How to Format a Tweet

By Rebecca Gilbert

Sharing how Twitter works with others increases your followers.
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Microblogging on Twitter requires creativity to keep your messages to 140 characters or less. This often means dropping letters from words or using text-speak so your messages fit into a tweet. Finding ways to format your messages, especially when using links or hashtags, requires succinct wording to convey your point. Twitter also doesn't support text formatting such as bold, italics or underline to keep your messages simple and clutter free.

Step 1

Sign up for Twitter, and create a username that reflects your personality or company.

Step 2

Type out a message that fits into the 140-word Twitter restriction. Shorten words with abbreviations or contractions, use characters to replace words like "and" or "plus" and use shorteners such as Bitly.com for links.

Step 3

Write tweets that allow you to interact with other twitterers. Ask questions, share interesting information or retweet another person's tweets. Use "RT" to retweet and share another person's tweets on your timeline. Type the @ symbol to mention another user in your tweet.

Step 4

Create a hashtag to define or promote your tweet. Hashtags use # before the defining word or phrase. For example using #eHow after shortening an eHow article link lets others know the tweet is related to eHow.

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