what the heck is twitter, and why should i care?

Photo credit: Thomas Hawk, via Creative Commons license

What the heck is Twitter?

(And why should I care?)

What we’ll cover

 Twitter basics

 Examples

 Getting started

 Tools that make it easier

 Sample use: job search

 Best practices

Portions are a remix: Dan Cohen, Full Court Press Communications

http://www.slideshare.net/dcstpaul/twitter-for-us-2010

Twitter http://business.twitter.com/twitter101

Photo credit: danmachold, via Creative Commons license

Twitter is….  Millions of individual

broadcasting networks – built by the users themselves

 A new way to speak directly to the people you care about – and that want to hear from you

 A giant and total time suck away from what is really important?

Adapted from Twitter for Us - FCPCommunications.com

Photo credit: Terje S. Skerdal, via Creative Commons license http://is.gd/bhJag

“Expect to see an emphasis on the scholarly and research implications of the acquisition… it boggles my

mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data. And I'm certain we'll learn things that none of us

now can possibly conceive.”

April 14, 2010

(that’s an average of 600 per second)

  A tweet is an individual message

  To follow somebody is to subscribe to their messages. This does not mean they will also follow you.

  A DM or direct message is a private message on Twitter

  RT or retweet is to repost a valuable message from somebody else on Twitter and give them credit   Sometimes noted as “via” instead of RT

Photo credit jovike, used via Creative Commons license Adapted from Twitter 101 for Business

  @username is a public message to or about an individual on Twitter

  A hashtag—the # symbol followed by a term and included in tweets—is a way of categorizing all the posts on a topic

  Shortened URLs. To fit links into the short messages, Twitter shrinks some URLs down automatically.

  Trending topics are the most-discussed terms on Twitter at any given moment

Photo credit jovike, used via Creative Commons license Adapted from Twitter 101 for Business

First step: "

Listen!

search.twitter.com "

Try searching "for a few keywords

or topics"

Photo credit: Erica Reid, used via Creative Commons license

Search for a user or keyword(s)

RSS feed (read & archive)

Developments

Research

Meetings and Conference Info

Q&A

Conversations

Chit Chat

Campaigns

What do you hear?

Photo credit: bullcitydogs, via Creative Commons license

Photo credit samcrockett, via Creative Commons license

Photo credit: Sifter, used via Creative Commons license

Photo by Thomas Hawk, via Creative Commons license

Photo credit: Nimages DR, via Creative Commons license

18 followers/following 23

716 followers/following 1995

1,094,192 followers/following 59

Photo credit: Nimages DR, via Creative Commons license

  Is there a voice missing from the discussion?

  Is there information missing?

 What value can you add?

Adapted from Twitter for Us - FCPCommunications.com

Ready to give it a try?

Photo credit: kate.e did, via Creative Commons license Adapted from Twitter 101 for Business

Getting started

Signing up takes approximately

one minute

To help people recognize and trust your account, fill out your profile completely and include a picture

Adapted from Twitter 101 for Business

This is where you type your 140

Follow relevant accounts

  Following somebody means you’ve subscribed to their tweets

  When you find a good candidate, look under their picture for the Follow button

  Start small – follow five. Listen for a while. Then follow five more.

  Lists are also useful for finding/creating groups on a specific topic

Adapted from Twitter 101 for Business

That’s the basics! But it’s only the

beginning…

TweetDeck  

hootsuite  

Adapted from Twitter for Us - Part II - FCPCommunications.com

This is where you type your 140

Search term

Adapted from Twitter for Us - Part II - FCPCommunications.com

Type 140 here

Mentions

Integration

Integration

Photo credit: Laszio-photo, via Creative Commons License

http://www.twitjobsearch.com/

Tweetdeck + LinkedIn + job search = JobDeck

Best practices

•  Build relationships on Twitter

•  Listen for comments about you

•  Respond to comments and queries

•  Ask questions

•  Post links to things people would find interesting

Adapted from Twitter 101 for Business

•  Retweet messages you would like to share

•  Use a friendly, casual tone

•  Don’t spam people

•  Don’t tweet anything you wouldn’t want your mother to read…

Best practices

http://is.gd/bhJag

Jodi Sperber

@jsperber

jsperber@brandeis.edu

Heller School for Social Policy and Management Brandeis University

April 15, 2010