What is Twitter?

• Twitter is a social network which started in 2006

• Micro blogging platform: 140 characters tweets

• On average: 170 billions messages sent, 400 million a day

• In 2013, Twitter listed over 500 million users

• Can be used privately, but over 90% accounts are public

• Operating worldwide in all digital formats: PC, Mobile, SMS...

• Has been “politically revolutionary” in some countries such as Egypt,

Cuba, Syria...

How to use Twitter?

• Twitter mechanic is easy: People write 140 character messages and post it online to share information.

• In this messages, you can include links (usually shortened) and #hashtags

• You have the option to follow the People/ Groups/ Companies to share relevant information for mutual interest

• People can follow you based on information that you share (interests, hobbies or relevant information) that is important to them.

• These messages will appear automatically in your Twitter feed

Interface Tweets feed

Twitting area

Recomendations

Menu

Concepts

• #Hashtag: Are used to tag the most important words/concepts in the tweet. Once published, it can be used as a link and will appear with other tweets with the same hashtag. Always one word with # before (Ex. #SocialMedia. An example of this would be xxxx

• Mention: In order to have a conversation it is possible to mention other users. It is easy to do this by including the username of the user you want to mention with @ before (Ex. @BuzSocialMedia)

• Retweet (RT): When you find another user who shares an interesting tweet, you can share it with your network by retweeting it. There are two ways:

– Regular RT: Press the button “retweet” and the tweet will not change.

– Manual RT: Instead of just RT, you can quote the text and ad some comments bellow. Always use RT before the original message

Your profile

• The profile is the public information that people will be see about you.

• As the profile is your “visible face” on Twitter, it is very important to engage with all users , through headlines and sub headings allowing users to interact with you through personal and business messages

• It shows a description, a profile photo, a cover photo, full name, stats (tweets, following and followers), location, URL and your latest tweets.

What are you Tweeting?

• Every Twitter member utilises this platform for different purposes.

• A large percentage of people use this social networking, others use it as a business tool and also as an information source...

• Every minute millions of tweets are published and lot of this content is conversational as we can see in the chart.

• For this reason is important to display targeted content that your audience is interested in, thus adding value.

Following people...

• By Following a particular user, they will allow you to receive tweets from them that will appear on your timeline.

• The point is not to follow the most people possible, but the right people

• To find people to follow there are 4 different ways below:

– Connect with your email account and share your contacts to know who is a member

– See the suggestions that that Twitter makes to you

– Search for users or topics

– Let people “find” you allowing users to follow your network in order to share interesting content

What is going on?

• To navigate through your account and keep up to date with all activity, you will be access this through your timeline and via trending topics (TT).

• It is also possible to select your desired geographical location with trending topics for your landing page. These locations can be global, in your country or in your city and are often used as #hashtags.

Best time to tweet

• The below statistics can vary according to each business and industry but generally:

Tips

• By setting up your Twitter account on your mobile device, you will be able to tweet events live and receive information about your followers everywhere.

• Tweet interesting stuff, don’t just promote yourself or your company.

• Interact with other users and companies, it will make you more social and will increase the engagement.

• When your are tweeting as a company, try to engage instead of criticise or give your political feelings.

• Don’t feed the troll: in social media there are some users who just want to spoil the party, don’t worry about them and don’t play their game.

Setting up checklist

Do you have the following:

1) Image?

2) Description? With link to your web?

3) Cover photo?

4) Location?

5) Smartphone app?

6) Interesting people (follow)?

The Checklist

1) Are you tweeting on a regular basis?

2) Are you adding value to other users or sharing information?

3) What time are you tweeting? Is it the best time to engage?

4) Are you retweeting and mentioning other users?

5) Are you engaging with your audience?

6) Are you getting interesting content from the people you are

following?