Cyberprince Chronicles

Twitter is so much more fun when more people are on it, so I’ve decided the best way is to publish a step-by-step guide for the common tom, dick and harry. This is especially targeted at the local market (addressing concerns about cost and that type of thing). Enjoy and once you’ve signed up, look me up.

1.) Log on to Twitter.com and signup by clicking on the Join For Free link. Its a very straightforward process. They’ll only need a couple of details including your name, username of choice, password and email address.

If you want your updates to be private (meaning only friends which you approve get/see your updates) make sure that the box protect my updates is checked.

You can upload a photo now, or skip that till you’ve been signed in. It’s up to you.

To prove you’re not some old spammer enter the text displayed on the image, Hit continue when you’re done.

2.) You’ll be forwarded to a page to invite your friends. You are free to click on SKIP THIS STEP.

3.) You’ll then be forwarded to your Twitter Home page. You’ll see a box asking you what are you doing? There are menu items above, and to your right stats on who’s following you, how many friends you have and how many updates you’ve made.

4.) Next we’ll need to configure your phone & IM so that you can send tweets directly from these platforms. Click on the Settings Menu then Phone & IM.

5.) Let’s configure your phone first. Enter your mobile phone number in the box labeled “Mobile Phone Number” and hit the save button. Make sure to enter your country code. (For Philippine residents its +63).

6.) Now here’s where costs will come in. For Philippine residents I assure you this is a one time fee – the cost of one SMS to the United Kingdom. Twitter requires you to verify your number by sending a text string to a UK number. This is the only cost you will incur unless you want to send updates via SMS. Philippine residents only have the option to send to the UK Number (If you want to send via SMS).

From what I understand users in North American and Europe get a toll free number 40404. However you normal text messaging rates do apply depending on what kind of plan you have. Best look up their FAQ.

But don’t worry. Twitter does not charge you for each update you receive. I can vouch that for Philippine residents. I’ve receive hundreds of updates a day on my mobile phone and am not billed by my telco.

7.) Do the same to configure you IM. For this tutorial I will teach you how to do it using GTalk/Gmail. Simply input your Gmail address in the link provided. Make sure to include @gmail.com. Similarly you’ll get a text string for verifying your account.

8.) On your GTalk client click on add contact. If you are using GMail’s interface just click add contact. Add twitter@twitter.com. In a short while you’ll see twitter as one of your online contacts. Initiate a chat with twitter and input the text string.

9.) You’re done. Now aside from updating via Twitter.com you can also send updates via SMS on your mobile phone, or your IM client of choice.

10.) Okay before you go you’ll need to configure notifications and then add friends.

Just tick the tab depending on where you want notifications sent. Remember unless your telco charges you for receiving SMS it won’t cost you a penny to get notification on your phone. The other options are self explanatory.

To look for friends just type in their name and if they exist on twitter you’ll be able to add them straightaway.

One more thing. If you are a Mac user try out this program called Twitterific.

Okay you’re all set. Enjoy.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 5:33 am and is filed under Software Picks, Technology, Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.