Last updated: February 2009
With the number of active Twitter users growing over 900% in 2008, a rising wave of new users and companies have been signing up for Twitter accounts. Our round up of great beginner’s guides is now more relevant than ever.
Official Resources
- Twitter Help
- Twitter’s Getting Started Guide
- Twitter’s How-To Guides
- Twitter’s Troubleshooting Guides
How To
- Beginners Quick Start Guide and Tutorial to using Twitter, by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh aka @Zappos.
- 10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners by Twitip.com. Nov 2008
- The Big Juicy Twitter Guide by Caroline Middlebrook
- From Twits to Tweeple, Why I Embraced Twitter and You Should Too by Jennifer Laycock
- 7 tips for new users by Shel Israel
- Top 10 Twitter tips by Ellen Petry
Why To
- Pistachio’s own Twitter story by Shel Israel
- Twitter is My Village by Pistachio
- Twitter Makes Us More by Pistachio
- Ode to Twitter by Pistachio
- Why Twitter? by Jennifer Laycock (Part 5 of her series).
Videos
Twitter in Plain English by Lee LeFever and his team at Common Craft looks at a good beginner “use case” for Twitter.
My friend @GoldieKatsu created this 20-minute tutorial that covers setup through more advanced uses.
Twutorials is a blog of short video tips.
Other Indexes
- 101 Twitter Resources, by Traffikd.com. Published May 2008
- Do You Twitter? by Tom Humbarger
Know of more ‘Getting Started’ posts? Drop us a line in the comments
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I am interested in how you did your profile page on twitter. I realize it is all a background image, but did you follow a tutorial, hire someone to do it, or? I am wondering if there is a page somewhere with tips or hints, basic measurements or something similar. Thanks.
Kathy: custom background images on Twitter are just .jpg or .gif files, common graphics formats.
As far as size goes, make the image as you would for any web page: scale to the most common browser window sizes. The twitter interface floats in the middle of the screen, so if the screen is small or you put info too far to the right it might get covered up.
If you aren’t going to use a graphics pro to make the background, your best bet is to crack open your favorite image editor and just give it a try. You should be able to make something serviceable on your own.
Good luck!
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