A Beginner's Guide to Twitter.

What is Twitter? When you first use Twitter it can seem unfathomable. Links and hashtags can look like gobbledegook. Yet very quickly you realise it really is quite simple. The Twitter home page explains it best:
  
"Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

The main difference between Twitter and Facebook is you can only enter 140 characters at a time. This means that you must post very short, to the point messages. Another difference is the ability to connect with a greater number of people. Even the Royal Family are on Twitter.

You don't need to know people to follow them, just be interested in what they have to say. If they follow you back you will be able to Direct Message (private message) them, even if they are a celebrity. They may well never see it amongst their thousands of messages, or just disregard it as spam, but in theory you could send a tweet and directly connect to anybody, anywhere in the world and they will instantly receive a notification on their phone or computer.

So, how to get started, it takes less than 60 seconds to sign up:

1. Set up your account.

Go to Twitter. Enter your name, email, and a password. If you don't have an email we recommend typing Hotmail or Gmail into your internet search engine. Click Sign up. You will now be asked to select a username. This is the name by which you will be known on Twitter which will be seen by other users with @ symbol preceding it. If you aren't happy with your username you can change it later.

What name should you use? You can use your real name if it’s available, or a version of it if not, or you can make up a name, it's up to you. Now click on the Create my account button. That’s it. You are now officially a member of the Twitter community. Congratulations!.

2. Twitter Teacher.

Twitter will assist you in getting started. It will explain what a tweet is and give you the opportunity to “follow” a few friends, popular people, or brands if you wish. Twitter will also give you a chance to see if some of your friends are on Twitter by checking your online address book.

3. Adjust your Settings.

Make sure you are on your Twitter home page. Click on the Settings link. You should be on the Account tab. Set the time zone. If you don't want to be inundated with emails you can also adjust this in Email notifications. 

Do not check “Protect my updates” unless you only want those whom you approve to be able to get your updates. If you check this, it will seriously limit the fun of Twitter as it restricts who is able to read your tweets and interact with you. Make whatever other changes you want, then click the Save button.

4. Creating a Profile.

If you don't upload your own profile picture Twitter will give you an image of an egg. It's important to avoid this, as eggs are often viewed as spammers and other users will ignore you. It does not have to be an image of yourself. You can upload whatever image you want but it should reflect your personality. Remember the image used will be square and their is a maximum upload size, so you may have to re-size your image to meet this requirement.

Don't be an egg.

You can also add a Header photo, which serves as a background to your profile pic. If you want to further personalise your account click Design to add a background/wallpaper.
Next enter the rest of your information, including your location, website or blog (if any), and a brief bio. This, too, is important to keep you from getting flagged as a possible spammer. Your bio can either be serious or fun, but it must be brief—no more than 160 characters. When you are finished, click the Save button.

5. Follow People. 

You can search for family and friends or people who share a common interest or location. Simply go to their profile and click on the follow button. There are follow limits, but unless you follow more than 2000 people without anyone following you back or more than a 1000 people in one day you won't have a problem. This is just how Twitter limits spammers who use the service purely for marketing purposes. If someone follows you, there's no requirement to follow them back. If someone is tweeting too much and clogging your feed, feel free to unfollow them immediately. There is even a block option if required.

6. Twitter Terms and Commands.

Using twitter is like having a conversation. Everyone who follows you can hear what you have to say. If you want to tweet or reply to a specific person the tweet should begin with their username that starts with an @ symbol. Everyone who is also following that user as well as you will see the tweet. (Those who are not following both will not see the tweet.) Usernames are also clickable links that will take you to the user's profile.

If you want to send a private message send a Direct Message to people who follow you. although be aware that many people ignore "DM"s as they can be used to send spam or links that send you to a fake page and spread viruses. If you do click on a link that is a virus by mistake, go to Settings and change your password. You can also favorite tweets you want to bookmark to read later and press the retweet button if you want to share a tweet with your followers. Retweeting is like quoting someone or citing a source. To find out more check out the Glossary.

7. Tweet.

Compose a new tweet and start twittering. All your followers can see your tweets in their Twitter Feed (like the Timeline on Facebook). You can share your thoughts, news, information, jokes or photos. You can even never use it and just receive tweets from a local Social Media Against Crime account and other people you've followed. If there isn't a local account for S.M.A.C. you will now know how easy it is to set up a Twitter for your area and start following people in your location.

If you add a hashtag (# symbol in front of a word e.g. #SMAC) anyone who searches for that hashtag can find your tweet whether they follow you or not. Hashtags can trend, this means lots of people are involved in the same discussion and tweeting about the same subject. Don't be scared to tweet to people. Twitter is very open and promotes talk. Mentions and Interactions are where you will find tweets directed to you, and notifications of new followers, favorites and retweets.

