1. If you already have a Twitter account, sign in… …otherwise enter your details and a password in the “Sign up” box

2. Choose a username (it’s best to keep this reasonably short), then click “Create my account”

3. You’ll be taken to this welcome page – click “Next” to continue…

4. You’ll be forced to follow a few popular accounts to start with – don’t worry if you don’t want to follow these people… we’ll see how you can “unfollow” them just as soon as your account is set up If you know of someone on Twitter who you’d like to follow, but they’re not on the list, search for their name Not every account on Twitter is genuine – many supposed “celeb” accounts are fakes… See the blue “tick” icon by Matt Le Tissier’s name? That’s Twitter’s way of indicating that this account has been verified as being that of the genuine Matt Le Tissier When you’ve chosen five people to follow, click “Next”

5. Twitter now gets you to look through a few more accounts, arranged into subject areas… Again, you can select from those it suggests, or search for a few more people of your own to follow… …and bear in mind that if you can’t find five more people you want to follow, just follow anyone for the moment – you can “unfollow” them in a moment

6. Now Twitter gives you the opportunity of checking your email contacts to see if anyone you know is on Twitter If you’d like to do that, click the “Search contacts” button for the email account you want to check – if any contact is on Twitter you’ll be able to choose whether or not to follow that person Alternatively, click the “Skip” link to miss out this step

7. Now you’re given the opportunity to upload an “avatar” – an image to represent you This can be a photo of yourself, or any image you like It’s a good idea to replace the default image that Twitter provides, but if you don’t have anything to hand you can always come back and change it any time later on Oh, and put in a few lines about yourself in the “Bio” section – if other people think that they might like to follow you, this will help them make up their mind… and if someone who knows you wants to follow you, this will help them confirm that it’s *you*, and not someone else with the same name

8. Now go back and check your email – you should have a confirmation message from Twitter: just click the link in that message and you’ve completed the registration process

9. Did you want to remove any of the people you chose to follow during the registration process? Click “Following” and you’ll see a list of people that you’re following at the moment…

10. …alongside their names will be a “Following” button: click that to unfollow them

11. Click the Help link

12. …and then go to Twitter basics

13. Have a read through the sections: “Announcements and New Stuff” and “Welcome to Twitter Support!”