Using Twitter: iReporting & The National World War II Museum

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking tool that allows you to communicate in 140 characters or less.

To start on Twitter, you must create a Handle which is another term for username. Handles may be as straightforward as “MarySmith” or a company may create one called “WWIIMuseum”. We will be using a Handle titled “WWIIEducation”.

Each time you post your 140 characters or less on Twitter, it is called a Tweet . As you type your Tweet, the character counter will count down for you. There are limits to how much one can tweet. In general, we do not want to tweet more than once an hour until the Grand Opening. During the Grand Opening, we will be tweeting more frequently.

Number of characters remaining

# of Followers, Handles Tweet Following us, and Tweets we have posted

Who uses Twitter?

Individuals, cultural institutions, news sources, politicians and companies have started using Twitter as a way to connect with friends, tell about events, hear about breaking news or to learn about a new product. Why are we using Twitter?

It is a fun, fast and efficient way to report about events , interesting people and breaking news during the Grand Opening at the National World War II Museum. We also use Twitter as a tool to direct our Followers to our blog where people can read and watch your in-depth articles, interviews and projects.

Now let’s get started:

The main objective of Twitter is to share information with a community of people who share a similar interest. As a result, people can choose to Follow each other. We will have people who are following us and they are titled “ Followers .” We will also want to see what other people are tweeting so we will be “ Following ” other tweeters. Who you Follow and who may be Following are mutually exclusive. Just because I choose to Follow WWIIToday, WWIIToday may not choose to Follow me. As a result, there are two different lists- one for Followers and one for those Following . These numbers will often be different.

In order to build exposure about your reporting on Twitter, we are going to want to find people who are interested in WWII, museums or are already connected to the National WWII Museum.

First, we must update our account with a few Tweets so that when others come to look at us, they can see what we are tweeting about. If it’s blank, then the person will see no reason to Follow us.

Now, let’s start Following and find some Followers! What we will do first is find people who we think would be interested in our iReporting, then we will click on Follow. Once they see us Following them, then ideally, they will begin to Follow us and it will increase our Followers.

There are several ways we can find people.

Find on twitter : Type in keywords, Handles or find a person like “WWIIToday” and begin Following who they Follow or are being Followed by.

Find on other networks : It allows you to use your email account to invite people who you are friends with on Gmail, Yahoo and AOL to Follow you on Twitter.

Invite by email : Type in email addresses of friends and Twitter will email them and ask them to join and Follow you.

Word of mouth: Make sure to tell your friends, family and classmates that you will be a reporter for the National WWII Museum and to Follow you on Twitter and your blog.

Suggested Users: Twitter suggests to you people you might want to Follow.

One word of caution before you start Following everyone you can, there is a limit . Twitter will block the account from following Handles if we do not have a certain amount Following us. It is based on a ratio that Twitter applies to each account based on several factors, so there is no hard rule. The bottom line is though, if we are Following 2,000 people and only have 20 Followers, we will be blocked from Following any more people. As a result, we want to make sure we Follow people or Handles that we think are interested in what we will be reporting.

Now let’s Tweet:

Tweeting is how we share information with our Followers. We will be doing it several ways. We will be tweeting at or @ Handles, Retweeting, Direct Messaging and using Hash Marks.

@Handle:

If you want to talk to someone directly and want everyone to see it, type @ and then the persons Handle. When another person tweets @WWIIEducation all of that persons Followers see our Handle. It helps gain exposure to us and people will begin to Follow us.

Example: @WWIIToday

RT @ (Retweet):

If you see a post you like that someone you are Following tweeter, type in “RT@” and then there Handle and copy what they wrote.

DM (Direct Message):

If you would like to talk to someone privately and not publish it to all of your followers, you can DM a tweet. The message goes directly to the person and will not be public.

Hash Marks (#):

On Twitter, people use Hash Marks (#) before a word in order for the Tweet to be seen by anyone interested in the topic. On the right side of the screen, you will see the popular Hash Marks for the day under the title Trending Topic. If one is pertinent, type a tweet use the Hash Mark (for example, #worldwar2) and anyone following that topic will see your Tweet.

Example from WWII Today

Terminology:

Handle : A username one uses to identity an account on Twitter.

Following : These are people you are Following. Their tweets will show up on your homepage. While you may be Following someone, they may choose not to Follow you.

Followers : These are people Following WWIIEducation. You do not necessarily have to Follow them though.

Tweets : It is the 140 characters you type and publish on twitter. It is the same thing as a text message or instant message but renamed.