By Sarah J Newman:

Twitter, how many of you are using it? Why should you as a fight fan have a twitter?  How do you use it properly?

Well first the “why”; most of your favorite fighters are on twitter, they will give you updates on when they are fighting, how training is going, and some offer comedic (or not so comedic) relief. The UFC has done a great job of helping promote fighter’s twitter accounts so that you can stay involved (also its great free marketing).

So how does it work? Everyone is assigned a twitter handle, for example ours is @bjpenndotcom (shameless plug mine is @sarahnew2002).  If you want to tweet someone you should; follow them, (but even if you don’t you can still send them a tweet), start the tweet with @ then their Handel which is usually found on their name introduction on fight night. The UFC has also added these on their profiles on UFC.com. You can tweet with your thoughts, opinions or ideas, by writing it in the “compose new tweet” box. Tweets can only be 140 characters so don’t be long winded in your thought.

Ok so now you know how to send a tweet, how do you find out what’s going on and join in the conversation?

Hash tags look like # sometimes also known as tending topics. When people are tweeting about something involving #MMA or #UFC you will see these Hash tags. If you click one or search one it will bring into a whole conversation/topic. On fight night you will typically see #ufc143 or whatever that fight number is for the night. If it’s a free fight on Fox #ufconfox or FX #ufconfx use these when you tweeting, it will bring you into a whole community of tweeters sharing their opinions. You can reply to them if you like or share their thoughts by doing a retweet.

I can’t express how much being on twitter has increased my knowledge of the sport, as well as made me a bigger fight fan. I have gotten to tweet back and forth with some of my favorite fighters, even started playing Words with Friends with one of them! I have also gotten to know people all over the world and look forward to sitting down and “sharing” a fight night with them!! I hope this helps anyone who’s been wanting to take the twitter step but wasn’t sure how!

- @sarahnew2002

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