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How to Tweet on Twitter by Dave H G0CER

Someone has started a website which uses Tweets sent by people (who are
seeing it) to map instances of it over the UK.

The format is
[#aurora] [first-half-of-postcode-you are-in-when-seeing-it] [value out
of ten]

I sent a test one today to it was written as
#aurora TF9 0/10

The site is
http://www.mattg.co.uk/aurora/

There is also #uksnow which works the same way, its linked off

Info for those not in the know about Twittering..
- 'Tweets' are short text type messages limited to 140 characters
(including spaces)
- You can send and read them online (via a webpage), web application
or phone application these days
- They can be filtered on send or receive or user
- The site summaries popularity of particular people or subjects which
gets known as 'trending'
- some people write specific applications for these - the aurora one
is an example.
- think DX cluster(but with lots more junk you can choose to watch or
take part it)
- include a hash-tag so that others will find it #BBCQT is BBC
Question Time, #HAMR is ham radio one and #AURORA

Examples of use are (more or much less useful):
- People chatting about whats in the news at the moment
- Clubs promoting themselves
- Tourist companies mentioning new offers (its commerically used too)
- some specifically linked to uploaded pictures
- political use - mps, journalists mentioning things (that sometimes
they should not)
- UK Six Meter Group sending out snippits of news
- BBC sending out breaking news
- cast of The Gadget Show chat with viewers as the show is broadcast
and unthinkable amounts more.

Getting going
Sign up at http://twitter.com/
Initially you send/broadcast a tweet to the world and chances are not
one person will read it (I know that one from radio ;-)
So to make sure its seen, you can include a keyword in it for example a
Six Meter Group tweet today
@UKSMG 5 watt carbon composition resistors: Needed: Some 47ohm 5W
carbon composition resistors for a linear. Exac... bit.ly/xrTpte #hamr

This arrived because someone sent the text bit of it to @UKSMG (which I
have clicked follow at some point).

You can get people reading your tweets by..
- looking to see whats 'trending' and use the words in your tweet -
you can click the trending word and see the messages arriving.
- use a specific hash-tag - you know others follow
- use a specific address @davekh of someone or something @BBCRADIO4
to get message direct to them (its not private .. note).
- You can 'follow' eg read all they say by clicking 'follow' next to a
tweet of someone / something you want to regularly have delivered all
they tweet (I follow @UKSMG)

Other comments
If you paste a web address in - the Twitter system shortens it to
minimize word-count
In time you may find people begin to follow you
Facebook can automatically send out posts (shortened) to Twitter (I
dislike FB)
Sometimes you will get notation of new twitters following you - many
times these are junk or ladies who seem to offer something.
If an organisation or club thinks its a good idea to use Twitter - its
best to have a very regular output of announcements or discussions or
people lose interest in you.

It's said that... "Facebook is a place where people call others friends
and most definately they are not! Twitter is a place where people
interact daily know and help each other and leave it at that but should
be friends"

Others may know lots more about it, clarify my comments or correct
them.

Dave H G0CER