Josie Fraser - Twitter Workshop - getting started (March 2014)

Twitter for educators:Create your Twitter presence!

#digilitleic

@josiefraser March 2014

Josie Fraser March 2014

This session will get you up and running with Twitter, and will cover the basics of creating a

profile, understanding Twitter conventions, and finding and connecting to others.

Twitter

Twitter is a microblogging service which lets users share updates, information and resources

Twitter in 30 Seconds


http://edupln.ning.com/video/twitter-in-60-seconds


Three basic online identities

• Personal • Professional• Organisational

SocialTech: Personal - Professional - Organisational: three basic online identities (2009) http://bit.ly/vcRv5

http://bit.ly/vcRv5

http://bit.ly/vcRv5


Department for Education: Teachers’ Standards

Effective from 1 September 2012

Part Two: Personal and professional conduct

A teacher is expected to demonstrate consistently high standards of personal and professional conduct.


Top tips for managing your online presence

• Don’t drink & tweet• Check information before you share it• Give credit where credit is due• Think about who you connect to & promote• RTs may not constitute an endorsement but

many people will assume they do• Friending students, parents & carers?


Basics

• Username - think short & sweet• Avatar • Bio • Location• URL• Custom background• Public/private

Avatar – pre-workshop taskPlease make sure you have created and have access to an image that you can use for your Twitter avatar - the picture that will represent you - prior to the workshop. Your avatar could be a photograph of you ('selfies' - or photographs you take of yourself - are completely acceptable), a picture of something more abstract (a robot, kittens, kitten robots...), or you can use one of the many only avatar generators (Google for these - I particularly like the Lego minifig ones like http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini-mizers/mini-mizer-2-0/ ).

1. Take a look at Twitter - which avatars do you think work best? What kind of backgrounds do your favourite avatars have? How are the pictures you like best cropped?

2. Think about your Twitter Avatar as a professional representation of yourself. This doesn't mean you can't have any fun with it - but pick something you would be comfortable with students, parents and other school staff seeing.

3. Pick a picture. If this isn't a picture you have taken yourself - think about copyright! Do you have permission to use this picture?

4. Polish it up. Cropping an image can make it look very different. Pic Monkey is a great free way of tweaking your photos: http://www.picmonkey.com/ - You don't have to edit your picture, but if you are fussy about how your head or robot kitten looks, this step can be fun.

5. Mail your image to yourself, so that when you are in the workshop, you can access it via a web based email account. Alternatively, save it to a USB stick and bring that along.


http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini-mizers/mini-mizer-2-0/

http://www.picmonkey.com/


Twitter Bio Generator

http://twitterbiogenerator.com/

Probably best to create your own



Profile



Your microbio: 160 characters

• People search – other users will look at your bio when they are deciding if they should follow you

• Machine search - you are searchable by your bio in Twitter and other search engines

• Think about context – third party services you link to your account may use your bio – i.e. the same text maybe used on another site


Task 1: Create your microbio

Use this time to write your bio. • Check the spelling! • What do you do?• What are you interested in/passionate

about/an expert on? • Hashtags?


Sign up!


obligatory celebrity signup


You can unfollow obligatory celebrity signups here


Desktop tour

• Home• Connect• #Discover• Me > Unfollow• Search• Direct Message• Settings & help > Edit Profile• > Security & privacy • Compose new Tweet


Basics

• Username• Avatar• Bio• Location• URL• Custom background• Public/private


Desktop tour

• Home• Connect• #Discover• Me > Unfollow• Search• Direct Message• Settings & help > Edit Profile• > Security & privacy • Compose new Tweet


Task 2 – send your first tweet

• Swap usernames with someone in the group• Send a message, starting with @username,

and include the hashtag #digilitleic


Task 3 – Twitter basics worksheet

• Work in teams of two• Complete the sheet – the names of the six

tweet elements highlighted, and what they do• Sheets will be swapped for marking!

Task 3 – Twitter basics worksheet

Key conventions

The at: @ The retweet: RTThe hashtag: #The direct message: DMThe url shortner: http://goo.gl/


http://goo.gl/

http://goo.gl/

http://goo.gl/


Follower/following

• Don’t follow too many people too quickly – take your time

• You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you

• You can check who doesn’t follow you back – Google ‘check Twitter followers’ to see a range of services


Task 4 - Finding people to follow

In this task we are going to use Twitter’s search feature as a simple way of finding interesting people to follow. Search by keyword – try searching for your subject area, or for topics that are particularly interesting to you. Try using hashtags. Find at least three people to follow.

If you have time, look at who the people you find follow. You can do this by clicking on the ‘following’ button on their profile.

Share a recommendation with the group.


Task 4 - Finding people to follow

Thank you!

@josiefraser