Around the Twitter World in 60 Minutes

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Around the Twitter World in 60 Minutes March 16, 2010Audio is only available by calling this number:Conference Call: 800-950-1454; Access Code: 6339392

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Around the Twitter World in 60 Minutes

Sponsored byPresenter: Allen Gunn, Executive DirectorAspiration


Today’s Speakers

Kami GriffithsTechSoup

Assisting with chat questions: Kevin Lo & Elliot Harmon, TechSoup and Matt Garcia, Aspiration

All presentation content is Creative Commons licensed :)

Allen Gunn (Gunner)

Aspiration


Who is this webinar for?

• This is an overview of essential facts and best practices regarding Twitter– Focus is on organizational accounts– “Stuff we wish we'd known at the start”

• Most valuable to folks starting out on Twitter, or those with accounts that want to learn how to better use it.

• Less valuable for Twitter “power users”, though we welcome your feedback


What is Twitter and how is it used?• Twitter is a messaging platform hosted

at twitter.com– Often referred to as “micro-blogging”– Severely over-hyped, but often useful

• Users “Tweet”140-character messages using a browser, cellphone or app.

• Other users “Follow” tweeters of interest, and see others' tweets in real time as they are posted


What’s the big deal about Twitter?• Twitter is a new way to engage your

online networks and keep allies updated on your work– Lighter-weight, more instant than email– Social network features propagate tweets– Mobile support can reach new audiences– 3rd parties can extend the platform– Unique, incremental step in online comms – It is not The Revolution.


What’s the big deal about Twitter?• Common follow-on questions

– Is Twitter going to be around in a 2 years?• Probably

– Do we need both Facebook and Twitter?• Likely, it depends on who you target

– Will Twitter replace email?• Nope, it complements it

– Is Twitter useful for our nonprofit?• Ask again in 55 minutes :^)


A brandy new Twitter home page


Customizing your Twitter account• How can you make it your own?

– Supply a URL and short biography– Upload a profile image (your “icon”)– Select a theme and/or background image

to better brand your page– Link your account with your mobile phone– Add geographic location to your tweets– Change your privacy settings


Essential Twitter Nouns

• Username: your Twitter identity– http://twitter.com/aspirationtech

• Tweet: a single Twitter status update• Follower: user who gets your tweets• List: collection of Twitter accounts

which can be followed as a whole• Trend: A commonly tweeted keyword

over the past hour, day or week


Essential Twitter verbs

• Tweet: post a status update to be seen by all your followers

• Follow: add another Twitter user the list of users whose updates you receive

• Retweet: post a tweet from someone else for your followers to see

• Direct message: send a private tweet to a specific user


How do we get followers?

• Tweet good stuff :^)– Timely announcements– Program updates– Action alerts– Existential musings

• Retweet others and hope they reciprocate in kind– Twitter is an “attention economy”– Barter is the norm


Advertise on all web pages


Advertise in your email newsletter


Add to email signatures

• Add to signatures


How do we get staff to Tweet?

• Integrate Twitter into organizational workflow. Encourage tweets about:– Event announcements– Press releases– New staff and staff recognition– Programmatic wins– Web updates, blog posts, eNewsletters– News, news, news about allies, allies,

allies


How do we get staff to Tweet well?• Have Twitter guidelines

– Establish a consistent organizational voice– Snarking about old milk in staff room

refrigerator is not a good public tweet

• Follow and study others– Note what you like about others' tweets

• Trust your gut, use common sense– It's a brave new world, but it's not brain

surgery, rocket science or pastry cheffing


How can we scale our Twitter use?• Start out using Twitter as a simple

announcement service• As followers grow, engage other users

as time permits– Respond to direct communications– Thank people for retweeting & mentions

• As your following becomes interactive, do intentional engagement– Action alerts, surveys, petitions,

questions...


What else should we know?

• Frequency of tweeting– It's okay to tweet once a day or several

times a week, just keep it real and sincere– Pay attention to your follower count

• Visibility of Tweets– Tweets are public by default– Treat them as permanent public record– Direct messages are private– You can “protect” your tweets, but...


Who should own the account?

• A nonprofit's Twitter account should be owned by the organization– Contact email should be something like

[email protected] • Forwards to one or more staff members

– Don't use a specific staff address– Don't use a non-work email address

• Plan for different staff managing the Twitter account over time


What is “URL Shortening”?

