Anatomy of a Twitter Website

I must present a disclaimer here.  I don’t have a degree in medicine. Otherwise there would be a picture for each description. Instead, I came up with these links for you.  Pick anyone you like and you’ll see the details as you follow along.

• Pearl Jam
• Collective Soul
• National Lampoon
• Openzine
• Dusty Edwards

In this article I tried to be thorough without over doing it. I used blue highlighting to indicate information that’s unique to the page in view.

The Sidebar is on the first five pages listed here but certain links on the Sidebar are unique to the page in view and those are highlighted as well.

There are 7 main pages that are unique to your twitter site:

UPDATES, FOLLOWING, FOLLOWERS, and FAVORITES pages may be viewed by everyone, members and non-members.

HOME, @USERNAME, and DIRECT MESSAGES pages  are only seen by you.

==== Special Note ==== >>> I’m using the term @username instead of @reply that’s more commonly used because @username is  more accurate for this article.

1. UPDATES – This is the page every member or visitor sees when clicking     on your twitter link, i.e.  – http://twitter.com/username – It contains:

a.Your photo/avatar with Follow button

b. Main content window shows:

1. your most recent tweets
2. your most recent re-tweets
3. your most recent @username tweets

c. Sidebar shows

>>> 5 anchored text-links <<<

*. your Bio (optional but highly recommended)
1. your website – (optional) – http://stevedeerfield.com
2. following – ( http://twitter.com/username/friends )
3. followers – ( http://twitter.com/username/followers )
4. UPDATES – ( http://twitter.com/username ) also the page we’re     on now
5. favorites – ( http://twitter.com/username/favorites )

d. Icon photo/avatars – page link array

1. alternate direct linking by avatar to the UPDATES page of those     who follow you

e. Header menu & footer menu

2. HOME - This is the page you see when you “sign in” and it contains:

a. Update window – Type or copy & paste the text or links you’d like to tweet here

b. Main content window shows:

1. your on-going twitter feed or all of your tweets
2. the on-going twitter feed of those you follow

c. Sidebar shows the following:

>>>7 anchored text-links <<<

1. following – to link directory of those you follow
2. followers – to link directory of those who follow you
3. UPDATES -  link to your tweets, retweets, and @username tweets
4. HOME – this is the page you’re on now.
5. @USERNAME – link to all the tweets with your @username in the     tweet
6. Direct Messages – link to all the tweets that were sent directly     to you alone
7. favorites -  link to your favorite tweets

d. Trending Topics - page link array

1. each link is to an aggregate twitter feed based on a trending topic     of the day

e. Icon photo/avatars – page link array

1. alternate direct linking by avatar to the UPDATES page of those you     follow

f. Header menu & footer menu

3. @USERNAME – This page contains:

a. Update window – Type or copy & paste the text or links you’d like to tweet here

b. Main content window shows:

1. @username tweets that are meant for you but are also seen by anyone else who is following the person who sent the message
2. any tweets that contain your @username in the text – either as an RT re-tweet or as a reference to you

c. All of the same Sidebar links as your HOME page

4. DIRECT MESSAGES – This page contains:

a. Direct Message window – type or copy & paste your DM or direct message here

b. Main content window with 2 tabs contains:

1. Inbox – this tab shows all the direct messages sent to you
2. Sent – this tab shows all the direct messages that you’ve sent

c. All of the same Sidebar links as your HOME page

5. FAVOURITES – This page contains:

a. Update window – Type or copy & paste the text or links you’d like to tweet here

b. Main Content window shows:

1. an aggregate feed of all the tweets you’ve favoured when     selecting the yellow star button of that tweet

c. All of the same Sidebar links as your UPDATES page

6. FOLLOWING – This page is one window, no Sidebar, and it contains:

a. Link directory of those you follow

1. If there is a >direct message< link next to an avatar then that     person is also following you.
2. If there is no >direct message< link next to the avatar then that     person hasn’t followed you as yet or has chosen not to follow.

7. FOLLOWERS – This page is also one window, no Sidebar, and it contains:

a. Link directory of those who follow you

1. If there’s a green check box next to the avatar than you’re     following that member.
2. If there’s a follow button next to the avatar than you’ve not yet     or already have chosen not to follow that person.

>>> SPECIAL NOTES <<<

* It’s a good idea to often review your Following and Followers pages for two reasons.
1. In case you’ve missed any email notifications of a new follower and you’d     like to follow back.
2. In case you’d like to “prune” or remove someone from those you follow.

* Twitter does NOT automatically refresh your HOME page twitter feed or your     @USERNAME twitter feed or any twitter feed for that matter unless you refresh your browser window manually.  Programs like TweetDeck, Seesmic, and Peoplebrowsr will automatically refresh the twitter feed according  to your preferences.

>>> HIDDEN PAGES <<<

I found this page by accident and I couldn’t retrace my clicks but I did save the page address: http://twitter.com/public_timeline

The public_timeline page contains:

a. Update window – this is where you insert your text, and or a link to     tweet

b. Main content window shows:

1. Everyone’s on-going tweets or public_timeline twitter feed.
It’s the best way to catch an immediate glimpse of a wider range     of participants and tweets and another opportunity to follow     anyone you like.

c. All of the same Sidebar links as your HOME page

This concludes Part 3 of PTFT.  Next week I’ll cover the ever popular twitter tool known as TweetDeck.  In the meantime relax and enjoy yourself on twitter.  It’s a no pressure zone, an oasis on the edge of town and it’s whatever you make of it.  I hope this outline is helpful to you.  Please feel free to comment.