If you avoid bots and trolls, Twitter is a great place to hang out. However, many new users find Twitter intimidating. Luckily, we’re here to help with these Twitter tips for beginners. And even experienced Twitter users can learn something useful.
1. Be selective about what you follow
If you’re new to Twitter, it’s tempting to hit it off Follow button every time you see a person retweet one of your posts or like one of your photos.
Don’t fall into this habit. Twitter is only as good as the people you follow. If you clog up your timeline with people you don’t care about, your user experience will suffer.
Instead, think about which websites, publications, and people are most prominent in the topics that interest you. As you follow more people, Twitter will suggest other users based on their profiles. For more ideas, take a look at who the Twitter users you follow are following.
2. Start using Twitter lists
Twitter lists are a woefully underrated feature of the platform. They are not complicated to set up or use, yet almost all regular users overlook them.
Because your main Twitter feed is a single product of all the people you follow, it can be difficult to digest. You end up with a mix of content across dozens of topics.
If you set up your Twitter lists correctly, you can divide your content into different topics, then dip in and out as you please. You do not need to follow a user to add them to a list.
To start using the lists, click on your avatar in the upper right corner and click charts.
3. Sort your feed chronologically
Twitter’s biggest selling point is its ability to provide users with real-time news, opinions, insights and analysis on everything happening in the world.
And yet, between 2016 and 2018, Twitter abandoned its policy of displaying tweets in chronological order. Reason? Advertising revenue.
Thankfully, that policy is now dead. However, Twitter still defaults to showing you top tweets instead of the most recent tweets. If you want to see all the tweets from the people you follow, here’s how to switch to a chronological timeline on Twitter.
4. Don’t wait to build a huge following
Don’t create an account and expect to have thousands of followers in a few weeks. To grow a significant following on Twitter, you need to regularly post quality content and actively engage with communities you like.
If you look at accounts with even a few thousand followers, they’ve typically tweeted tens of thousands of times. Don’t stress about it. For most people, Twitter should be enjoyed as a platform for consumption, not production.
5. Block, Block, Block
Twitter is known for its ongoing problems with abuse and cyberbullying. It doesn’t matter what kind of tweets you post; you will inevitably be targeted at some point.
A golden mantra among long-time Twitter users is “block early, block often.” It’s sound advice and one of the best Twitter tips for beginners.
If you ever come across someone who gives you even the tiniest hint of feedback, block them immediately. Your Twitter experience — and your sanity — will be all the better for it.
6. Manage personalization and data usage
Whenever you sign up for a new service or download a new app, one of the first things you should do is go to the settings menu and make sure the privacy and data options meet your requirements.
Twitter is no different. By default, Share your data with Twitter’s business partners the configuration is enabled, as is Track where you see Twitter content across the web. At the very least, you should turn off both of these options by going to Settings > Content preferences > Personalization and data.
It’s also worth considering whether you want to see personalized ads, personalization based on your identity, and personalization based on your location history. You will find the keys in the same menu.
7. Use bookmarks
Many Twitter users press the Like button when they want to save a tweet for later reference. In terms of functionality, it works and you can review your likes list at any time.
However, Likes have a major drawback in that they are public. Not only can other users see when you like something, but they can also see a history of all your likes on your profile.
So a great Twitter tip for beginners is to use bookmarks instead. These are completely private. The person who wrote the tweet you want to keep won’t even know you bookmarked it.
Hashtags emerged as a way to find content on similar topics. They still work, but in many ways, they are no longer fit for purpose. Twitter does a much better job of organizing content than it used to, with the most popular hashtags seeing thousands of new tweets per minute. People can’t hope to scroll through all of them to find your post.
At most, use a very specific hashtag. Your tweets will look more regular and you will have much more success in reaching your target audience.
9. Use advanced notification filters
When you create your Twitter account for the first time, any notification settings are enabled. You’ll get a stream of random alerts because someone you follow has posted a video or published a new tweet. It is impossible to distinguish the useful things from the trash.
Instead, we recommend enabling Quality filter placement (to remove low-quality content from your notifications) and adjustment of Advanced settings until you have a system you are happy with.
10. Disable Mobile Data Sync
If you use the Twitter app on Android or iOS, it will automatically keep your Twitter timeline synced and up-to-date, even if the app isn’t open.
This is completely unnecessary; it serves no purpose other than to eat through your data allowance. With the setting turned off, you’ll just have to swipe down to refresh your feed when you first open the app.
To change the setting, go to Settings and privacy > Data usage > Data sync and uncheck the check box.
Share your best Twitter tips for beginners
These are the essential Twitter tips for beginners. However, there is a lot of information that new users will find useful. So, if you’re a seasoned Twitter user, we’d love for you to share your Twitter tips in the comments below.
And if you want to learn more about using Twitter, here are the unwritten Twitter rules you’re probably breaking.
