Marie K. ShanahanUniversity of ConnecticutOctober 2011

A Primer

Why Twitter matters

• Twitter is fully public, unlike Facebook• Real-time reach• Influential audience, different from Facebook• Focused on niches: Lots of techies, news

junkies• Twitter drives people to traditional media• Crowdsourcing tool

Brevity

http://www.zazzle.com/know_your_limits_twitter_140_characters_reminder_ornament-175821205964568381

Twitter Basics• Seek to gain “followers”• @username• Retweets: RT, MT• #Hashtags• URL Shorteners • Use lists to sort topics• Follow Twitter etiquette• Twitter.com/search

#Hashtags

• The # symbol, referred to as a hashtag within Twitter, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet.

• Created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

• # turns any word into a link.

How Roy Peter Clark tweets…“I will quickly write out what I want to say. I write short, but not that short. I look up at the character counter which leads me to revision. I can then begin the process of cutting out every word, every letter that does not contribute to the message.” (poynter.org)

Shorten your URLS

• bit.ly• goo.gl• tinyurl.com• ow.ly

How To Use Twitter Daily

• Tweet! Something interesting. Something topical. Use #hashtags, give credit to source

• Check @ messages. Check to see who has publicly referenced you in their tweets and acknowledge, answer or respond.

• Check DMs. Check direct messages (DMs) to see if anyone messaged you privately.

How To Use Twitter Daily

• Check your Twitter Timeline and Twitter Lists. See what the people you are following are saying. Seek out appropriate opportunities to retweet, respond, engage.

• Check Your Saved Searches. Topics, brand

names, keywords pertaining to your business or industry.

Retweeting• Like an SMS message, it is acceptable to

change word spellings to make a retweet fit the character limit.

• Twitter offers a built-in retweet button, but it is not preferred. It comes across as robotic.

• Personalize retweets by adding a comment at the beginning or end.

How To Retweet: Three Options

1.Add “RT @twittername” to the beginning of the tweet

2.Add “MT @twittername” to the start of the tweet if you make any modifications to the original words

3.Add “via @twittername” at the end of the tweet.

Twitter Fail WhaleIf Twitter gets overloaded, expect to see the Fail Whale until the system regroups.

Some Useful Twitter Tools

• TweetDeck• HootSuite• Followerwonk• Listorious• WeFollow• Klout• yfrog

http://www.digimantra.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/twitter_bird_profile.png