comes from; you'll still collect a person's updates on the web.
- using follow/leave username from your phone is the same as using on/off username
- following someone from a phone for the first time will also cause you to follow them on the web
- there is no way to stop following a person on the web without visiting their profile and removing them. The off, leave, stop, and quit commands will only disable updates for the device(s) from which they were sent.
- you don't have to use ON/OFF username from the phone, you can also set individual notifcations from a person's profile page, or check your following page and manage all phone notification settings there.
- @username + message
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Can I block people from following me?
Sometimes the following list gets a little unwieldy. Luckily it's as easy to UN-follow someone as it is to follow them. Removing someone from your following list means that you'll no longer receive their updates on the web or on your phone. To trim down your list, visit your following page to stop following more than one person at a time. Remove a specific person by using the follow drop down box on their profile page.
Although you can't stop following someone's web updates from your phone, you can stop getting their updates via text message by sending LEAVE username, or OFF username, from your phone, like so:
- off candice
- leave candice
Even if you stop getting someone's device updates, you'll still see their updates on the web. Before you remove a person, remember that you don't have to stop following people who reply to much or send too many updates for your text plan. You can change your reply settings to filter out unwanted replies, and your device settings per person if you don't want to receive text updates from everyone.
Blocking people on Twitter
Blocking someone instead of removing them means that not only do you not want to follow them, but you want to deny them the ability to follow or reply to you. Blocking is done from actions section in the person's profile sidebar.
Blocking someone means that you (and your pic) will not appear on the blocked party's profile page, friends time line, badge, or anywhere else. The person will not be notified that they've been blocked, and they will be unable to follow you. If your account is public, the blocked party can still view your profile page, but can't receive your updates in their timeline or on their phone.
- Log in to Twitter.
- Go to the profile page of the person you wish to block.
- Click Block (under actions panel in the sidebar)
- Click OKAY to confirm the block
Voila! What's done is done.
Is it irreversible? No. If you change your mind, you can easily unblock a person by following the same steps. The link, of course, will read unblock, instead of block
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How can I send updates to Twitter?
Twitter offers many ways to post updates: from the web in the update box, from your phone, from your mobile web browser using m.twitter.com, or from any third party application made by the talented folks who've utilized our API.
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Why is there a star at the end of updates?
The star is a way for you to mark an update as favorite. People can view your favorites, and you theirs, by clicking on the Favorites link in the profile page.
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Can I put my Twitter updates on my blog?
Yep! Put a Twitter badge on your blog, website, MySpace... anything that accepts Javascript or HTML. You can even customize your Twitter badge to match!
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What are @Replies?
An @reply is a public message sent from one person to another, distinguished from normal updates by the @username prefix. If a message begins with @username, we collect it as a reply and post it in the replies tab. Reply publicly to any update on Twitter by using the @username format. Following is not necessary to reply to someone, and all of your replies are visible in the replies tab of your home page sidebar.
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What are Direct Messages?
Direct messages are private messages sent from one Twitter person to another. You can only send a direct message to a person who follows you. When you receive a direct message, we save it in your direct message inbox, accessible from the Direct Message tab in the sidebar in your home page. Set your email preferences to notify you by mail if you have a new message.
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Can I edit a tweet once I post it?
Nope. Once it's out there, you can't edit it. You can delete an update by clicking the trash icon on the right end of the update, but you can't make changes.
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What is the difference between an @reply and a direct message?
An @reply is a public message sent regardless of follow-ship that anyone can view. A direct message can only be sent by someone you follow, and is a private message that only the author and recipient can view.
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What does RT, or retweet, mean?
RT is short for retweet. This isn't an official Twitter command or feature, but people add RT somewhere in a tweet to indicate that part of their tweet includes something they're re-posting from another person's tweet, sometimes with a comment of their own.
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How do I post a picture to Twitter?
Twitter doesn't offer an official picture posting feature of its own, however, most people use a third party application called TwitPic. Just enter your Twitter user name and password to get an email address you can send pictures to. Or, upload your photos directly to Twitpic from other apps or from the web, and post them to Twitter that way. Like Twitter, Twitpic has a public timeline of everyone's photos, and you also get your own profile page for pictures you've posted. (Check out Britt's pics as an example.)
Note: Twitter doesn't officially support Twitpic, but you can follow Twipic on Twitter to find out the latest updates!
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Why wont my feed reader take my @reply RSS feed?
