Northwestern University Career Services Twitter Tutorial

Transcription

1 Northwestern University Career Services Twitter Tutorial What is Twitter? Twitter is an online social networking & microblogging service that allows users to answer the question, What are you doing? in 140 characters or less also known as a Tweet. Why Use Twitter? Twitter allows you to follow anyone from friends and family to public figures and news outlets. You choose who you want to follow, and Twitter provides you with a live news feed of Tweets from your followers. Thus, you get constant news in short sound bites from almost anyone of interest instantly. You can also Tweet to your followers delivering your messages to them instantly as well. Getting Started Sign up for a Twitter account and choose a username. This username is also known as your handle. For example, Northwestern Career Services username is NorthwesternUCS (usernames are not case sensitive), therefore our handle (We ll get to symbol later.) Your Twitter page available to the public is: twitter.com/yourusername. Set up your account by choosing to upload a photo (similar to your Facebook profile picture), creating a profile (in fewer than 160 characters) and searching for friends, companies, magazines, authors, news outlets, etc. to follow via the Twitter search bar (the first account you follow, of course, should NorthwesternUCS follows more than 500 accounts including Northwestern News (@NorthwesternU), Willie Wildcat (@WillieWildcatNU) and Medill (@MedillSchool). Click a Tweeter s follow button in the upper right-hand corner to follow him or her. Building Your Following & Followers Once you ve started following accounts, you can click on the Who to Follow link for suggestions on other accounts to follow, based on your current followings. Those who you follow can choose to follow you. And, as your account grows, others (including those you don t know) will follow you as well. Right now, your account is public, meaning anyone can access your Twitter page and see your Tweets, even if they don t have Twitter or aren t following you. Make your Tweets private by selecting settings from the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner. Check the box that says protect your Tweets. This feature also allows you to screen and approve who follows you.

2 Compile accounts you follow into lists so that you can view certain groups of Tweeters (collected based on similarities) at a time. Once you click a Tweeter s follow button, you ll have the option to add or remove him or her from your list. Click add or remove from lists.

3 As you can has four lists, and we to the careeradvice list. If we only want to see a news feed for career advice, we can then choose to view only those in our careeradvice list. Click create a list to create your lists. Tweeting Compose Tweets in 140 characters or less. You can Tweet anything, including sharing what you re doing, posting a news article, or promoting an event. Abbreviate as much as possible and shorten links using a free link shortening service like bit.ly or tiny.cc. You can also engage in conversation. Enter symbol. to Tweet to another Twitter user. For might want to say Hi This Tweet will be sent only if we include its handle with the before it. Reply to Tweeters who Tweet to you by as well. You might also want to mention a company, news organization or friend in your Tweet using symbol. For example, Tweeting MLK Fair today will link s

4 Twitter page, and also that we mentioned it in a Tweet. Tweeters mentions of you help spread word of your account and build your following. Make your Tweets searchable by adding a hashtag to your Tweets. For might want Tweeters searching for Northwestern news to find the Tweet MLK Fair today so, it becomes: MLK Fair today #Northwestern. You can add more hashtags, so long as your Tweet doesn t exceed 140 characters. (More on hashtags: If you like someone s Tweet or want to share it with your followers, you can Retweet his or her Tweet. You can do this either by clicking the Retweet button above that Tweet: Or by copying and pasting the Tweet into your message box with in front of the Tweet. If you choose to modify the Tweet, it would then be followed by the modified Tweet. Sending Private Messages If you d like to send a private message to another user, visit the page of the Tweeter you d like to message. Select send a direct message from the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner.

5 Managing Your Tweets If you catch the Twitter bug, you can manage your Tweets using TweetDeck ( or HootSuite (hootsuite.com). Using Twitter for Job Searching Career Tweeters to Follow This list is ever-growing, but here are a few career-related Tweeters to @Fishdogs Other Resources Twitter Glossary: Twitter 101: