What I love about G&GR is the interaction: the sharing of ideas, the banter, the laughs, the access to people you might not otherwise get. If that also describes you, then join the growing numbers of GAGR-ites dominating the Twitter playing field.
This guide will talk you through how to get up and running and have an instant group of mates with you, ripping it up in 140 characters or less. If you’re already on Twitter, this guide will help you get more out of it, including gaining followers using The GAGR Twitter secret handshake.
Now there’ll be a few of you saying – “get stuffed, I don’t wanna put my life on Twitter”. No worries, you don’t have to. There are plenty of different ways to use twitter – from borderline stalking to revealing all. In the end it’s up to you and it’s just a bit of fun.
Another objection is “yeah, but I don’t wanna hear about what some drongo’s just had for brekky”. Again, easily sorted – just stop following them. But we’ll get to that….
First thing is – you need to join Twitter if you haven’t already. Go to the Twitter website and sign up https://twitter.com/ . All you’ll need is an email address. You can be anonymous if you want, but more and more people are using their real names (you can change to this later if you want). You don’t have to upload a real picture of yourself, but at least just give them something to get a personality going.
In creating an account, you’ll need to write yourself a little bio – this is another place to get your winning personality out there. When people decide if they’re going to follow you or not, they’ll look at the pic, read the bio and then maybe read a few of your latest tweets, so you want to represent.
Importantly, this is the section you want to put the GAGR Twitter secret handshake – just reference www.GreenAndGoldRugby.com or ‘GAGR’ somewhere in your bio. What this means is that when you follow other GAGR-ites also using the code, they are honour bound to follow you back. In a few days you’ll have a following of like-minded souls that would normally take months to put together.
If you’ve already got an account you can add in the handshake as well, or just tweet someone the code word “GAGR” to get a followback.
Next, you’ll need to start following people (if you don’t follow people you can’t see what they tweet, and you can only see what two people tweet to each other if you follow them both). Having been on Twitter for a couple of years now, my advice would be follow first, cull later. If they turn out to be morons you can always unfollow, no sweat.
Also, don’t worry about not being able to “keep up” with everyone you follow. The idea of twitter is just to dip in – get and/or give some gold – and dip out.
So, to help you with who to follow, we’ve put some lists together. While signed into twitter on your browser, follow the links below to the page of the corresponding GAGR twitter lists, then simply follow who you want to by clicking the FOLLOW button at the side of their profile. Done.
| GAGR Staff | Oz Rugby Players |
| Mates of GAGR | Oz Rugby Coaches |
| Oz rugby parody accounts – funny | Oz Rugby official PR accounts |
| Oz rugby journos | Other international rugby players |
To read and write tweets you can use a web browser or download one of a whole bunch of different twitter ‘clients’ onto your computer or mobile device that make the process slicker. I’ve just discovered an app for iPhone and iPad called Flipboard that makes catching up on Twitter, Facebook and media in general like reading an online magazine.
Finally a few words on Twitter etiquette. Obviously it’s up to you to use it how you want, but just as on G&GR, writing spiteful nonsense or bagging people out won’t get you far. Neither will mass-spamming your followers. Just be a good bloke and you can’t go wrong.
