Have you joined the Twitter revolution? Millions around the world already have, and now you can, too.

What is Twitter: Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations.

Following: When you follow someone you are subscribing to their Tweets as a Follower. Their updates will appear in your timeline and that person has permission to send you private Tweets, called direct messages which only you and that person can see.

To use the Fremantle Dockers as an example, you can follow the club (@Fremantle_FC), and any Freo players who have Twitter accounts. So far, skipper Matthew Pavlich (@mattpav29), Matt de Boer (@mattdeboer40) and Ryan Crowley (@ryanmcrowley) call themselves Tweeps, or Twitter users.

Followers: These are other Twitter users who follow your Twitter account and receive your Tweets. NBA star Lebron James has almost 2 millions followers. If you follow someone, you are their follower.

What is a Tweet: A Tweet is a small burst of information of no more than 140 characters in length. You can tell your story within your Tweet, or you can think of a Tweet as the headline, and tell the rest with photos, videos and other media content.

Example of a Tweet from the Fremantle Dockers featuring a link to Pav’s Blog:

Check out @mattpav29's Blog: Pav talks about plans, preparation and the realities of post footy life http://tinyurl.com/3ozmb8w

What is an @Mention: You can also mention others in your tweet, just like in the example above. In this case, the Fremantle Dockers’ Tweet has tagged Matthew Pavlich’s Twitter account. What this does is ensures that the person you mention gets this Tweet, whether they follow you or not.

Retweeting: To retweet is to repeat/quote someone’s tweet. If, for example, you come across an interesting tweet and you want to republish it so that people who follow you can see it too - you retweet it. This creates a viral effect, much like tagging.

What is an @Reply: A reply is any update posted by clicking the "Reply" button on another Tweet. People say lots of things on Twitter, and sometimes you want to say something back. Your reply will always begin with @username (insert username of the person you are replying to). To post a reply on Twitter:

• Find the Tweet you want to react to on Twitter.
• Hover your mouse over their message and click the "reply" icon.
• Complete your Tweet in the box that pops up, and click "Tweet" to send it

Example of a @Reply from Matthew Pavlich’s Twitter account:
A Tweep Tweeted this last week:

@mattpav29 hey pav i have been a really big fremantle fan all my life from victoria and it would mean a lot if you said happy birthday to me

This person mentioned Matthew Pavlich, which means Pav got this Tweet on his Timeline. The Freo skipper hit the Retweet button with his own edited message and published this Tweet:

Happy Bday mate!! "@dylgrandell: hey pav I am a really big freo fan from victoria and it would mean a lot if you said happy birthday.

The happy fan replied with:

@mattpav29 thanks heaps!!! You are a star!

What is a hashtag (#): The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created as a way of categorising messages. Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category. Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet. Here’s an example from Fremantle’s account on game day:

@ryanmcrowley is running with Dal Santo, while Clinton Jones has the job on Stephen Hill #aflfreosaints

By clicking on the #aflfreosaints, you will be taken to a Twitter Timeline that includes all the Tweets with that hashtag.

You don’t have to Tweet to be a Tweep: There’s no requirement to Tweet in Twitter. You can simply follow the people or organisations that interest you, then sit back and get the latest information on their interests.

To join the world of Twitter, follow these easy step by step instructions:

1. Go to www.twitter.com and enter your details to create your account
2. You need to confirm your email, which you can do by accessing the email account you provided to Twitter when you signed up
3. Follow the prompts - Twitter will try and get you started by helping you find 10 accounts that are of interest to you. Have a play around and try and find accounts you’d like to follow.
4. You are now free to Tweet away, or take a back seat and watch the conversations.

Follow someone and get their Tweets on your phone:

For this example you are going to set up your Twitter account to send you a message every time Matthew Pavlich sends a Tweet:

1. In the search field at the top of the page, type in Matthew Pavlich.
2. In the right hand pane, click on mattpav29 (Pav’s Twitter account)
3. Now back in the left hand pane you will see Pav’s Twitter timeline.
4. Click on the green “Follow” button under his profile picture. You are now following Pav.
5. Next to the green button (now saying following), there is a small mobile phone icon. Click on this and then follow the prompts to activate your phone.
6. Please be aware of charges your mobile phone provider may charge to your phone account for each Tweet received.

There you have it. Welcome to the conversation.