How-To: Here Are The 10 Coolest Twitter Tips And Tricks

Whether you're worried about privacy, or opening up your tweets to the public for the first time, it can be useful

Click your account in the top right, then go to Settings, and scroll down to find this option.

When you enable HTTPS, Twitter will secure transmissions between your computer and Twitter.com.

If you're using Twitter over a public Wi-Fi network at Starbucks, you won't have to worry as much about someone lurking on the Wi-Fi network and grabbing your username and password when you log into Twitter.

Click your account in the top right, then go to Settings, and scroll down to find this option.

The Twitter Advanced Search lets you put in numerous criteria to find exactly what you're looking for.

Input a Twitter user, date range (incredibly useful), location, language it was written in, search terms, and more.

We just searched "iPhone for sale" near New York, NY and came up with tons of results. Could be useful to use alongside or instead of Craigslist.

When you're looking at a person's Twitter profile, click "Following" then choose "timeline" or "list of people."

Then, look to the top right and look for the "shuffle" icon, which will "jump to someone you follow" when clicked.

It's an easy way to either view the feed that someone else is viewing, or view a list of people someone you know follows.

Twitter just launched it's "Follow Button," the quickest way for someone to follow you.

All it is is a simple HTML code you can embed into your blog, website, etc.

You can customize the button by making it light or dark, and by choosing whether or not it shows how many followers you have.

Once core Twitter feature that's under-utilized is Lists. From your Twitter homepage, click "Lists" to see collections you've created of people you follow, like "tech," "cooking," "news," etc.

When you click one, you'll only see a timeline of tweets from people you follow that you've put in that list. It's helpful for people who follow many Twitter users.

You can create a list from there, or by clicking the drop down menu with the silhouette of a person on anyone's Twitter page. Click "add to list" from there, and you're on your way.

You can make your list private or public, and if you click "Lists" on someone's profile, you can even see the public lists they've made. 

It's a great way to get ideas for who to follow, and to keep track of topics you like if you follow a lot of people.

It's easy to alter the colors used on your profile for links, the sidebar, text, and the background (if you don't use an image).

Go to your Twitter settings, and then go to the Design tab. Scroll down and click "Change Design Colors" to start decorating.

Don't go overboard, though. Nobody likes a MySpace-esque profile with abrasive or clashing colors.

Twitter is a tool built for learning about what's happening right now.

If you're interested in a specific topic and frequently search for it, there's an easy way to save the search so you don't have to type it in all the time.

Type in a search query or hashtag and press Enter, then click "Save This Search" to pin the search to the "Searches" tab on your Twitter home page. It's right next to Retweets and @Mentions.

Most Twitter clients already do this for you, but if you use Twitter.com primarily, download a URL shortener extension for your web browser.

Use the shortener to turn URLs into brief link shortcuts, then paste those link shortcuts into your Twitter update.

Click "Who To Follow" in the top navigation bar of Twitter, then click "View Suggestions," "Browse Interests," or "Find Friends."

If you click "Find Friends," you'll have the option to plug in an email address or instant messaging username to find friends already using Twitter that you may've missed.

Ellis Hamburger

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