The @replies RSS feed requires authentication; most web-based feed readers don't support authentication. If yours doesn't, you wont be able to see your @replies via rss feed. Try the feed in a desktop feed reader, which usually supports authentication.
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Is there a Twitter API?
Yes, complete with documentation and an active developer group to help you with common API questions. You can find it at the bottom of your logged-in homepage, here.
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I'm an app developer, how do I get white listed?
Send a request to white list your application from the API Wiki, here.
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Does Twitter allow html in web updates?
No. We escape all html for security purposes. However, if you paste in a link that is less than 30 characters, we'll post it in its entirety. If it's longer than 30 characters, we'll convert it to a shorter URL.
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How do I report spam?
Report spam by following Twitter's spam account, and sending them a direct message. They'll look into it right away!
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Why is my account suspended?
Twitter suspends account for suspicious activity. Suspended accounts are researched by our Spam/Abuse or Support team. One or more of these things may cause an account to be suspended:
Technical abuse of the Twitter Service
- unauthorized scripting of the site
- unauthorized serial account creation
- unauthorized mass account creation
Spam investigation
Publishing, posting or sending unsolicited email, junk mail, “spam”, chain letters, promotions, or advertisements for products or services (except where expressly permitted) is against the Terms of Service. Commercial or promotional use of Twitter is allowed, and we do welcome feed-based accounts. Many companies create valuable, opt-in relationships with people on Twitter. It's important to us, however, that the Twitter community receives only the content they'd like to receive. The following behaviors may cause an account to get flagged for spam investigation and/or suspension:
- user name squatting
- account contains links pointing to phishing sites, malware, or other harmful material
- an account is identified as belonging to a group of spam accounts
- a large number of people block the profile in question
- a large number of people write in with spam complaints for a specific profile
- aggressive following (a large number of people are followed in a short amount of time)
- extremely imbalanced follower/following ratio
- updates consist of duplicate or repeating links and/or text
- updates consist mainly of links and not personal updates
- links in updates disguise the real content of a link given in a misleading or deceptive way.
- unauthorized "re-tweets" (poaching and posting other users' updates) passed off as original content*
If one or more the items listed above is true for any Twitter profile, we may suspend the account for abuse investigation and hide the contents from the public view in order to remove the cause of complaint. If you think you've been wrongly suspended, please send an email to suspended@twitter.com with the user name and reason why the account shouldn't be suspended.
Terms of Service violations
As stated in the Terms of Service, Twitter reserves the right to immediately terminate accounts without further notice if the account is in violation of the Terms of Service. If your account is suspended however, we're most likely researching an issue with the account. If this is the case, you'll most likely have heard from our Support team. The following problems fall under Terms of Service violations:
- Copyright Infringement (To file a complaint, see our copyright infringement procedure here.)
- Impersonation
- Violence and/or specific threats
- Unlawful use
- Privacy infringement
- Trademark Infringement
Send all non-copyright Terms of Service complaints to terms@twitter.com.
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Where can I find out more information about Twitter's Terms of Service?
Twitter's Terms of Service is posted on the site, and the Twitter Rules are posted in the Support home page. Check out Twitter's Terms of Service and Rules policies here.
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How do I submit a complaint about copyright, impersonation, trademark, or other Terms of Service issues?
Review Twitter's Terms of Service section to find out what constitutes a violation, and how to go about fixing a related problem.
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What is Get Satisfaction?
Get Satisfaction is a great site that people use to help each other figure out problems on Twitter. They call it "people powered customer service" because people are helping are there, helping each other out. If you're looking for help using Twitter from other Twitter users, this is a great resource. If you're looking for official Twitter Support, you'll find it by clicking on the Help link from twitter.com.
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Is there a place where I can find out if there are problems with Twitter?
Yes. Check (and subscribe to!) Support's Known Issues page, read the Twitter Status Blog, or follow @twitter.
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How do I tweak my settings?
Make sure you are on your Twitter home page: http://Twitter.com/home. Click on the Settings link. Now enter your full name in the “Name” field. Make sure the “Time Zone” field is set correctly. Enter your location. Do not check “Protect my updates” unless you only want those whom you approve to be able to get your updates. Personally, if you check this, it will seriously limit the fun.
Now upload your picture. Verify that you have a digital photo of yourself on your computer. I have a 150 x 150 pixel headshot that I use for all social networking sites. (You can use iPhoto, Skitch, ImageWell, or any other photo editor to crop and size your image to the proper proportions.)
Assuming you are still on Twitter’s home page, click on the Settings link. Now click on the Picture tab, select your file, and then click the Save button.
