Technology thrills SBDC Thursday

Understanding Twitter

Why tweet?

Online content is powerful

90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know, with 70% trusting the opinions

posted online by unknown users

Source: Neilsen’s Global Online Consumer Survey

Twitter

• Microblogging service that allows its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters – known as tweets

• Has over 300 million users ! • As of March 2011 there are 140 million tweets

posted daily • Demographics: Women – 53% • Average age for users on twitter – 39

Home is where you view Tweets from

the people you have chosen to follow.

The new Connect section is where you get in on the conversation.It’s the place to see who has followed or mentioned you, retweeted or favorited one of your Tweets.

Discover lets you tap into a stream of useful and entertaining information, customized just for you.When you use Discover, you’ll see results reflecting your interests—based on your current location, what you follow and what’s happening in the world. As you use Twitter more, Discover gets even better at serving up more content just for you.Whatever you’re curious about, Discover will help you find out more. Made for you | Find more | Who to follow | Find friends | Browse interests

Your profile, others can tweet directly to you and view your lists, favorites,

followers, photos and more.

Twitter terminology

Tweet

Tweet: 140 characters or fewer, and share interesting information with the world.

You can upload photos, add your location and link to videos, news stories and more.

• How to tweet:– Log in to your Twitter account– Type your Tweet into the box at the top of your screen (shown in

image 1, below), OR click the blue compose new Tweet button at the top of your screen - it looks like this:

– Click the Tweet button to post the Tweet to your profile. – You will immediately see your Tweet in the timeline on your

homepage – Everyone who follows you on twitter will be able to see it

How to tweet: • Via twitter website• Via third party

applications • Via phone (First, set up your

phone to link to your Twitter account, then simply send your message as a text to your appropriate Twitter short code.)

Communicating with particular tweeps

Mention• Once you've signed up and chosen a Twitter

username, you and others can mention an account in your Tweets by preceding it with the @ symbol, eg: "Glad your shipment arrived @janesmith!“

Message• If you want to privately Tweet to a particular user

who's already following you, start your Tweet with DM or D to direct-message them, eg: "DM @joesmith234 what is your order number?"

Retweet

• When you see a Tweet by another user that you want to share, click Retweet below it to forward it to your followers instantly.

• You can also Retweet by writing RT @username ORIGINAL MESSAGE

Timeline• A timeline is a Twitter term used to describe a collected

stream of Tweets listed in real-time order. This brief article explains a little more about where you see timelines on your Twitter account.

• When you log in to Twitter, you'll land on the Tweets timeline view of your homepage.

• Your home timeline is a long stream showing all Tweets from those you have chosen to follow on Twitter.

• Newest updates are at the top. You can interact with Tweets from within the Tweets timeline by hovering your mouse over an update to reply, retweet, or favorite

• Clicking anywhere on a Tweet in your timeline expands the Tweet, so you can see photos, videos, and profile information related to that message.

Hashtagseg: "Check out our new products for the Fallhttp://t.co/link2 #fallsale" Think

of hashtags as the theme of your Tweet

• People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet

to categorize those Tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search

• Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets

in that category

• Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet

• If you Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a

search for that hashtag may find your Tweet

• Don't #spam #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag a single Tweet. (Best

practices recommend using no more than 3 hashtags per Tweet.)

• Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic

• The third party site hashtags.org offers an overview of popular hashtags

used on Twitter. Find out about trends, look at small, pretty graphs, and

search to see if the hashtags of your fantasies exist.

• Follow: Following someone on Twitter means:• You are subscribing to their Tweets as a follower• Their updates will appear in your Home timeline• That person has permission to send you direct

messages

Followers: Tweeps that are following you

Lists: Twitter users can organize others into groups, or “lists”. When you click to view a list, you'll see a stream of Tweets from all the users included in that group. This article will help you get started with some lists basics.Favorites:ConnectThe Connect tab lets you view Interactions, Mentions, recent Follows and Retweets. Using the Connect tab you're able to view who has favorited or retweeted your Tweets, who has recently followed you, and all of your @replies and @mentions.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/81218-how-to-link-from-your-website-to-your-twitter-account

Widgets

• Profile Widget• Display your most recent Twitter updates on any webpage.• Search Widget• Displays search results in real time! Ideal for live events,

broadcastings, conferences, TV Shows, or even just keeping up with the news.

• Faves Widget• Show off your favorite tweets! Also in real time, this widget

will pull in the tweets you've starred as favorites. It's great for moderation.

• List Widget• Put your favorite tweeps into a list! Then show 'em off in a widget.

Also great for moderation.

Other ways of using twitter

• Advertising on Twitter– Promoted tweets – Promoted Trends– Promoted Accounts

Best Practices• Set it up right – add a picture, add a background, add a description of

who you are and what you will be tweeting about • Include your website URL and location • Listen and engage with others • Look for people talking about you, your company, your industry –

connect with them • Share your company’s journey • Share your experience/knowledge – what will others benefit from • Be yourself• Introduce your tweeps to others • Tale advantage of twitter search

Best Practices- from twitterBuild your following, reputation, and customer's trust with these simple practices:• Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better,

give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them!

• Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products.• Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you

are listening.• Respond. Respond to compliments and feedback in real time• Reward. Tweet updates about special offers, discounts and time-sensitive deals.• Demonstrate wider leadership and know-how. Reference articles and links about

the bigger picture as it relates to your business.• Champion your stakeholders. Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted by

your followers and customers.• Establish the right voice. Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and of

course, a likable tone from your business, but think about your voice as you Tweet. How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community?

• Fly.twitter.com• Hootsuite• Tweet deck• Cotweet• Seesmic • Kissmetrics, • Bitly• Klout• TweetAdder• Tweepi• Socialmention• Twitter counter• Twitalyzer• Tweet grader• Tweet reach• Twitterfall

Group exercise

• Let’s tweet• Let’s follow each other • Let’s learn • Ask questions