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CHAPTER fouR

Getting to grips with social media

in association with

Family History at your fingertips

TweetClick the ‘Compose new tweet’ box and start typing. A character counter will tell you how many of your 140 characters you have left, and there are also options to add a location or upload an image to include. When you’re done, click ‘tweet’.

Twitterdissected

Tips, tricks & pitfalls

Get started with Twitter by visiting www.twitter.com and registering for an account. Twitter can look daunting at first, but it’s beautifully simple. Our handy guide will help you find your way around.

Tweet streamThe tweet stream here, on your Home screen, shows you tweets from the people you follow. The latest tweet appears at the top. Hover over a tweet to see options to retweet (repost the tweet to your own followers), reply, favourite or email the tweet to someone.

Some tweets include links to blog posts or other websites. These are usually short links to fit the 140-character limit, so you can’t always tell where they lead, but they will often link to fascinating information.

You will soon notice words preceded by the hash symbol #. These are hashtags and are used to mark keywords or topics in tweets to make them easier to find using Twitter search. If you click on a hashtag that appears in a tweet, a results stream will show all other tweets using that hashtag.

FollowTwitter will suggest people to follow based on who you’re already following. Having found a few interesting people you could try browsing the lists of people they’re following, to see if you want to follow any of them.

InteractionsOn the ‘@Connect screen’ see who has started following you, who has favourited your tweets or retweeted you. Also see who has replied to you or sent a tweet with your @username included. These are @mentions.

MentionsTo see a simple list of @mentions – tweets including your @username – click ‘Mentions’.

Follow libraries, museums, archives, genealogy bloggers, data providers and Family Tree (@familytreemaguk). These organisations and individuals can keep you up to date with family history developments and introduce you to other interesting people to follow. Search using the terms ‘genealogy’ and ‘familyhistory’ to see what comes up!

If you want particular Twitter users to see one of your tweets, make sure you include their @username in the tweet. This will ensure it appears in their @mentions stream, even if they don’t follow you. If you

include an @username at the very beginning of a tweet only followers of both of you will see the tweet in their tweet stream. Don’t include an @username at the very beginning of a tweet if you want all your followers to see it.

Unfortunately Twitter isn’t perfect and there are users who you may not want to follow you. To block a user or report them for spam, click on their username and a mini profile page will pop up. Click the head and shoulders icon button next to the Follow/Following button and click ‘block’ or ‘report for spam’.

ProfileWhen you join Twitter you will choose your @username and you can write a brief summary of you and your interests. Change this whenever you like by clicking ‘Edit profile’.

Tweet streamThe tweets that appear on your profile page, or ‘Me’ screen, are tweets that you have posted or retweeted.

Direct messagesTweets are never private. However, messages, often called direct messages or DMs, are private between the sender and the recipient. To read or send a message, click the envelope icon on your ‘Me’ screen.

From your profile page you can choose to view the tweets you’ve posted, your followers, people you’re following, your favourited tweets and any lists you’ve created. You can add Twitter accounts to lists, whether you’re following them or not, and view tweets from those accounts. You can opt to make lists public or private. You can also follow other people’s public lists.

SearchYou can search for an @username, a hashtag, a person or company, or a topic such as genealogy.