If you have any problems you can find answers to almost every Twitter question in the Twitter Help Center. Just be yourself and get involved with the Twitter community. Don't forget to follow us @SMACRipleyDerby!. We look forward to tweeting you.

A Positive Reaction.

When a crime happens to you it forces you to deal with difficult emotions and circumstances. Disbelief and shock initially serve to protect you, slowing down the ingestion of what has become your new reality. As the full consequences begin to dawn, it is natural to feel anger at the injustice of your new predicament. It's important to utilise this passion and transform the event into something positive before fear serves to immobilise and dissociate you. It's too late to change what happened, but you can be better prepared for future possibilities and use your insights to warn others.

The internet has opened up our world, removing many physical restrictions and allowing one person to connect and communicate with the rest of humanity from the comfort of their own living room. This new power can be used for good and bad, and we constantly have to strive to keep up and also protect ourselves from online crime. A good source of information, can be found on BBC Click, a comprehensive guide to all the latest gadgets, websites, games and computer industry news.

Information is now shared openly, the criminals already know, and it's the rest of us that need to get up to speed. We are all part of the problem and the solution. Even criminals do not want other people committing crimes on their doorstep. A wider outlook that encompasses everybody's doorstep is a possibility with the communication available through social media.

Volunteers near Clapham Junction station wait to be allowed to help with the cleanup operation following riots the previous night. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

Retreating into escapism, can give temporary shelter to help you on your way through difficult times, but ultimately awareness and clarity are a necessity. We need to get real, and live your life before the rest of the cast dies. To take hold of your life, whatever it is, before time takes it from you. You may have been made a victim, you may have suffered great loss, but others cannot not take away your smile or your will/soul, whatever you choose to call it, that and your reaction are always yours.

Personal circumstances may leave you restricted as to what positive changes you can make outside the home. The potential of social media however is vast. It is fast, effective and free. In response to the London riots, Twitter was used to organise a clean up operation. An excellent example of social media being used as a tool to organise individuals who want to claim back their community and the streets where they live. The instigator of the Twitter cleanup project, Dan Thompson, recently delivered this TEDx talk about placeshaking, a term for individuals inspiring communities and redefining the places where we live.

Before discovering this video, I had been thinking about my own town and how I had never felt particularly attached to it. It is a typical market town with little outward evidence of historical interest. An online search to unearth something interesting about it led to the revelation that there are in fact many interesting things and stories of ordinary citizens, past and present. So many things that I decided to share them on an additional Facebook page.

From revelation to re-evaluation, it has given me a new perspective and dare I say, an ironic and then heartfelt sense of pride, for a commonplace area that was taken for granted. Just as we tend to fantasise about our lives rather than stare harsh reality in the face, we also tend to daydream of being somewhere else rather than truly looking at where we are and engaging with it. It seems to me that reconnecting with our environment can help with an overall solution towards crime. People only want to hear about bad news for so long, and then they are likely to move on. Cultivating interest leads to a natural progression towards enduring worth and caring.

After being burgled recently, my first response was to go on Facebook and inform my friends, to warn them and also to lessen the burden of what had happened through their instant sympathy and understanding. I needed someone to listen and acknowledge the unfairness. I also wanted information and asked the small number of my local friends to share my status, to discover who had come into my family's home whilst we slept and taken what they wanted and then the following night broken into my mother's house. I did discover who the perpetrator was and why they are doing it, and also other people in my area to be aware of, but there is no concrete evidence to convict them. Social media gives you the option to remain anonymous and share sensitive details privately and it is important to note that publishing names online can later lead to civil action if you are mistaken. The purpose of this project is not scaremongering of vigilantism. It's about providing a support system that is there to listen in real time and look out for you, replacing the sense of community that has been lost whilst still retaining the personal space we have become accustomed to.

Although awareness of the local community to the individual committing burglary in my own town has not yet led to a conviction, it has acted as a deterrent. It has also led to the realisation, that a network was required that reaches out across the entire region, and was the catalyst that has formed Social Media Against Crime, a tool that can be used by anyone if and when they need it. It's about small steps, we can all do, you never know what it will lead to. Already I am in talks with the police and crime commissioner for Derbyshire, and Neighborhood Watch to fund awareness of this project to cover the whole of Derbyshire. There is no reason why every county and even country cannot do the same. I will soon be publishing a downloadable leaflet that can be printed and given to nearby residents.

I will end this post with another TEDx video, this time by the amazing Anna, otherwise known as @heardinlondon on Twitter. I hope this inspires you as much as it has me today.