intro to Twitter

1. Twitter 101
Mihaela Vorvoreanu, Ph.D.
Wh y Tw it te r? a n d H o w to G et St a rted

2. What IS Twitter, anyway?
Micro-blogging tool You follow other
people’s tweets
Post 140-character
messages (tweets) People follow your
tweets
OK to follow people you don’t know
OK to converse with people you
don’t know !

3. “Twitter is stupid”
The
strength
of
weak ties
Photo credits: http://sbm.temple.edu/blogs/cspd/2008/10/13/
the-strength-of-weak-ties/

4. How does it work?
4 main types of
tweets:
1. simple tweet
2.@ reply
3.direct message (DM)
4.retweet (RT)

5. How does it work?
4 main types of
tweets:
1. simple tweet
2.@ reply
3.direct message (DM)
4.retweet (RT)

6. How does it work?
4 main types of
tweets:
1. simple tweet
2.@ reply
3.direct message (DM)
4.retweet (RT)

7. How does it work?
4 main types of
tweets:
1. simple tweet
2.@ reply
3.direct message (DM)
4.retweet (RT)

8. How does it work?
4 main types of
tweets:
1. simple tweet
2.@ reply
3.direct message (DM)
4.retweet (RT)

9. How does it work?
4 main types of
tweets:
1. simple tweet
2.@ reply
3.direct message (DM)
4.retweet (RT)

10. Setting up an account
twitter.com
User name: preferably (related to) your name
Bio: 140 characters; simple, honest; show your
personality
Link: your website or LinkedIn public profile
Photo: informal headshot
Settings & notifications

11. Tweeting alone isn’t fun...
First, follow each other & practice to get the hang
of it and build your account
Post a tweet with a hashtag: #cbshook
Twitter lists - create one, then follow it
search.twitter.com
SLOWLY

12. What should I t weet about?
links: industry news, social observations
analysis, etc.
@ replies: engage
links: entertaining others!
personal/work RT’s
updates
good questions
your interesting/
unique/funny take on
things

13. @ replies
Give: Build:
attention conversations
sympathy/ relationships
understanding
advice
support

14. Bad Twitter habits:
Too much of one thing
Aggressive selling & promotion
Automated or only one-way feeds, no @’s
Too much mundane information
Negativity, bashing
Bad spelling & grammar

15. Links & Photos
Links Photos
Use URL shorteners Use photo services
such as bit.ly, ow.ly, such as twitpic, yfrog,
etc. etc.

16. The dark side of Twitter
Spammers
Bots
Don’t follow/unfollow
Block & report
Security: Strong password!

17. Twitter clients
Computer: iPhone:
Twhirl TweetDeck
TweetDeck Tweetie 2
Seesmic
Echofon
Brizzly (Web)
Blackberry:
Tweetie (Mac only)
UberTwitter
Twitterrific (Mac only)

18. “Homework”
Tweet amongst yourselves :)
Bring questions for next session