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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Twitter Basic Notesview