So, my politico pal, the twitter skeptic, signed up. I’m trying to collect some twitter tips to help make the experience more navigable for her. Have I missed something that you think is critical to twitter survival? Leave your twitter truth in the comments.

1. Twitter is actually a lot like riding the bus. Some of the people who cross your path are, well, not people with whom you’d choose to become lifelong friends. On twitter, they may be spammers of the obvious Twitter-is-going-to-ban-them type, or they may be less obvious — simply single-minded about their real estate sales. SEO magic, or social media mojo. They may also be amazingly inappropriate. Your tolerance for these people on the edges of the conversation is probably close to your tolerance for them real life. You can simple ignore them. You can block them (it’s under actions on the user’s profile page). You can try and engage and get them to make more sense.
2. You don’t have to read it all. Twitter isn’t like that. It’s not email. That’s part of its beauty, actually, but also part of what can be overwhelming. There’s a public timeline, there are the updates from the people you follow. Read what you want. Dip in and out of the stream. But don’t worry about it. Seriously. That said…
3. Replies are where it’s @. Use them and read them. People can flag a public message for your attention by simply putting “@username” in the entry. Pay attention to those. You can see them, logged in, via the @yourusername on the sidebar of your profile page. It’s not just about reading those things. It’s also about pointing out things for others. @username inserted in their post will make sure they see it. So, for example, if you wanted to make sure that I saw something from you, you would just add “@webb” to your tweet.
4. Spread the good stuff. Someone else tweet something that you really want to share? Do it! Simple begin with “RT @username” and follow it with the orginial message (you might have to do some shortening to get into the 140 character limit) and send it along. The RT indicates that you are retweeting something and the @username give credit.
5. You don’t have to read it all. Yes, yes, I know. People broadcast. They are jerks. You don’t know why they are following you. Hop up to number 1 on this list and read that again.
6. Find your tribe. Search is your friend on Twitter like it is almost everywhere else on the Interwebs. Use search on the profile page to find, via keywords, conversations that may be useful to you. When you do find one that strikes a chord, save it. Saved searches will appear right under the search box.*
7. Follow people who are interesting to you. Don’t worry about whether or not you know them. Don’t worry if they have a gazillion twitter followers or two. Follow people because you know them. Because you like what they are saying. Because you care and might want to engage in conversation.
8. Introduce yourself. Do it in your bio. People actually look at those. After all, they want to know that you aren’t a spammer. Give a bit of context and a link. And you know, you can do the twitter version of a handshake: use the @ to tell someone what interested you enough to follow them.
9. Make sure you have the d. You want to send a private message. You can if the twitter user is following you. Just put a “d” and then space and then their username. Private messages are nice for messages that are, well, private. But also for those quick thanks or nice to see you or that reminds you kind of post. But do everyone a quick favor: make sure you’re private messages are marked up properly. After all, you don’t want all of us calling you at 10am tomorrow.
10. You. Do. Not. Have. To. Read. It. All. Really. Really. Really.

* Over time, you’ll probably move this process to desktop or mobile twitter clients. But let that come. No need to start in the deep end if you don’t have to.

Photo Credit: Flotilla, taken by James Jordan