For decades, it’s been the salesperson’s creed that “snappy sells”. Advertisers have endlessly agonized over coming up with the perfect slogan for their brand - brief, clever jingles or taglines that will forever immortalize a product. The average person’s attention span is famously short and the last thing marketers want is for potential customers’ eyes to glaze over while navigating ads or informative posts that are uninviting, endless blocks of text. After all, Shakespeare famously opined that brevity is the soul of wit. For those who prefer their social media soundbytes crisp and concise, there is no better social media platform than Twitter, a massively popular platform that limits all posts to 280 characters or less.
How to create your Twitter account
Signing up for Twitter, like most social media websites, is easy. Simply follow this link (1). A pop-up box will ask you for your name and either your phone number or email. If you provide your phone number, Twitter will text you a code to verify your phone number. If you provide your email, Twitter will send the code to your provided email. It will also ask for your date of birth, as Twitter requires its users to be at least 13 years of age. Once this information is entered, click ‘Next’. Once you have verified either your phone number or email, your account will be created.
How to regain access to your account
If you find yourself unable to log in to your Twitter account, there are a couple of options available to you. First, you can try resetting your password by clicking the ‘Forgot Password?’ button on the Twitter login page. The system will prompt you for the email or phone number that you used to sign up with Twitter. Once you enter this information, Twitter will send you a code for you - either as an email or a text message to your phone, depending on what information you used to sign up - to enter into the text field on the password reset page. Click ‘Submit’ and the system will then ask for you to enter a new password of your choice. (2)
If Twitter has decided that you violated the site’s terms of service by tweeting something that may have violated the community rules, you may not be able to access your account because the system has locked or suspended it. If this is the case, Twitter will display a message informing you that your account is locked when you attempt to login. If your account is locked in this manner, you can follow this link (3) and fill out a short form to appeal your account’s suspension.
How to edit your account
Twitter is a famously streamlined social media service without a hodgepodge of bells and whistles to clutter up users’ profiles or feeds. As such, editing your account in Twitter is a breeze. All profiles include a header picture or ‘banner’, a smaller ‘profile picture’ (ostensibly of the user), the user’s name, a short bio, location, and birthdate. Any of these can be edited by going to your profile page on Twitter and clicking the ‘Edit Profile’ button. There, you can upload pictures or photos for your banner and profile pic, write a bio (of up to 160 characters), and enter your location and birthdate. These are all optional and none of this information is required to be publicly displayed. If you choose not to upload a profile picture, it will default to the image of an egg, Twitter’s logo. If you choose not to write a bio or enter your birthdate or location, these will simply remain blank on your profile (4). It is up to you how much or how little other users can see when they visit your page.
As with most other social media services, your ‘Twitter feed’ is made up of other posts (or “tweets”) from the users who you choose to follow. If you follow no users, your feed will be blank. Alternatively, your tweets will appear in the feeds of all those who choose to follow you. You can limit who follows and interacts with you. If you ever experience harassment or disagreeable behavior from another user and wish to block them, simply open one of their tweets, click on the 3 dots (...) icon at the top, and select the ‘Block’ option. You cannot follow accounts that you’ve blocked and they cannot follow you or interact with your posts (5).
How to deactivate your Twitter account
Deactivating your Twitter account is the first step to deleting your account permanently. Deactivation lasts 30 days. If you do not access your account within the 30-day deactivation period, your account is deleted and your username will no longer be associated with your account. Deactivating your Twitter account means your username (or “handle”) and public profile will not be viewable on twitter.com, Twitter for iOS or Twitter for Android. Deleting your Twitter account won’t delete your information from search engines like Google or Bing because Twitter doesn’t control those sites. To deactivate your account, click on the More icon and then click on Settings and privacy from the drop-down menu. From the Your account tab, click on Deactivate your account. Read the account deactivation information, then click Deactivate. Enter your password when prompted and confirm that you want to proceed by clicking the Deactivate account button (6).
How to delete your account
Similar to some other social media platforms, Twitter has two options for users who wish to leave Twitter: deactivation or deletion. If you’re looking to step away from Twitter for a while, but want to leave the door open to return in the near future, then deactivating your account may be the option for you. In Twitter’s case, both deactivation and deletion are handled via an identical process. Twitter deactivation essentially creates a 30-day deletion timer on your account. If you access your account at any point subsequent to deactivation, your account is restored. If you do not, your account is deleted at the end of the 30-day period.
To deactivate your account, click on the gear icon (settings) from your IoS or Android app and then ‘Your Account’. At the bottom, select ‘Deactivate your account’. Click ‘Deactivate’ and Twitter will prompt you to enter your password and select ‘Deactivate’ once more. Once deactivated, the aforementioned 30 day timer will begin (6). Other users will no longer be able to access your profile once your account is deactivated. If you wish to download your Twitter data (tweets you’ve posted, direct messages, etc.), this must be done before deactivating, as information cannot be accessed from deactivated accounts. Remember, if you wish to return to Twitter, you must access your account within 30 days of deactivation. If you do not, your account will be permanently deleted, without any possibility of restoration or recovery of your account and its data stored therein.
Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms on Earth, boasting worldwide user numbers in the hundreds of millions. And it’s not just “for the kids” - recent statistics show that 63% of the site’s active users are between the ages of 34 and 65. Twitter’s pithy and succinct text limits allow for easily-digestible posts on anything from news to politics to humor to marketing. As such, its service lends itself to those who excel in creating compact, incisive, and eye-catching posts that have the potential to stretch far across the network’s vast and varied user base. By utilizing this help guide, you can take your first steps towards applying your talents in one of the largest ‘snappy slogan’ forums on Earth!