I’ve been on twitter since 2008. These days I use it through a semi-professional personal account, @JayNeely, and an account for my community resource site, @BOSstartups. In the past I’ve run a bunch of other accounts, both for projects of my own and clients, but I won’t be digging in to twitter for companies / orgs in this post.

Twitter is ‘hard’ because it’s so multi-purpose.

You’re not alone in finding twitter confusing. Unlike other social networks, there’s no central use case twitter is built around. Anyone can use it, in any way 140 character updates (and assorted media) allows, and most people use the same account to tweet in different ways about a lot of different things.

But I think you can boil all of that down into…

Five basic ways to think about twitter:

It’s a way to follow people you’re most interested in. (Friends, authors, celebrities, professional mentors, restaurants you like.) It’s a way to follow publishers of content you like. (Comedians, news, industry pubs, local events aggregators, food bloggers, magazines.) It’s a tool for actively finding content you like or things you want. (Discussion about a show you like, jobs, deals, feedback.) It’s a platform to get people interested in what you have to say, and be followed by those that already are. It’s a quick, accessible opportunity to communicate with a peer, influencer, business, or supporters.

Let’s start by focusing on those first two.

How to handle all those tweets

Twitter’s like signing up for a cable TV package where you get to choose the channels but not the shows. If you want to follow the History Channel you just have to accept that they’re going to broadcast some crazy shit about aliens from time to time.

So the first thing to understand about twitter is that it’s mainly a ‘what’s on right now’ platform. Tune in, browse through, and don’t expect to see all of everything that’s on.

Thing #2 is know what you want, and group wants that are too different from your main wants using twitter lists. You have different music playlists for parties or workouts vs every day listening, right? Twitter lists are the same thing.

Mostly want funny jokes, easy-reading articles, and apartment decor inspiration? Follow people who seem to tweet a lot of that. Also want to keep an eye out for job opportunities, try and stay engaged in politics that matter to you most, and know about local events you might want to go to? Add accounts that mostly or sometimes tweet about those things into separate lists.

Segmenting wants into lists is particularly good for wants where more of the tweets are likely to not be a good match for what you’re interested in (e.g. jobs, coupons, events). It’s much easier to tune out noise when you’re listening for one thing than multiple.

How to find exactly what you’re looking for

Search is twitter’s most powerful feature. If following on twitter is like cable TV, searching on twitter is like Netflix: what you want, when you want it.

Graphic design jobs in Boston.

People who tweet about vegan recipes.

People to discuss your love of denim, drinks, and talented vocalists with.

Opportunities to help people you follow.

Use search. It’s good.

How to get followers

Either be consistently interesting, or consistent to an interest. Tweet more. Highlight and interact with other people.

Twitter’s best feature: @mentions

The great thing about twitter is that you can talk to anyone. You can tell the creator of your favorite thing how it impacted you, and there’s actually a pretty good chance they will see it and possibly even respond.

Besides those wonderful moments, think about all the times you’d love a second opinion from a peer, or need a recommendation from an expert, want to offer a small suggestion, or just give props. It can feel intrusive or like too much effort to send an email or make a call, but a tweet is quick and easy for the sender and recipient.

Now what about ____________

Hashtags are mostly worthless. Tweet as often as you have something worth tweeting about. In the morning, early afternoon, and during people’s evening commutes seem to be the best times to tweet, but anything you really want a lot of people to see you should tweet about at multiple different times anyways — there won’t be much overlap in who sees it. You don’t need to follow back. Yes, employers will judge you on what you tweet if they see it, but opportunities you gain from connecting with like-minded people will always outweigh opportunities you lose from being judged by close-minded people.

That’s it.

Hope it helps!