A year ago, I wrote this post for some of our very enthusiastic supporters who were new to Twitter. As we gear up for our second Global Tweetathon, let’s take a look again at the basics of Twitter. We hope you will find this useful and join us.

So, here goes…

Starting your Twitter Profile:

Tweeting is as easy as texting. You just need to make sure you have something to say. To start a Twitter profile:

1. Go to www.twitter.com, and sign in using a valid email id. Remember to give yourself a username that is relevant to how you are, and what you do. You will be known by this name (also called handle) on Twitter, and so you should feel comfortable sharing this with your contacts.

2. Once you’ve created an account, Twitter will ask you to create a profile. Remember you have to be succinct on Twitter. So describe yourself in just 160 characters. This should say something about who you are and why you are on twitter. For example ASAP’s bio is:

Advancing women’s sexual and reproductive rights in Asia. FB:http://www.facebook.com/AsiaSafeAbortionPartnership
Blog:https://asap-asia.org/blog/

Also enter your location, and web address if you have one. If you are starting a personal profile, and not one for your organization, please write a bit about who you are: what’s your job title, interests etc. Do keep it short. You can add a link to your website, or blog!

3.  Then follow at least five organizations or people for a start.  Do follow us. You can find us by searching for @asapasia .

4. Now you can start tweeting. Use the box on the left sidebar if you are on your homepage. You can also use click on the small blue box on the navigation bar to compose tweets. Your Tweets should be short (140 characters) and can include a link!

5. Follow other organizations and people, and some of them will follow you back. The more you tweet, the more followers you will have. Make sure you represent yourself well!

Using Hashtags:

Hashtags are keywords that help Twitter identify and streamline conversations on a certain topic.

You create hashtags by using a pound sign, or a hash sign in front of a word. Eg. #abortion. If you want to follow what’s being said on abortion, you can type #abortion in the search column, and find it.

Our hashtags for the Tweetathon is #safeabortion and #Sept28 . Tweeters around the world will be using this.

You can follow Beth Kanter’s blog for more ideas on how to use Twitter!

How to Participate in the Tweetathon:

1. On Sept. 28, please use the hashtags #safeabortion and #Sept28 in all your tweets. You can use this as part of a sentence (Eg. We demand #safeabortion now!) or simply as an orphan phrase in your tweet. (Eg. Restrictive laws lead to an increase in unsafe abortions #Sept28)

2. If you can be online between 10 and 11 a.m. IST, or 2 and 4p.m. IST you will be able to have a live conversation with us.

3. Even if you cannot be online in those times, please use #safeabortion and #sept28 in all your tweets. We’ll retweet you to our followers and make sure your voice is heard.

4. Please remain respectful at all times, and voice insightful opinions that will help us move the debate forward.

5. We might not be able to retweet all comments if we have too many responses. We’ll retweet the best, but save everything for our own records. So no comment will go unread.

To read more about our Tweetathon follow this blog. We will soon send some tailor-made tweets your way. This will help you take part more easily.

If you have questions please comment on this blogpost, or send us an email to discussions.asap@gmail.com .

We hope you will tweet with us on the 28th!