I've just joined Twitter!

[Robin Orton]

What do I do now?

[Parker1970]

What do I do now?

If you are anything like me, sign up for addiction help. I joined 6 years ago, since then I have tweeted 18,700 times. I follow 1,400 accounts and have 1,200 followers.... I love twitter

To start with, you want to find the accounts of people/organisations you want to follow which you can do from the search box.

If you like humour, then @Queen_UK is a hilarious parody account, her tweets during the last royal wedding were a riot.
"Beatrice just asked me if I liked her hat..... #Awkward"

@sydenhamtown is this forum's twitter account which updates your timeline with recent post links.

Any companies you use like BT, EDF energy etc are also useful to add. If you have issues with a company and you mention them in a tweet, you usually get a very fast reaction. BT for example told me I had to wait a further 5 days for them to FIX the incorrect install of my phone line when I moved in. I mentioned them in a tweet, they contacted me directly 30 minutes later and at 730am the next morning.. the engineer was at my door

The power of Twitter compels you!

[Rachael]

Find people you know or know of, or with whom you have common interests and start following both them and some of the people they follow. It's easy to decide whether or not you want to follow someone by having a quick look at their timeline.

The best way to get the hang of Twitter is to start populating your feed, ie seeing the Tweets of those you are following.

[JRobinson]

Kim Kardashian, Peter Andre, Jay-Z, The Pope, Steven Fry, etc, etc, - just some examples of twitter acounts that you may or may not want to 'follow'.

personally I don't, but you might do.

[Rachael]

New accounts are also very useful - BBC News, BBC Weather, BBC London travel alerts, TfL alerts (they have separate accounts for each Underground line and for the Overground, plus another one for buses).

[Robin Orton]

Thanks for all your advice. I started following TfL traffic news, but have now unfolllowed it (will it be offended?) because it was bombarding me with information about Beckton Roundabout /Royal Docks Road etc which I think I can do without. I already have three followers! (How did they know I'd joined?) And I've tweeted!! Including a picture!!!

Next project - to find out about hashtags.

[Rachael]

When you are following more people, you won't feel as bombarded by the TfL tweets because they'll be diluted, as it were. Once you've got the hang of things, you can use Lists - I have all the transport accounts I follow on one list. If I chose to view that list, I only see those accounts, not everyone I follow. Very handy when I'm on the way out the door and want to check there are no snags on my route.

[Parker1970]

Thanks for all your advice. I started following TfL traffic news, but have now unfolllowed it (will it be offended?) because it was bombarding me with information about Beckton Roundabout /Royal Docks Road etc which I think I can do without. I already have three followers! (How did they know I'd joined?) And I've tweeted!! Including a picture!!!

Next project - to find out about hashtags.

I quite often get notifications from twitter saying "Your contact X has just joined twitter"..... for instance last night my sister added a twitter account for a side business she has set up and I got a notification. I guess it matches your known email addresses with people registered on twitter.

Echoing above, certainly follow Southern Trains and London Overground if you use them, quite handy and they do tweet disruptions etc which is very useful.

There will also be twitter accounts for TV shows and celebrities if such things interest you.

[Eagle]

Robin

You probably regret joining.

It is rather like those without a TV , an exclusive club for those who do not jump on every band wagon going.

Good luck to you.

[Parker1970]

Robin

You probably regret joining.

It is rather like those without a TV , an exclusive club for those who do not jump on every band wagon going.

Good luck to you.

Well if that is not a very broad generalisation I don't know what is.