• One of the most useful things you can do in Twitter is share or publicize links

• But with a limit of 140 characters, URL's can take up the whole tweet, or not even fit

• There are many “URL Shortening Services” that produce tweet-friendly URL's


What is “URL Shortening”?

• Example– http://aspirationtech.org/publications/manifesto

• Can be shortened to– http://bit.ly/duOq0s – Tweet: Read our manifesto! http://bit.ly/duOq0s

• Shortening tools– http://bit.ly – Great analytics– http://tinyurl.com – The original– ...and dozens of others


What is a “hashtag”?

• Hashtags are specially marked keywords inside of tweets that indicate the topic of the tweet– Not unlike a subject line in email

• Use # to indicate a hashtag, – #nptech, #costarica or #healthcare

• Example from twitter.com/inveneo:– #Haiti Update - 1st long-distance WiFi Internet

link up for @SaveTheChildren, second one coming up soon http://ow.ly/Zsgj


What are Twitter lists and do I care?• Lists are collections of Twitter accounts

which can be followed as a unit• Why do I care?

– Good way of grouping what you follow– Establish thought leadership in topical

areas• Unique, valuable lists build higher visibility

– Being on other users' lists increases organizational visibility


Twitter conventions

• Twitter has many conventions that have been established by users

– When you mention a user, precede their name with @

• “listening to @aspirationtech give a groovy webinar”

– To complain about something that doesn't work properly, use #fail

• “#sfmuni 24 bus 45 minutes late #fail”


What about “Phishing” on Twitter?• Phishing: tricking users into divulging

passwords and other personal data• Phishing tweets might try to

– Impersonate a friend or organization– Get you to click on malicious links– Visit a Twitter look-alike page and

supply user name and password

• It's a brave new ever-changing world– Think thrice before you click


How do I know if it's working?

• Use “listening tools” to see where your tweets are propagating and how your issues/keywords are trending

• Examples of listening tools– Netvibes.com– Hashtags.org– Radian6.com


Tell me about other Twitter tools• Many tools are built on top of Twitter

– Client apps to manage messages– Search tools to explore content– Tweet schedulers to queue up tweets– Petitions to build network support– Fundraising tools to accept donations– Analytic tools to track how you're doing


Twitter Tools

• Client applications– Work like email clients, only for Tweets– Tweet without a browser or phone– Group users and filter incoming tweets

• Examples– HootSuite– Tweetdeck– Seesmic– Brizzly


Twitter Tools

• Search tools– See who's Tweeting about your org,

your issues, or other terms of interest

• Examples– search.twitter.com– tweetscan.com– wefollow.com– ...and dozens of others


Twitter Tools

• Schedulers– Let you pre-load Tweets in advance– Schedule Tweet times in the future

• Examples– Twuffer– FutureTweets– Hootsuite


Twitter Tools

• Petition tools– Propagate petition themes through the

Twitter network– Impact and value subject to debate– But, good awareness raising tool

• Examples– TwitPay – take donations via PayPal– GiveATweet – via NetworkForGood


Twitter Tools

• Analytics– Track how users and topics are trending– Track geographic patterns– See what specific users say on #topics

• Examples– Tweetmeme– Hootsuite– TwitterAnalyzer


Good Nonprofit Twitter examples• Three nonprofit tweeters we follow are– @kabissa– @wiserearth– @inveneo

• Other good nonprofit-relevant tweeters include – Beth Kanter, @kanter– Ash Shepherd, @tacs_npower– Britt Bravo, @bbravo


Good Nonprofit Twitter examples• Our criteria– Tweet useful materials interesting to the

audience– Reply and retweet often to build

community– Good use of lists

• Also check who they follow and who they retweet


Resources

• Twitter toolboxes on Social Source Commons– http://bit.ly/aJ243P

• Idealware – Good social media review– http://www.idealware.org/articles/

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Questions?

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Continue the Discussion…

• Additional questions can be answered by posting in the Emerging Tech Forum:– tinyurl.com/y8vw9gz


Get the Most Out of TechSoup

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Kami Griffiths, [email protected], 415-633-9392

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Around the Twitter World in 60 Minutes