How-to | Twitter

A Little Birdy Told Me

An easy and effective way to bring in new readers

If you’re not already on Twitter, you should run over there and open a new account! Not because Twitter is all that and a bag o’ chips, but because if you’re not on Twitter, you’re missing out on a chance to grow your readership on Medium.

Photo by Morning Brew on Unsplash

First Things First

Be sure to set your account name carefully. New accounts, by default, will have a string of random numbers tacked onto the end, and many twits (my semi-affectionate name for Twitter users!) think that all of those accounts are bots or trolls. They may well be; bots and trolls usually don’t know how, or won’t take the time, to change their account names and usernames, and will simply accept the defaults offered by Twitter on sign-up.

In the sidebar, you’ll see More. Click that to display these options and select Settings and privacy:

Click Username. Twitter will display some suggested alternatives to your default name, but you can set this to anything that isn’t already taken.

Caution: If you are a long-time…