The Tampa Bay Lightning and Raw Charge Twitterverse

Twitter is a useful tool for the sports fan. It helps you connect with other fans, but it also helps you keep up to date on what's going on with your team(s) and the broader league(s). Game updates hit Twitter far sooner than anywhere else, for instance. You may only have 140 characters worth of space to work with, but you'd be amazed by how much info you can squeeze into that.

If you're not familiar with the workings of Twitter, and would like to be, here are a few basics for getting started:

• Be sure your user name is pretty short since your user name counts against your character total
• The @ sign activates the link back to your - or anyone else's - profile page; no spaces allowed between the @ and the user name
• Using the @ sign also directs who you intend to send the message to like an email address would; check under the "@Mentions" link for your public messages
• The # sign activates a link to the search feature (that link is called a hashtag), and will show you results of what anyone else is saying with that hashtag when you click on it; also no spaces allowed between the # sign and any words. This is sometimes used to be funny, and not intended as an actual link
• Use #TBLightning if you want it to get back to the team and/or on the team's Twitter feed 
• Any punctuation after using the @ or # signs will cut off the link immediately at the punctuation
• RT means "re-tweet"; it's used to show that what you're putting out there, you didn't write yourself
• It's acceptable to edit another person's message if you're re-tweeting it but it doesn't fit the character total as is
• DM means "direct message", which is private; you can only send a direct message to a person who is following you, and people can only send a direct message to you if you're following them. You find your direct messages under the "Messages" link
• Shortening web addresses can be done by either using a Twitter program that gives you that option like TweetDeck (there are other programs that do similar things), or by going to a website like TinyURL (again, there are other websites that shorten URLs)

The Twitter experience is all about who you're following. If you're not getting what you want out of it, then look into either deleting the people you're following or adding additional people. You don't have to write, if you don't want to. It can be used as a news source, if that's what you're interested in.

So, here's something to get you started. In the not-so-long-standing tradition of Twitter's Follow Friday (#FF or #FollowFriday), which is used to suggest to the people who follow you who you think they should follow, here's a list of who we think are great people to follow to keep up with what the Tampa Bay Lightning are up to. If you're following someone you think we're missing, then by all means list them in the comments.

Good luck, have fun, and we'll see you in the Twitterverse!

Raw Charge Staff

@RawCharge - Official Twitter of Raw Charge; we post stories there when we publish them, along with sharing (re-tweeting) Lightning and NHL news
@jpfdeuce - John Fontana
@dagmar27 - Cassie McClellan
@MEREDITHQ - Meredith Qualls
@BenchedWhale - Dani Toth
@DontTradeVinny - Matt Amos (Don't Trade Vinny)
@nolanwhyte - Nolan Whyte
@clarkbrooks - Clark Brooks
@TJ_hockeyfan426 - Tina Robinson (TB_hockey_Fan)

Tampa Bay Lightning

@TBLightning - Official Twitter of the Tampa Bay Lightning
@sptimesforum - St. Pete Times Forum
@Andy2525 - Dave Andreychuck, Community Representative (little used)
@DaveMishkin - Dave Mishkin, radio play-by-play announcer
@VLecavalier4 - Vincent Lecavalier
@RealStamkos91 - Steven Stamkos
@NateThompson44 - Nate Thompson
@TBLicecrew - Tampa Bay Lightning Ice Crew

Norfolk Admirals

@NorfolkAdmirals - Official Twitter of the Norfolk Admirals
@BeekerAdmirals - Keith Philips, Director of Media Relations
@stefanogiliati - Stefano Giliati

Tampa Bay Area Sports News

@SunSportsFOXFL - Sun Sports
@erlendssontrib - Erik Erlendsson, Tampa Tribune
@LightningTimes - Damian Cristodero, St. Petersberg Times

Others

@sbntampabay - SB Nation Tampa Bay Lightning hub site
@NHL - Official Twitter of the National Hockey League
@nhlpa - Official Twitter of the National Hockey League Players Association
@BoltProspects - Official Twitter of Bolt Prospects
@VLF4 - Vincent Lecavalier Foundation
@LightningHB - Lightning Hockey Blog
@LightningShout - Bill Philp, Lightning Shout
@JonJordan - Jon Jordan, Kuklas Korner & co-host of Bolts Beat
@MikeCorcoranNHL - Mike Corcoran, Creative Loafing & The Fourth Period, co-host of Bolts Beat
@BoltsBeat - Hockey Independent Tampa Bay Lightning Podcast
@EnricoCiccone - Enrico Ciccone, Former Tampa Bay Lightning player (mostly written in French)
@gdwyer32 - Gordie Dwyer, Former Tampa Bay Lightning player
@TBLightningFeed - Tampa Bay Lightning news feed