Twitter for the faint-of-heart

1. Open a Twitter account at the Twitter website.  There are some good tips on signing up and using Twitter at http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-essentials-of-getting-connected-and-communicat.html
    
2. Once you have an account, log in, click on @Connect, and search for @VirginiaFajt. Then click on “Follow.”  Now under your account, @VirginiaFajt, when you click on “following” on your home page, you will see my picture. 
    
3. On the top of your home page, click on #Discover.  In the search box, type in #AAVPT2012, and a list of recent tweets will show up (tweets are only saved for a few days, so if you want to save tweets for later, there are several different ways to do it – you can Google “saving tweets” for options. 
    
4. You can now type messages and include #AAVPT2012 in the body of the tweet, and others can locate your tweet even if they don’t follow you.  Twitter has decent help pages. 

Links about using Twitter

1. Advice on using Twitter for academics
2. Twitter at a scholarly conference
3. Advice on using Twitter at conferences
4. Teaching with Twitter