Twitter Workshop

Twitter Workshop
Twitter Workshop
20 Tasks to Get Started with Twitter
Jane Hart, Social Media & Learning Consultant
Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies
www.c4lpt.co.uk

This Twitter
Workshop provides
you with
h
Jane Hart is a Social Media and 20 tasks
Learning Consultant who has a 25 for finding out about
year track record of helping both
year track record of helping both
Twitter
businesses and education understand
how new technologies can be used
and how to use it for
for learning . She currently focuses
for learning She currently focuses p
personal, teaching,
, g,
on helping organizations introduce learning
social media tools and platforms into and other activities.
their learning and performance
their learning and performance
support initiatives.

(c) Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies , 2009 2

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a very simple – and yet very powerful ‐ concept


What is Twitter?

Twitter lets you write brief text updates (of up to 140 characters) and broadcast them. People sign up
to follow your messages (or tweets as they are known) and you sign up to follow others.

You can receive i f
Y i information, news and much more from colleagues, friends, celebrities, politicians as
i d h f ll fi d l bii li i i
well as companies and services. You can share your own news, links or even ask a question of your
followers.


Twitter in Plain English

A CommonCraft video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o


1 – Sign up for a Twitter account

Twitter will suggest some people to follow.

You will need to choose a unique username


Your Twitter home page
Your Twitter home page

On the left hand side you will see:

• the place to enter your own
updates
• the updates of those you follow

On the right hand side, you will see:

• information about you, who you
follow and who you are followed by
• links to messages sent to you
• trending topics

Select Profile from the top menu to
go to your personal profile page


Your Twitter profile page
Your Twitter profile page

This is the page that others see about you.  Its URL will be www.twitter.com/yourusername.
p g y /y
It will show information about you  and your recent updates.  To customise your Profile
page, select Settings.


2 Customise your Twitter profile page
2 ‐ Customise your Twitter profile page

You can change your existing settings.  You add
a one‐line bio and your location.   You can
even protect your updates if you want to keep
them private.  Go to:

• Password tab to change password
• Devices tab to add a mobile phone
• Notices tab to control how you are notified
about different things
• Picture tab to upload a picture or avatar
• Design tab to change the background
colours and images


Customise your Twitter profile page
You can try out different colour schemes and background
images of your page. Save the one you like to take effect.

(c) Centre for Learning &
Performance Technologies , 10
2009

3 ‐ Write your first tweet

Remember your tweet can only be up to 140 characters long.  The characters
will count down as you type.  Remember, too, that no one will receive this tweet
as no one is following you yet, but at least it will put something onto your
gy y , p g y
timeline!


4 – Find people to follow

Directory of Learning Professionals on Twitter lists over 1,000 people
www.c4lpt.co.uk/edutwitter.html


How to follow someone
Take a look at a member’s profile, what they
are tweeting about, who they are following
and who follows them – to help you to decide
if you want to follow them.
if you want to follow them

If you do, click the Follow button beneath their
profile icon.  You will now receive their
updates.
updates

Many people “follow back” the people who
follow them, but you shouldn’t feel obliged to
do so.
do so

Some people only follow a few others.  How
many can you cope with?

If it gets too “noisy”, you can always un‐follow
people.  You can also “block” someone
following you.


5 – Send someone a tweet

Address a message to any Tweeter by inserting @ in front of their username.
This is known as an @reply.

Note: everyone who is following you will receive this tweet.

Note: “What are you doing?” will change to “Reply to ..” if you start your
update with an @reply


6 – Send a direct message to a follower

Send a message to one of your followers by using d followed by their username

Note: you can only send a direct message to someone who is following you

Note: “What are you doing?” will change to “Direct message … ” if you start the
message with d and username


7 – Retweet someone else’s tweet

If you want to retweet a posting, there
are two ways to do this:

1.
1 If you are re‐posting an entire
If you are re posting an entire
tweet, select RT ‐ which becomes
visible when you hover over the
tweet – or add RT username or
Retweeting username
username

2. If you are rewording the tweet
and/or adding your own
comments, add via username
comments add via username


8 – Share a web link (URL)

If you type in a URL and it is more than
30 characters long, Twitter will shorten
it to 30 characters.

You could also use a URL‐shortening
service like the following

• www.TinyURL.com
• www.ow.ly
• www.bit.ly ‐ which also helps you
keep track of hits on your links


9 – Display a Twitter badge

If you have a blog or
website, you could place a
Twitter badge on it that
displays your latest tweets,
displays your latest tweets
This is a useful way for
people to find out you are
on Twitter, and to follow
you if they want.
you if they want

Twitter provides a number
of different types of badges
to embed on your blog or
to embed on your blog or
web page.

