Twitter 101What is it? What’s New?

Presented by: @joanatSt. Edward’s University Instructional Technology Training

Post short updates using 140 characters or less.Give and receive information in real-time.

Microblog = text messaging + blogging

Signing Up:

1. Register for an account.

2. Edit your Settings.

Best Practices:• Pick a good username, keep it short• Fill out your bio• Provide a homepage URL and picture/photo.

Your Twitter Profile

• Your name• @username• Bio and

homepage• Newest tweets

at the top

“Tweeting”

1. Click “Home” from the top menu.2. Type your message in the field.3. Add a photo, or your location (optional).4. Click “Tweet”. Easy!

Following & Getting Followed

• Find People to Follow:1. Click on “Who to Follow” or type a topic in the

Search box (ex: “St. Edward’s University”)2. On their Profile page, click the button

under their profile picture.3. Their tweets will appear in order on your Home

screen.

Interacting with Others

• Two kinds of Messages– @replies: public Tweets directed at you or that

mention you – “@MeganGarza”

– Direct Message: privately-sent “d MeganGarza”• You must both be following in each other.

Favorites• a place to save messages from others you’d

like to keep– Quotable quotes– Valuable links– Positive things about you– Good for online rep management

Click the star under any tweet to add to your Favorites list.

Retweetingshare interesting tweets from people you follow

Manual Retweet: If you’d like to comment1. Copy and paste the original tweet.2. To give credit to the original person, put “RT” plus

the originator’s username at the beginning of the tweet.

Auto Re-Tweet: republish exactly as it appears.

Hashtags

• Community-driven “Tagging” convention • Add additional context to your tweets.• Prefix a word with a hash symbol: #globsoc.

URL Shortening• URL shortening services share links while

conserving character space.• Twitter.com and third-party apps all feature link shortening.

• Twitter apps• Bit.ly• Goo.gl

Sharing and Viewing Photos• Attach photos to a tweet• Take a photo, or upload one from phone/computer• Popular third party services: TwitPic, Yfrog, Instagram, PicPlz

View photos without leaving Twitter or your Twitter phone app.

Click to see photo

Twitter Liststhe long awaited “groups” feature

• organize people into themed groups– Even if you aren’t Following them– Follow other people’s lists

• limited to 500 people, maximum of 20 lists• See who has added you to a list– http://twitter.com/USERNAME/lists/memberships

Saving Searches

• Max 25 saved searches per account.• View saved searches from your homepage.

Why people wouldn’t Follow you:• No avatar, bio information.• Disproportionate followers/following/tweet stats.• Claiming to be someone you’re not.• Constant shameless self-promotion.• Fighting, drama, inappropriate language.• Never engaging with other users.

Best Practices

• Be yourself.• Provide value (like a blogger).– interesting, surprising, funny, useful

• Update Frequently.• Interaction.– balance tweets, responses, re-tweets.

• Don’t Spam.– inane messaging, unrelated info

• Integrate with other social/educational efforts.

Mobile Twitter Clientsthe best way to get the most out of Twitter

• Send and receive tweets on phone, browser or desktop.• Include URL shortening by default.• Easier to keep up with than manually refreshing online.

Official clients available at twitter.com/download

Where to go from here?

• Start following people/orgs!• Practice tweeting, replying, etc.– Share your Twitter Badge and include the hashtag #globsoc

• Study up, get questions answered:– mashable.com/guidebook/twitter – support.twitter.com

• Download a desktop client:– twitter.com/download

• How influential are you?– klout.com

Need Help?

Joana Trimble GandaraIT Training Manager

joanat@stedwards.edu

@joanat