Twitter Handout

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Twitter is an online social networking/microblogging service that allows users to send and receive 140- character messages (Tweets). It's a quick and easy way to read, share, and comment on the latest news (“what’s happening”) related to subjects you care about.

History

Twitter started in 2006 and gained widespread popularity in 2008. The service came about because the founders wanted to find a way to send text messages between computers, much in the same way that they had been sending messages between their mobile phones. They wanted these messages to also be seen on Smartphones, so they used the same protocols as the text messaging (SMS) services provided by AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc.

The mobile phone companies use a control signal that’s 140 characters in length that tells cell phone towers to switch a call from one tower to another as the user moves to different locations (thus the 140 character limit.) When someone sends a Tweet it travels over the Internet and via cell phone towers to reach users on computers, Smartphones, and tablets.

Getting started

Creating an account: 1. Navigate to http://twitter.com/ 2. In the “New to Twitter” box, fill in your full name , email, and password click “Sign up for Twitter.” 3. On the next page, select a username . Try to pick something that describes you - whether it's a nickname, an interest or a hobby. 4. Click “Create my account” 5. You will receive an email asking you to confirm your account. Click the link to confirm.

Intro to Social Media: Twitter Your username is the name your followers use when sending @replies, direct messages, or Retweets. It will also form the URL of your home timeline. Please note: You can change your username in your account settings at any time, as long as the new username is not in use.

Twitter will walk you through a short “orientation”

You will have an opportunity to search for and “follow” people. When you follow people, their tweets will show up in your timeline (more on this later.) You can follow anyone that you like, just do a search and then click the “follow” button next to their name. You can follow businesses or organizations as well.

You can also find people by searching your email contacts (such as Google or Yahoo.) Click on search contacts, and then Twitter

will ask you to sign in to your email account. It will then list all of the Twitter users that are in your contact list. You can skip this step if you prefer to search for people

manually. 2

Intro to Social Media: Twitter Understanding the Twitter interface

On the top left of the Twitter page, you will always see these icons:

Click here to go back to Click here to view Click here to search for your timeline tweets that you are topics that you are involved in interested in following (such as food or politics)

On the top right of the Twitter page, you will always see these icons

Use the search bar to Click here to view direct Click here to compose a find people and topics in messages, lists, help, new tweet Twitter keyboard shortcuts,

settings, or to sign out

Intro to Social Media: Twitter

The Timeline

The Timeline is your homepage on Twitter. It can be accessed at any time by clicking the “Home” icon in the upper left corner of the page. Here you can see, in real time, tweets posted by the people you follow, your followers, as well as your own tweets. You can also see what popular topics are “trending” on Twitter at that moment (more on that later.) You will be notified of This is your profile new tweets at the top of information. your timeline.

Tweets are listed newest to oldest.

These are topics that are popular now (trending).

Updating your profile

Click on the silhouette of the person and then click on “settings”

Account information

Intro to Social Media: Twitter  Here you can view and update the current twitter account information, including your: o Username o Email o Language o Time zone o Tweet location: this option allows the user to allow twitter to track the location of your tweets. If you don’t want users to know the location of your tweets, keep this box unchecked. You can also elect to “delete all local information” of previous tweets by clicking this box:

o Tweet media: some videos may contain sensitive content. If you want your twitter following to see the content (or a preview of the content) check this box. o Tweet privacy: check this box if you only want certain followers/users to see you tweets. o HTTPS: checking this box ensures that your browser has a secure connection.

Password:  Change your password

Mobile:  You can connect your mobile device to your Twitter account with this setting. There is also the option to download the mobile Twitter app for iPhone, iPod, Android, Blackberry, or Windows Phone 7.

Notifications:  You can control how often Twitter notifies you by email when someone sends you a message, includes you in a tweet, when you are followed by someone new, etc. If you don’t want to be notified, leave the boxes unchecked and click “save changes.”

Profile:  Update and change your profile picture, name, location, website, and bio.  Profile pictures must be under 700K, and in the .jpg/.gif/.png file format:

 There is also an option to post tweets to Facebook. That means every time you post a tweet, it will also be sent to your Facebook timeline.