The badge you choose will
depend upon if you can use
depend upon if you can use
Javascript on your site, or
whether only Flash is
allowed. twitter.com/badges


10 – Watch Twitter trends

If you want to see
what's the hottest
news – i.e. what are
currently the most
used words – take a
look at the Trending
Topics, displayed in
the right‐hand
column of your
home page.

Click on a trend to
see the real‐time
results for this
trend.


Search for Twitter trends
To search for what’s happening on a particular topic,
select Search from the footer bar.

Type in your search terms and see the real‐time results.
yp y


Twitter Search in Plain English

A CommonCraft video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGbLWQYJ6iM


11 – Use #hashtags

#Hashtags are also often used
to categorise or tag tweets, i.e.
a number of people all agree
a number of people all agree
to use the same word so that
their related tweets can be
grouped together, e.g. #abcdef

Search for a specific #hashtag
(as shown in the previous
slide) and watch the real‐time
results.  The #tag may even
results The #tag may even
become a trending topic.

Or go to hashtags.org to see
what s happening right now on
what’s happening right now on
Twitter.


12 – Use a Twitter client

If you don’t want to use your web page to write
and read tweets, there are a number of ways to
do this.

1. Use a Firefox add‐on like TwitterFox
2. Use a desktop client like Twhirl or Tweetdeck


13 – Twitter on your mobile phone

You can access an optimised version of Twitter at m.twitter.com

There are also Twitter clients for iPhone (see the Apple Store) and Blackberry.


14 – Find other great Twitter 3rd party apps

There are lots of 3rd party Twitter apps.  Here are some
examples

• Customise your Twitter profile background – e.g. use
Twitbacks or Twitter backgrounds
• Re‐distribute your blog feed via Twitter – e.g. use
twitterfeed.com
twitterfeed com
• Integrate Twitter with your Facebook account ‐ e.g.
use the Twitter Facebook application
• Send a tweet to a group  ‐ e.g. use grouptweet.com
• Set up a Twitter poll – e g use strawpollnow com
Set up a Twitter poll e.g. use strawpollnow.com
or Polldaddy
• Keep track of what’s being said about you and/or
your company – e.g. use tweetscan.com

See a list at www.c4lpt.co.uk/socialmedia/twitterapps.html


15 – How are YOU going to use Twitter?

Think about the types of tweets you want to
write? Rod Lucier has posted about Top 10
Types of Tweets:
yp
thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/11/top‐
ten‐types‐of‐tweets.html

Think about your engagement formula: Angela Maiers uses the 70‐20‐10 rule.
www.angelamaiers.com/2008/09/my‐twitter‐enga.html


16 – Twitter for Teaching & Learning

Dr. Rankin, professor of History at UT Dallas, wanted to know how to reach more students and
involve more people in class discussions both in and out of the classroom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8
p // y /


Twitter for Teaching & Learning

www.astd.org/LC/2009/0409_galagan.htm

pistachioconsulting.com/enterprise‐micro‐learning/


16 – Twitter at a Conference

www.twitip.com/twitter‐trumps‐online‐conference‐six‐
steps‐for‐using‐twitter‐for‐your‐conference‐or‐event/

Live feed from the 140 characters Twitter conference,
16‐17 June 2009


18 – Twitter for (Self‐)Marketing & Promotion

Twitter is being used by both individuals and companies for marketing and promotion purposes

www.twitip.com/personal‐brand‐how‐to‐build‐yours‐in‐twitter/


19 – Twitter in the Workplace

Twitter is increasingly being used by employees in the workplace as a business tool. If you
aren’t already doing so, here are some tips.

www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/162943/10_twitter_tips
_for_the_workplace.html
p


20 – Find out more about Twitter

Twitter is currently ranked at #1 in our
Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009:
www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/

You can view the comments about Twitter as a
learning tool here:
www.c4lpt.co.uk/Top100Tools/twitter.html

A comprehensive Twitter Reading List is at
www.c4lpt.co.uk/socialmedia/twitterrl.html


The Centre for Learning & Performance
Technologies provides a range of
Social Learning Consultancy Services.
S i lL i C lt S i
For more information, see
www.c4lpt.co.uk/socialmedia/
www.c4lpt.co.uk/socialmedia/


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