Before we start I just want to say that optimizing the settings in your Twitter account is very easy to do and taking the few minutes setting this up will make a huge difference to your Twitter profile.

It’s important that you add some info about yourself, so that people can quickly decide whether they will want to follow you or not, and I’m not talking about the follow anyone crowd, I’m talking about real people who have the same interests as you, who find value in the content you tweet about and who want to connect with you through twitter.

And don’t worry if you don’t like what you initially set up now you can always come back and edit all of these settings later, But I must warn you that setting up your profile in Twitter Is Extremely Easy To Do, So Be Warned.

The first place to start is to log into your twitter acount, once you are logged in Click on the “Settings” link in the top right hand side of your twitter page.

The first screen to open up within the settings area is the Account screen,

You will see the initial details you used when setting up your account, you will also notice that twitter provides some really useful tips on the sidebar to your right, I suggest you read these tips as you go through the settings of your profile.

Lets first look at the screen shot and I will run trough each of the fields below.

A lot of what you’ll see on this page is pretty self explanatory but I will quickly go through all of the fields for you as well as share some tips that you may find useful.

1. The Account Page Link. This link will always get you back to this screen.
2. Your Name. This should already be filled in when you first open this page.
3. Your Desired Username. This field should also be filled in, but Twitter gives you the opportunity to change your Username and still keep the same account, I would only suggest you change this if your account is very new, you have found a better Username, and you haven’t added your new Twitter account ID to any of your other social media accounts.
4. Your Email address. This field should already be filled in with the same email address you used when you signed up for your Twitter account, If you decide to change your email address at a later date you can change it here.
5. Time Zone. Click on the dropdown menu to find your cities timezone.
6. More Info URL. Do you have a Blog? If you do, put the URL in here, If your not blogging yet, put your Facebook page URL in here, Give the people who visit your twitter page somewhere to go so they can get some extra info about you, remember Twitter is about connecting people, tell the world about yourself by linking to your other profile pages.
7. One Line Bio. Twitter only gives you 160 characters to tell your story, try to be as specific as possible with the information you want to share with the twittesphere, A little tip for writing your bio is is to open a new tab go to your twitter home page and start typing a profile description, when you hit the 140 character limit add another 20 characters and there’s your 160 characters for your profile. I suggest you try different Bio’s and test which one works best over time.
8. Location. Enter your home town, city or state, By telling people your location you give them an opportunity to connect with you on a more personal level, if your a Pastor or a business owner and you genuinely want to connect with people offline then filling this out is a great idea,, Or if you feel like you would prefer to keep your location private you could use this space for showing your wit and sense of humor, Be creative and have some fun.
9. Language. What language do you speak? For more choices click on the dropdown menu.
10. Protect My Tweets. Unless you want to keep your tweets totally private, so only your friends and family can see your Twitter activity, then make sure this is left “Unchecked“.
11. Save. Make sure you save all of the details by clicking the “Save” button.

The next tab along is the Password tab.

Here you can change your password, Twitter has some pointers in the sidebar about your password I suggest you read them.

The next tab is the Devices tab.

On this page you can set up your Twitter account to work with your mobile phone, make sure you are aware of any costs associated with linking your mobile account with your twitter account.

I have this set up so I can send tweets to my twitter profile from my mobile phone but I would not suggest you receive tweets with this feature, when you start to follow people from different time zones around the world you will be receiving SMS messages to your phone 24/7.

The next tab along is the Notices tab.

On this page…

1. You can decide if you are sent an email when Someone starts to follow you.
2. Decide whether you want to receive an email when you get a direct message from someone you are following.
3. Choose to receive any notifications from Twitter HQ.

When your getting started it’s kinda fun to get the odd email letting you know when someone starts to follow you, but after a while you may prefer to stop these alerts coming into your inbox, I found I was receiving a lot of Make Money Online people starting to follow me, so I decided against receiving the New Follower Email alert.

In the Picture tab you can upload your Profile picture or your Avatar.

If you read through the instructions on the sidebar, you will find twitter gives you some suggestions on how to choose your Avatar, and the maximum file size you can upload for your photo (700k).

The Design tab is where you can modify the look of your Default twitter page.

1. Select A Theme. You have the option to choose any of the theme’s you see on this page, Simply click on the theme you like to see how it looks.
2. Change Background Image. Here you can upload a single “Twitter Background” or you can have a photo or image tiled across your Twitter profile page. If you decide to upload a single background image the minimum image size should be about 1024px wide and 800px high.
3. Change Design Colors. When you click on this link you can then choose a different color for your Twitter theme background, text, links, sidebar, and border.
4. Save Changes. Make sure you save any customizations you make.

And finally the Connections tab.

This is where you find all of the external Applications you have set up to work with your Twitter account.

If your account is brand new you shouldn’t see anything on this page, but as you start linking to twitter from any of your social networking sites you can find out what’s connected on this page.

And that concludes our Free tour of Your Twitter Account Settings, Have some fun with Twitter because once you get the hang of it, you will really start to see the power and potential of this tool.

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