SOCIAL MEDIA FOR FESTIVALSIntroduction to Twitter for Festivals

WHAT IS TWITTER?

Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations.

WHAT IS A TWEET? A Tweet is 140 characters in length—you can

share a lot with a little space.

ONLY 140 CHARACTERS?

Connected to each Tweet is a rich details pane that provides additional information, deeper context and embedded media. You can tell your story within your Tweet, or you can think of a Tweet as the headline, and use the details pane to tell the rest with photos, videos and other media content.

TWEET WITH RICH CONTENT

The Tweet with photograph attached

Photograph hosted on Instagram

Location information about the photograph

WHAT DO WE SAY ON TWITTER?

Users share updates about what they’re doing – which for festivals and interest groups means that there’s a huge amount of information being created about daily life, all of which can be searched

BUT WHAT DO WE GET OUT OF IT?

You don’t have to Tweet to get value from Twitter – you can use it to read and follow people, companies, events of interest and to find others with shared interests

A quick search for ‘Edinburgh’ and ‘weekend’ helped me find out that there’s Cricket being played

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Following – Tweets from Twitter Users you are following will appear in your Timeline

Followers – Users who have chosen to have your updates feature in their timeline

@ - the special character which precedes a Twitter name to mention someone else on Twitter

RT – retweet – a way of showing others that you’re sharing content

MT – less used, but courtesy if you have amended

# tag – a way of grouping Tweets about a subject

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TWEET

Broadcast Engagement Useful information RT content from someone which you’ve

found useful

TYPES OF TWEET - BROADCAST

Broadcast Tweet – where you share information about yourself/your event with your followers

TYPES OF TWEET - ENGAGEMENT

Engagement Tweet – where you mention other Twitter names in your Tweet – either by @ and their Twitter Name, or by RT (retweeting something interesting)

TYPES OF TWEET – USEFUL INFO

Useful info Tweets – where you share information about something which will be of interest to your followers, but which is not about you – maybe a link to an article you found interesting

TYPES OF TWEET - RETWEET

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE

Keep a mixture of Tweets going on to encourage people to follow you

Recommendations of others are really powerful – Sharing is good You’re helping others They remember you They tell their friends

Mix the type of content you share too – Links Photographs Videos Sound

GET BUSY, GET SOCIAL

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