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8/2/2019 Twitter Basic Notesview
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Twitter basics
Kirsten Smith, MLIS
October 2011
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Twitter basicsKirsten Smith
Oct. 2011
What now?
Twitter is a microblogging site
Allows you to publish real time information called atweet
Posts can only be 140 characters, including spacesand punctuation
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Twitter was created in 2006
Micro really tiny.
Blogging is an online document that is updated regularly and displays
chronologically and tends to be a mix of personal views of the blogger
and information on the web. Its a hybrid between the totally personaland the totally professional such as a newspaper column.
According to Wikipedia it has 200 million users who send 200 million
tweets each day
Yes Twitter is full of inane chatter about celebrities and links to photos
of rainbows and kittens but there is more.
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Tweets are:
Information
Observations
Links to websites
Photos
Remember: every tweet is public
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Twitter works this way.
You create an account with a picture and a sentence of biographical
information
Then you start tweeting.
To build your audience and gather followers (similar to Facebookfriends) you need to follow other people on Twitter.
There are private accounts and locked tweets but for the most part that
is rare since the basic principle behind Twitter is everything out in the
open.
There is one way to have a private conversation in Twitter. If you follow
each other, you can direct message each other.
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Why we care about Twitter
More and more people turn to Twitter for breaking
news, as a second screen
Treat it like any reporting tool, like a directory or
police scanner
It can build the brand and drive traffic to websites
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Couldnt find stats of twitter spikes during natural disasters or politicalevents.
Andy Carvin of National Public Radio in the Middle East was tweetinghundred of times a day during the Arab Spring and become the go to
voice of authority for real time news.
Online Journalism Review article using shooting at Discovery Network
in Washington in Sept. 2010. How Twitter helped follow events, find
sources. http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/webjournalist/201009/1887/
Steve Buttry has many excellent blog posts explaining why journalists
need to be on Twitter, especially the recent newsroom curmudgeon and
Twitter piece.
BBCs 3 roles for social media in newsrooms: news gathering, audience
engagement; platform to promote content.
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More reasons to care
Use Twitter to find eyewitnesses
Ask the Twitterverse for help, story ideas, tips
Provide live coverage of an event
Connect with our readers
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Search tips will help you find the witness to an event
BBCs 3 roles for social media in newsrooms: news gathering, audience
engagement; platform to promote content.
You can search Twitter without having an account.
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Getting started
Sign up
Upload a profile pic and write a brief bio
Send out your first tweet
Follow people
Watch tweets from your followers fill your timeline
Jack Dorsey, who created Twitter sent out the first tweet in March, 2006just setting up my twttr
Bill Gates joined in January 2010 with Hello world
Use a variant of your actual name since you want to build a brand andbe easy to indentify. If you want a personal Twitter, you can give
yourself an obscure handle.
Many attach PN to their name somewhere.
For professional use, Twitter is all about the brand. Important to use a
photograph to identify yourself. Say no to generic egg.
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Tips for tweets
Dont use all 140 characters
Leave space for retweeting & hashtags
Avoid redundancy and wordiness
Use abbreviations &, %, HofC
Use hashtags where ever possible. #goodthing
Tweet regularly
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As one of the tweeters of @postmedia news I spend a lot of timeediting your tweets or news alerts to get them down to 140 characters
and insert hashtags.
Whats a hashtag? It is a keyword that becomes a hot link with the #sign is in front of the word.
If you click on the hashtag you will see all the other tweets that use the
same keyword.
Users who have subject searches set up will see your tweets even if
they dont follow you.
Hashtags can be simple like #Ottawa #cdnpoli, #Libya, #POTUS
Hashtags can be silly things that express a sentiment like
#thankgoditsfriday or #tigerblood
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Twitter etiquette
Find a balance between tweeting links, news andpersonal observations
Do retweet others, just be sure to give credit using h/t(hat tip) or via @kismith
Dont insult other tweeters. Remember every tweet ispublic
Reply to tweets if you can
Monitor your @mentions
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The purpose is to build and audience and engage with followers.
Replies to valid questions just like the old fashioned letter to the editor.
Retweets are when you forward an interesting tweet to your followers.
This says hey this person said something interesting and I think youshould read it and by keeping their Twitter
Username in the Tweet they get extra profile.
@mentions is a stream where you can see what people are saying
about your or which of your tweets other people found interesting
enough to retweet.
To speak directly to another Twitter user just send a tweet with their
name in it. Example @popforecast. You collecting lottery money today/
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A few tips specific to journalists
Make sure there is balance in those you follow. They
are on public display
Mistakes are public. Be transparent, admit it, deal with
it
Thank people by replying or direct message
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Everyone can see who you follow so if you use your Twitter accountprofessionally, have a balance of voices in the Tweeps you follow.
Mistakes are public and reaction to them is instant. Gordon Lightfoot
anyone. @DavidAkin wrote a blog piece detailing how he tweeted thatGordon Lightfoot died. Read his blog here
http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2010/2/18/4459652.html
BBC
article:http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/09/ibc_in_amsterda
m.html by Kevin Bakhurst.
Conversation -> engagement.
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Finding followers
Search for interesting/familiar names
Search for a topic, see who tweets about it
Read their profiles to see if they are worth following
Check other peoples followers for ideas
Follow an agency you find interesting
Websites often provide Twitter addresses
Easy to unfollow
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Twitter is all about relationships and public sharing.
Searching for tonyclementCPC follower has exampled of locked
accounts and private tweets.
Rick Mercer is a better example for interesting followers including
verified accounts.Example of agency is Canada Border Services Wait times twitter
accounts for each border crossing. http://www.cbsa.gc.ca/new-
neuf/twitter-eng.html
Finding Twitter addresses on web Daily Beast.
Explain a verified account
To follow someone means everything they tweet will appear in your
timeline.
You can other things like import your address book. Twitter will match
email addresses and names for you.
You can block people if someone is particularly annoying and you dont
want them to see your tweets.
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Shortening a link
Why? Because they hog valuable characters
Twitter.com now shorten links, but messy looking
Use http://bitly.com/ orhttp://tinyurl.com/. Fast & easy
If using a third party app like Hootsuite.com orTweetdeck, link shortening built in
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Bitly
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The art of the retweet
Retweeting is sharing someone elses tweet becauseyour followers might be interested as well
Twitter.com retweet button does not let you add yourown content to the tweet
Other apps lets you add comment to a retweet. I like toadd comment or hashtags
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Retweeting shares information around Twitterverse
It gives credit to the orginal tweeter. It is considered bad form to tweet
something and pass it off as your own idea. (just like journalism)
A retweet exposes the original author to a broader audience. Twitter is
all about following people and being followed by people.
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Search basics
Toss word or phrase into search box on Twitter.com
Search hashtags
Saving searches
Advanced search is very powerful
Good example for advanced search is #concussion. Then narrow by nhlor hockey or football.
Search hashtags for keywords
Show my saved searches.
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And thats the end
This the part where I says thanks and any
questions?
@kismith
Facebook/postmedianews
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