Design:  Twitter allows you to customize the background design of your homepage. You can either choose a premade theme provided by Twitter, browse themes from Themeleon, or customize your own theme. Customize the background color

Customize the background/link color by clicking the colored box, and then5 choose one in the color palate that

you like. You can also define a “web safe” color if you know the letter/number sequence. When you are finished, click “Save changes.” Intro to Social Media: Twitter

Apps:  Apps are 3rd party applications that connect to or access data from your Twitter account. For example, you can automatically share your tweets on Facebook, or tweet whenever you publish a new blog entry. There are a few steps for connecting to a 3rd party application 1. On the website of the application you want to connect, click the button that says something like “Connect to Twitter” or “Authorize ___ to use your account?” 2. You will be re-routed to a Twitter website asking you to log in to your account. Check to make sure it is secure by verifying that the URL starts with http://twitter.com

3. Once you log in, Twitter will ask you to approve the application 4. Review the various permissions you are granting the application. These are listed in green (what the app can do) and in red (what the app cannot do.) 5. Click “authorize app” if you would like to grant permission.

Intro to Social Media: Twitter  You can review/revoke access to apps at anytime

Following and unfollowing It is easy to find and follow people or organizations that you are interested. You can search for individual’s names in the search bar, and then click follow:

The search also shows the top tweets of that particular user.

If you click on the name of the user, you will see the number of tweets this user has, how many people the person is following, as well as the number of

followers.

Intro to Social Media: Twitter

If you click on the silhouette of the person next to the Following box, a few options appear:

1. Tweet to @nameofperson: compose a tweet to this person (it will appear in his/her timeline) 2. Add or remove from lists: create a list of people that have similar interests (such as family or friends) 3. Block @nameofperson: the person won’t be able to find you in a search 4. Report @nameofperson for spam 5. Turn off retweets: (more on this later) 6. To unfollow a person, hover over the ”Following” box and click on “Unfollow.” Their tweets will no longer appear in your timeline

Click on the #Discover button to expand your following list.

There are a few options listed here:

1. Stories: lists recent tweets that you might be interested in based on your tweets, what you link to, as well as who you are currently following. 2. Activity: shows recent followings by your contacts. 3. Who to follow: creates a list of people/organizations to follow based on who you currently follow, your activity, tweets, and likes.

Intro to Social Media: Twitter 4. Find Friends: find friends on Twitter by logging in with your Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail/AOL address. Twitter will search your contacts and indicate who has an account. 5. Browse categories: here you can browse categories that you might be interested in.

Composing Tweets To compose a new tweet, click on the blue box with the pen: This will open a dialog box that you can start typing into.

Remember, you only have 140 characters for each tweet. The dialog box allows you to add an image or location to your tweet as well.

Click here to add an image or location to your tweet

You can determine the location of the tweet by entering it here

Intro to Social Media: Twitter Once you click “Tweet” it will appear at the top of your timeline:

Click the Youtube link to watch the video and the “View photo” link to see the image

Deleting Tweets

To delete a tweet, roll over the bottom of the tweet, and then click “delete:”

Retweeting

If you like something that another Twitter user posted, you can share it with your followers by “retweeting” it.

You can also “favorite” the tweet, which is similar to “liking” something on Facebook. Twitter will customize who to follow, and trending topics (among other things) based on the tweets that you favorite.

Intro to Social Media: Twitter

Sharing media from external websites

Many websites allow you to share media such as images or video with your Twitter account. For example, Flickr has a button that allows sharing of photos:

A dialog box will appear—type something interesting about the photo and then click “Tweet” There is a similar sharing function on Youtube:

Intro to Social Media: Twitter

Hashtags

Hashtags (#) are used to categorize things in Twitter. For example, if you are tweeting about vegetarian cooking and posted a picture, you might end the tweet with the hashtag #vegetarian:

Click on the #vegetarian hashtag to see what else people have been posting in this category. Enter a hashtag or keyword in the search field to find topics that you are interested in:

 If Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet.

Intro to Social Media: Twitter  Don't #spam #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag your Tweets.  Use hashtags on Tweets relevant to the topic.

Linking to and embedding tweets

To link to a specific tweet, click on the time the tweet was composed:

This will bring you to the permalink for that tweet. Copy and paste the URL from your browser. You can also choose to embed the tweet into a blog or a website:

Click on “Embed this Tweet” and a dialog box will appear. Copy and paste the HTML code, shortcode, or link. You can also control the position and text wrapping on the page by justifying it left/right/center.

Intro to Social Media: Twitter

Creating Lists

Lists are specialized Twitter Timelines that focus on specific topics. For example, you might want to have a list dedicated only to film editing. You can create a list and add people (i.e. follow them) who are associated with film editing.

Direct Messages

Intro to Social Media: Twitter A Direct Message is a private message sent via Twitter to one of your followers. People you follow can also send you a message. You cannot send a direct message to a user who is not following you.

@mentions, @replies, interactions

@reply is any update posted to your timeline by clicking on the “reply” button on a tweet. The @reply will always begin with @username.

@mentioning someone in your tweet is kind of like tagging them. To mention someone, type @username anywhere in the body of the tweet. It will become a link so that your followers can learn more about (or follow) that user.

@joedrape was mentioned in this tweet

You can reply to a tweet by clicking here

@mentions, favorites, follows and more on you and your Tweets will appear in the interactions tab in @connect:

Twitter tips

Intro to Social Media: Twitter  When you first create your account, your username (ex: @marthastewart) becomes part of your Twitter URL (http://twitter.com/marthastewart).  Your Twitter URL links directly to your profile page and is the easiest and quickest way for others to find you on Twitter.  Make sure you email this URL out to your fans, and share it whenever you talk about Twitter.  People who go to this URL and sign up for Twitter will start following you automatically. Use this link whenever possible to promote your presence on Twitter and gain more followers!

Make sure you appear in Search  Twitter user search ranks results for every user by name, username, and the bio on your profile.  In order for your account to appear in search results, make sure your username, real name, and bio are all filled out and contain key words that you would like to be associated with your Twitter account.  It is also important to tweet, retweet, and mention regularly to gain resonance amongst your followers so that search results are up to date. o Note that user search results are updated daily, so it may take 1-2 days for any changes to your name, username, to affect results for a given search term.

Find and follow others  It’s best to begin your journey by finding and following other interesting Twitter accounts. Look for businesses you love, public service accounts, people you know, celebrities, or news sources you read.  A good way to find more interesting accounts is see who those you know or admire are following.

Frequently check your account  Messages from others you follow will show up in a readable stream on your homepage timeline. Once you've followed a few people, you'll have a new page of information to read each time you log in. Click links in others' Tweets to view: photos and videos they have posted, the profiles of users mentioned in their message, or Tweets related to a hashtag (#) keyword they used.

Use your mobile device  One of the best things about Twitter is that it’s portable. Connect your account to your mobile phone or download a Twitter application to begin reading Tweets on the go. You can get updates about traffic problems in the middle of your commute, find out what the players are saying while you’re at the game, or catch up on the buzz about an event you’re about to attend. The possibilities are endless!  Using Twitter via SMS allows you to pick and choose which updates you want from those you follow, so you can get mobile updates from the accounts that matter to your life on-the-go.

Build a voice by retweeting, replying, and reacting  Use other people’s tweets to find your own voice and show others what you care about. Retweet messages you particularly connect with, or reply with your reaction to a Tweet you find interesting.  If you're a new user, others are more likely to notice your messages if they are retweets or replies.

Mention others  Consider mentioning other users by their Twitter username (preceded by the @ sign) in your Tweets. Twitter users like being mentioned! Try posting a message mentioning a celebrity or person you admire – they often respond to fans. You’ll see their response on your Mentions tab.

Intro to Social Media: Twitter Resources

Twitter Clients

Rather than go to your account on Twitter.com using a web browser, you may want to use an application on your computer or Smartphone so the Tweets come to you, rather than you having to read them at a website. Some Twitter clients include:

. Twitter (Mac and iPhone/iPad only). Available from the Apple App store . Tweetdeck (Mac and PC).

Dashboards

Social network dashboards allow you to see all of your social network accounts in one place. They also allow you to both create Tweets and to read Tweets posted by others. Some social network dashboards include:

. Hootsuite (Mac and PC) free . Sprout Social (Mac and PC) $100/yr

URL Shortening Services

Sometimes you want to share a link on Twitter but the URL is too long. The solution is to use a URL (web address) shortening service. You simply paste the long URL into the entry field, hit “shorten” and a short-version of your link is created. You can then paste this shortlink into your Tweet. Here are a few recommended services:

. Bitly.com . Google URL Shortener . Tinyurl.com