Clint Maun has joined the web 2.0 social networking revolution and you can now follow him on Twitter!

The Clintcast Twitter site can be found at:

http://www.twitter.com/clintcast

If you are not familiar with Twitter, it is what is known as a 'micro-blogging' site where members (accounts are free) can 'follow' other members' status updates (referred as 'Tweets') as well as create your own for members who are following you. Tweets are limited to 140 characters, so the intent of Twitter is simply to give members an easy, quick means of delivering short, bite-sized bits of communication to those who choose to receive them (followers). Likewise, members can choose to have Twitter 'relay' these subscribed tweets from those you follow onward to your cell phone/mobile device by utilizing SMS text-messaging. Twitter does not charge to send these messages, but your phone/device carrier plan might, so be sure to check your plan to see if you are able to send/receive SMS text-messages, and if so, their costs. Note: You do not have to have a Twitter account to view a member's page (like the Clintcast page linked above). However, if you wish to actively follow one or more member's pages in a consolidated way, you will need to have a Twitter account.

Getting Started

How you proceed depends on whether you are Creating a New Twitter Account or Using an Account You Already Have.

Creating a New Twitter Account

• If you currently do not have a Twitter account, click the Join today! button to create one now. (Be aware that due to the explosive growth of this site, some of the following steps may take awhile to do or you may encounter server time-outs along the way during heavy traffic periods).
• Input your Full Name, a unique username, your email address, a strong password, and type the two CAPTCHA words (anti-spam device) in a click the Create my account button.
• Twitter will next offer to help you add your friends to your Twitter account contacts by using email addresses from your address book(s). This step can be done later (if at all), so for now, click the Skip this step link at the bottom of the page to continue.
• Twitter will now offer/suggest some currently popular members' sites you may wish to follow. Check any boxes next to ones you would like to follow (if any). If you were at the Clintcast page just prior to clicking the Join today! button, you will note that this page with show the Clintcast icon to the right under text "You'll be following‚Äù, indicating it has already added this site for you. Click the Finish button to wrap up, or the Skip this step link at the bottom of the page to continue.
• You should now be at your home page, which displays a timeline (list of updates) from all the sites/members you are now following. You can reference the Help link later for documentation on use/customization of your site. You should see an Clintcast icon in the right sidebar under Following, indicating you are successfully following Clintcast (if you don't see it under Following, don't panic - we'll add it later).
• Congratulations - you up and going in Twitter!
• If you wish to follow Clint 'offline' on your mobile phone/device via text-messaging outside of your Twitter login session, you will now need to setup Enabling your mobile phone/devices with Twitter.
• You can navigate to the Clintcast Twitter page by simply clicking the Clintcast icon in your sidebar menu or clicking the Clintcast icon next to the current Clintcast 'tweets' in your timeline.
• Once at the Clintcast Twitter page, you will notice under the main icon at the top of the timeline that you are Following this site. If you are not currently following the site, a Follow button with be there instead, which you can click to add the site to your subscribed list (should then list as 'Followed').
• If you have previously setup your mobile phone/device to access Twitter, then it will also state if you have Device updates turned ON or OFF. If you wish to have Twitter send text updates to your phone/device automatically whenever a new tweet arrives (this can be customized somewhat), simply click the 'device updates' button to open settings where you can now set devices updates to On and hit return to accept your changes. The page should now state that Device updates are ON. If you have not enabled your phone/device for Twitter, read 'Enabling your mobile phone/devices' below for assistance.
• If you are done with the site you can Sign Out (see top right) at any time. If you chose to receive device updates, they will begin arriving on your phone/device as they are generated by the members you are following. You do not need to be logged in to receive these SMS text-message updates. Again, you have control of your account and you can choose to stop device updates at any time, or even discontinue following a member's updates simply by logging into your account and adjusting your settings.

Using an Account You Already Have

• If you have an account on Twitter already, you can simply login now. Once logged in, if you are at your home page rather than the Clintcast page, you may need to click the button/link above again to re-navigate your browser to the Clintcast Twitter page first.
• If you wish to follow the Clintcast stream of tweets, simply click the follow button by the Clintcast icon at the top of the list of current tweets (called the timeline) to add Clintcast to your listed of followed members. The button will now state you are following this site.
• If you have previously setup your mobile phone/device to access Twitter, then it will also state if you have Device updates turned ON or OFF. If you wish to have Twitter send text updates to your phone/device automatically whenever a new tweet arrives (this can be customized somewhat), simply click the 'device updates' button to open settings where you can now set devices updates to On and hit return to accept your changes. The page should now state that Device updates are ON. If you have not enabled your phone/device for Twitter, read 'Enabling your mobile phone/devices' below for assistance.
• If you are done with the site you can Sign Out (see top right) at any time. If you chose to receive device updates, they will begin arriving on your phone/device as they are generated by the members you are following. You do not need to be logged in to receive these SMS text-message updates. Again, you have control of your account and you can choose to stop device updates at any time, or even discontinue following a member's updates simply by logging into your account and adjusting your settings.

Enabling your mobile phone/devices

If you have not set up your phone/device(s) to interact with Twitter, it is a fairly simple process to do so. Again, make sure your phone/device plan covers texting before going through this process.

• If you are not logged into your account already, do so now.
• Click the Settings link at the top right to navigate to your account settings.
• Click the grey Devices tab to set up your device.
• Input your phone number into the text field using the format requested on the page and check the checkbox to allow Twitter to send updates to your phone.
• Click the Save button.
• As long as the site responds correctly (the site does experience a LOT of downtime/slowness, due to its explosive growth), the page should now list a verification code (usually in green - 6 characters). You will need to send this code to 40404 using the SMS text-messaging on your phone/device. If you successfully complete this, you should soon receive a confirmation text message from Twitter acknowledging your phone.
• The Twitter page should now give you settings for managing how you receive updates on your phone/device. Set the Device Updates drop menu to ON and click the Save button to start receiving updates on your phone/device. You can also specify allowable hours for receiving updates if you want to limit when these are sent (you never know when someone my send out a tweet at 3:12am). Again, just set the drop menus as appropriate and click Save to accept your changes.
• If this has been done correctly, you can now specify for each site you follow whether or not you wish to turn Device Updates ON or OFF selectively so you only get text messages from the sites you want.

If you run into problems, additional help can be found here as well as here.