Twitter for Beginners

Transcription

1 Twitter for Beginners Class Description: Interested in learning about Twitter? This class will provide an overview of what Twitter is, how to set up a Twitter account, and how to use Twitter. Class Length: 2 hours Objectives: Class Schedule Learn how to set up a Twitter account. Have a basic understanding of the purpose of Twitter. Learn how to use Twitter to communicate. Setting up a Twitter Account o Handle o Profile Picture o Profile Bio Twitter Dashboard o Home o Me How to Tweet o Tweet o Retweet o Reply o Hashtags Who to Follow o #Discover

2 What is Twitter? Twitter is a communication tool that allows you to send messages to your friends, colleagues or acquaintances that use Twitter. Tweets or messages are 140 characters or less. Why use Twitter? Twitter is often used to create ambient awareness. Ambient awareness is the term used to describe the constant contact and communication that occurs between friends and colleagues via social networking sites such as Twitter. It is a new social awareness that allows you to be aware of another individual s life without actually being physically near the person. It also is used as an outlet for sharing news and for commentary on different topics. It provides breaking news coverage and a forum for many business and professional conversations. It can be a great resource for networking within a career field and conversing with other professionals in your field around the world. The discussion on Twitter is less about What are you doing? and more about What is going on? Uses for Twitter: 1. Ambient Awareness 2. Professional Communication 3. Breaking news 4. Sharing news and commentary When You Sign Up Your profile on Twitter is available to the public, so it is important for you to think about how you are representing yourself through your Twitter Handle, profile picture, and profile bio. A Twitter Handle is your user name and can say a lot about you and how you use Twitter. It can be viewed by the public, so you may not want to use your full name if you are concerned about privacy. The handle always starts with symbol to indicate a

3 Your Profile Picture represents who you are on Twitter, so you want to make sure your picture matches what you are interested in doing on Twitter. If you are conversing with other professionals, a professional picture is appropriate. If you are concerned about privacy, a graphic avatar or image is a good option for protecting your privacy. Your Profile Bio is a quick one or two line description of who you are. It gives a quick description of your character and your purpose on Twitter. Setting up a Twitter Account It is easy to set up a Twitter account. You must have an account in order to have a Twitter account. This is true of many social networking sites. 1. Go to the address box and type in This will take you to the Twitter home page. 2. On the home page, it will ask you to either sign in or to sign up for a new account. 3. Simply type in your name, , and choose a password. 4. Click Sign up for Twitter.

4 The Twitter Dashboard Top Navigation Bar: Use the links to navigate to the #Discover, and Me tabs. Here is a quick view of your twitter statistics. Tweets: how many tweets you ve tweeted Following: the total number of people you follow Followers: the total number of people following you. Twitter suggestions of who to follow based on your interests. The Timeline The timeline shows you all the most recent Tweets from people you follow. Trends are the most talked about topics on Twitter at the moment.

5 Profile or Me Page The left navigation pane allows you to move between different views on your Me page. This is your public profile with your name, handle, profile picture, and brief bio. Tweets: What you have tweeted in the past Following: List of everyone you follow Followers: List of everyone who follows you Direct message button and button to edit profile. Favorites: Tweets that you have marked as favorite. Click on the star icon on a tweet to favorite it. Lists: You can create lists to organize your followers or people you follow into groups. Suggestions from Twitter on who you might be interested in following.

6 How to Tweet Tweeting is how you join the conversation on Twitter. You can tweet with other professionals, friends, or even celebrities. 1. On the Twitter homepage, you can Tweet by typing your update in the tweet box just below your name or by clicking on the Tweet button from any page. 2. Remember to keep your tweets to 140 characters or less. Twitter counts the characters for you to keep you from going over the limit. You can use abbreviations to keep your sentences short. 3. Click the Tweet button when you are ready to post. Your tweet will immediately appear in the Timeline. Twitter counts the number of characters you use. This tweet is 41 characters. Tweet Shortening Tips Use abbreviations. Leave out punctuation. Use numerals. Use + instead of and Use tinyurl.com or bit.ly to shorten your URLs. What to Tweet Personal Updates Observations Questions Comments on news or events Links to articles or websites Quotes Photos How to Retweet Retweeting is a bit like forwarding an . It allows you to re-post other people s tweets so that your followers can read them. 1. Hover your cursor over the tweet you want to retweet and click Retweet. 2. A pop-up window will appear. Click Retweet. 3. A green arrow appears in the upper right corner to show that it has been retweeted. This tweet now will appear in your follower s timelines with your name attached to it.

7 How to Reply to a Tweet Replying to a tweet is just like replying to an . It sends the tweet back to the person who sent it, but unlike , replying is still publicly viewed. 1. Hover your cursor over the tweet you want to reply to and click Reply. 2. The tweet will expand and give you a window in the box. If you are replying to a tweet, you must always have the person s handle with in front to indicate who you are sending it two. You can send tweets to multiple people by listing their handles. 3. When you a finished writing your reply, click Tweet. Hashtags A hashtag is a word or phrase prefixed by the symbol #. They provide a means for grouping messages that have the same hashtag (Wikipedia). For example, if a group of people are discussing a topic such as Syria, they might use the hashtag #Syria. You can search hashtags to find out what people are talking about and click on hashtags in a tweet to see the entire conversation. It is a system for organizing tweets on the same or similar subjects together. When you tweet, you can make up your own hashtags. You can either include the hashtag in your tweet or add them at the end of your page allows you to view your conversations and interactions with other Twitter users. Interactions: Interactions shows which of your Tweets have been favorited or retweeted. It also shows you any new followers and tweets directed at your through replies or mentions. Mentions: Mentions only shows your replies and mentions.

8 Who to Follow On Twitter you can follow people you know, celebrities, news, companies or professional contacts. When you follow people on Twitter, their updates appear in your timeline in real time. You can find contacts in several different ways. The #Discover tab helps you to find hot topic conversations and people on Twitter. It gives you suggestions on Who to Follow, helps you to find friends based on your accounts, and gives you a listing of the most popular accounts based on subject area. You can also find users by name by searching for them in the Search bar at the top of the page. Once you find someone you are interested in following, simply click the Follow button and you will immediately begin receiving updates from their feed. You can manage who is following you or who you are following by going to the Me page. If you click on Followers or Following, it will list all of your contacts in the timeline on the right. If you wish to unfollow anyone on your list, simply click the blue following button and Twitter will unfollow you from that person s list.

9 Works Cited: GCFLearnFree.org (2013). Twitter 101. Available online at: Schaumburg Township District Library (2012). Twitter 101. Available online at: