what is twitter why and how
DESCRIPTION
A short introduction to Twitter: Why a business should use it and how to set up an account.TRANSCRIPT
What is Twitter?How do I get started?
Dan Lucarelli, Director – Marketing & EducationPennsylvania One Call System, Inc.
Our Agenda for Today
• Social Networking – an Intro• What is Twitter?• Twitter setup – Step by Step• Twitter Do’s• Tools to make your life easier
Intro: Social Networking
Twitter is a social network.What is a social network?
Social Network defined
Main Entry: social network Part of Speech: n Definition: a website where one connects with those sharing personal or professional interests, place of origin, education at a particular school, etc. Usage: computingsocial network. (n.d.). Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon. Retrieved February 19, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social network
Examples and Scale1
• Social Networks:
– www.facebook.com (2)
– www.youtube.com (4)
– www.wikipedia.com (6)
– www.twitter.com (12)
– www.myspace.com (17)
• All Sites:
• www.google.com (1)
• www.yahoo.com (3)
• www.live.com (5)
• www.blogger.com (7)• www.msn.com (9)
• www.wordpress.com (18)• www.microsoft.com (19)• www.amazon.com (20)
1. Source: www.alexa.com, Feb 19, 2010
Number of users1
• Classmates.com 50 million• Facebook 350 million• Flickr 32 million• LinkedIn 53 million• MySpace 130 million• Twitter 75 million
1. Source: www.wikipedia.org, Feb 19, 2010
What is Twitter?
Source: http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2010/02/25/
What is Twitter?
• Twitter.com: “…is a social networking and microblogging service utilizing instant messaging, SMS, or a Web Interface.”1
• Think of Twitter as a public web space or web blog where you post short messages for interested people to read – in realtime.
1. Source: www.alexia.com/topsites, Feb 19, 2010
Twitter Terminology
• “Follower”: Someone who subscribes to your Web space (blog).
• “Following”: A Web (blog) space you subscribe to.
• “Tweet”: A post to your Web space (blog).
• “ReTweet”: Forwarding something you read to your followers.
Twitter Philosophy
• Twitter evolved from a web experiment between friends who wanted to broadcast SMS text messages to each other in real time.– “I’m at Starbucks. Let’s Hook Up”– Easily send one message to many
friends.
• Twitter has grown into a flexible real time broadcast communications platform.
Twitter: Subscription-based
• Although Tweets are (usually) public, they are not pushed to you unless you subscribe to someone’s Tweets.– This is called “Following” someone.
• You can set Tweets to be private, meaning you must specifically allow someone to Follow you before they can see your Tweets.– Tweets are not in the public data stream.
Tweet!
I will follow you.
Tweet!
Tweet!
I will follow you.
Tweet!
Tweet!
Tweet!
Microblogging
• The key to Twitter is an SMS text message:– 140 characters or less.– Post (“Tweet”) a message from a mobile
phone.• Send one message – it goes to all
“Followers”.
– Receive messages (“Tweets”) on a mobile phone• Receive text messages from everyone you
are “Following”.
Tweeting
• You can send Tweets via:– The www.Twitter.com website;– An SMS text message from a cell
phone;– A Twitter application on a Smart phone;– A Widget attached to: LinkedIn,
FaceBook, etc.– Programmatically from an API.
Following
• Tweets from people you follow show up:– On your www.Twitter.com web site
when you log in;– On your cell Phone via text messages;– On your Smart phone via a Twitter
application;– In a Widget within a Web site;– By querying www.Twitter.com via an
API.
Setup – Step by Step
How do I sign up and start using Twitter?
Getting Started with Twitter
• Step 2: Create an Account
***********
For a corporate account, create a non-user email to
Twitter Do’s
DO: Promote your Account
• Stakeholders will not follow you if they don’t know.
DO: Tweet Regularly
• Find a schedule and stick to it.• PA One Call tweets once per
business day.– Special circumstances warrant
additional Tweets:• “Due to weather conditions, Montgomery
County Locator program changed from 2/11 to 3/18. Info: www.paonecall.org (events). #paonecall”
Source: Comics.com ® 2010, United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
DO: Tweet Meaningfully
• Tweets should be interesting, or useful, or both.
• PA One Call sends Tweets on:– “Education sound bites”– Education class reminders– An occasional ‘fun’ Tweet:• “Happy Groundhog Day!” on Feb 2.
DO: Pay attention to Followers
• PA One Call’s tweets are not private– Anyone can subscribe.
• PA One Call has blocked specific followers.
• Followers can send messages to you directly.– Pay attention! Respond quickly!
DO: Use the “#” Tag
• Users can search for specific terms.• The ‘#’ character denotes a tag.• PA One Call places “#paonecall” in
every tweet.• Non-followers can search in public
tweets.
DO: Build your brand
• www.paonecall.org/twitter vs
• www.twitter.com/paonecall
• This is called “Website Redirection”
• Promote your site, not someone else’s.
Tools
(Getting Tweets in to Twitter.Getting Tweets out of Twitter.)
<script src="http://widgets.twimg.com/j/2/widget.js"></script><script>new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: 'profile‘, rpp: 8, interval: 6000, width: 250, height: 300, theme: { shell: { background: '#333333‘, color: '#ffffff’ }, tweets: { background: '#000000‘, color: '#ffffff‘, links: '#4aed05‘ } }, features: { scrollbar: false, loop: false, live: true, hashtags: true, timestamp: true, avatars: false, behavior: 'default' }}).render().setUser('paonecall').start();</script>
Widgets
Schedule Tweets in the Future
Schedule Tweets in the Future
Resources and Third Party
• Hundreds of tools are here:• http://www.twitip.com/10-more-must-have-t
witter-tools/
• http://mashable.com/2008/05/24/14-more-twitter-tools/
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/17/99-essential-twitter-tools-and-applications/
• http://www.sociableblog.com/2009/03/18/100-twitter-tools-to-help-you-achieve-all-your-goals/
Thanks! for your time.Questions?
Dan Lucarelli, Director – Marketing & EducationPennsylvania One Call System, Inc.