Emina DemiriDigital Media Specialist Community Organisers

Programme@demirie

@corganisers#communityorganisers

08/04/2013

Beginner's Guide to Twitter

What is it?

• Platform for sharing information (what you are doing, reading, etc.) in 140 characters of text or less.

• People on Twitter "follow" each other to stay in touch.

• Profiles can be public (anyone can see what you write) or private (only your approved followers can see)

Main Twitter terms explained

• Mention (@): A way to reference someone in a tweet (e.g. @corganisers) and notify them. It’s a good way to directly get someone to respond and join the discussion.

• Direct Message (DM): A private, 140-character message between two people. You can only DM a user who follows you.

• Hashtag (#): A search tool that allows others to find your tweets and you to find conversations of interest based on a common topic (e.g. #communityorganisers, #Locality12).

• Lists - you can create lists of people/organisations on Twitter. Lists are basically grouping Twitter accounts according to some common characteristic for example Community Organisers has a CO list. You can create your own lists but also you can subscribe to other people’s lists.

DON’T GET LOST IN THE TERMINLOGY - VISIT THE OFFICIAL TWITTER GLOSSARY https://support.twitter.com/articles/166337-the-twitter-glossary

• Tweet: A 140-character message.

• Retweet (RT): Re-sharing someone else's tweet.

• Feed: All the tweets from users you follow you see on your homepage.

• Handle: Your username.

Signing up

Very easy sign up process

Go to www.twitter.com/signup - type your name, email and create user name and password

1. Chose a short user name (twitter handle) – the name everyone will know you by on Twitter

2. Upload a picture of your self –accounts without a pic look like spam

3. Make sure to fill in your profile bio – short description of who you are and what your interest are. Again accounts without a bio look like spam.

Professional versus Private

• Unlike Facebook, Twitter allows you to have multiple accounts

• Having a professional account separate from your personal account has it’s benefits and challenges.

• If you decide not to separate your account always put a disclaimer in your bio. For example “I work for @corganisers but here it’s all me”

Benefits Challenges

It provides a layer of privacy

Requires more time to maintain separate accounts

You have control over your professional appearance

Requires effort to separate your professional from your personal persona

Avoids information overload for you and your followers

Your professional account is seen mostly as endearments

It is obvious thatyour Tweets are not endearments

Splits your audience

Following others

• Who to follow:1. Friends and people you know2. Organisations you are interested in – use Twitter search or go to

their website and find the Follow us on Twitter button. 3. Use lists to find people/organisations – for example check out

Community Organisers Lists to find Organisers/Hosts. Or use online tools such as Twitter counter to find opinion maker lists on Twitter http://twittercounter.com/lists/

4. Use hashtags to connect with people who have similar interest for example interested in #assettransfer write the term in the Twitter Search and see who else is interested in it.

5. Explore people your friends are following6. Twitter will also give you follow suggestions, based on the

industries/fields associated with your interests.

Getting followers and beyond

• Be patient. Rome was not built in a day. It’s not about the quantity it’s about quality.

• Take some time when you first open an account to measure the pulse of Twitter. Start with observing and following others.

• Don’t panic! Twitter works on feeds – Tweets are changing at a rapid speed. You do not have to scroll back to every Tweet each time you log in. Trying to do so will cause information overload.

• Be personal, authentic and true to your values • Be concise, insightful, interesting and funny• Be generous in Re-Tweeting others

Getting followers and beyond• Engage with content gold mines:

1. Use Social Buttons on websites to share what you are reading/watching. A Twitter social button might look like this

2. Cover events – participating in an interesting conference? Remember to ask the organisers if there is a hashtag for it and report live.

Be creative in your content:

1. Photos

2. Videos

3. Infographics

4. Other visual tools such as Portwiture - http://portwiture.com/ or Tweepsmaps http://tweepsmap.com/

5. Ask questions

6. Use finish the sentence” & #fillinthegap tricks – for example “The thing I love most about my community is _______________

7. Use relevant hashtags

Getting followers and beyond

• Thank followers for following (T4F). Do it in groups (that way you are also connecting people) and share your Facebook profile .

• Tweet the names of Twitter users you'd like others to follow and tag by using #ff on Fridays (Follow Friday) but remember you can always suggest to your followers who to follow, not only on Fridays. Promote others and others will promote you.

• Take the online to offline. Don’t be afraid to use Twitter to arrange face to face meetings.

• Open up a Daily or Weekly Digest – use Paper Li (find it here http://paper.li/)

• Use the "reply" feature – when you see someone talking about something of interest don’t be scared to engage directly. Hit that reply button and have your voice heard!

• Avoid auto updates and cross posting to Twitter. Not everything you say on your Facebook account is interesting to post on Twitter.

Going mobile

• Twitter mobile applications will allow you to manage your accounts more efficiently while on the move. Twitter is all about the now and the Now is also happening while you are on the go.

There are several out there. I would recommend:

1. Official Twitter app – simple and great to start with. Manage multiple Twitter account.

2. HootSuite – lets you manage multiple Twitter accounts and your Facebook accounts from one place

3. Tweet Deck – great tool to organise and manage your social media accounts

Thanks for listening and see you on Twitter!

Follow me @demirie

Follow the CO Programme @corganisers

#communityorganisers