A discussion of what makes a good tweet, some ideas for how scholastic media can use Twitter, how to schedule tweets and how to analyze success using Twitter.

1. ANALYZING
SUCCESS
TWITTER AND YOUR WEBSITE
BY BRADLEY WILSON, Ph.D.
@bradleywilson09

2. THE PURPOSE OF POSTING
ANYTHING ONLINE, ESPECIALLY ON A
SOCIAL NETWORK SUCH AS TWITTER,
IS TO EITHER PROVOKE THOUGHT OR
A RESPONSE.
NICK LEWIS
AUTHOR, “7 THINGS THAT MAKE FOR A GOOD TWEET ON TWITTER”
TWITTER

3. TWITTER

4. TWITTER

5. Popular brands on Twitter include Starbucks, Apple and Victoria’s Secret.
As of August of 2018, the most popular Twitter account was @Katyperry,
who had amassed more than 106.8 million followers.
She was followed by Justin Bieber and Barack Obama.
Number of Twitter users in the United States
as of second quarter 2018 • Statista
TWITTER

6. Pew Research Center
Source: Survey conducted March 7-April 10, 2018 “Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018”
YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are
the most popular online platforms among teens
TWITTER

7. NEWS

8. NEWS
Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat have grown
since 2016 in portion of users
who get news on each site
Pew Research Center
SOURCE: Sept. 5, 2017

9. NEWS
Social media sites
as pathways to news
Pew Research Center
SOURCE: Survey Aug. 8-21, 2017

10. 6,000 TWEETS ARE SENT EVERY
SECOND, ABOUT 350,000 EVERY
MINUTE, ABOUT 200 BILLION PER
YEAR.
TWITTER USAGE STATISTIC
http://www.internetlivestats.com/twitter-statistics/
TWITTER

11. THAT’S A LOT
OF TWEETSHTTP://WWW.INTERNETLIVESTATS.COM/ONE-SECOND/#TWEETS-BAND

12. TWITTER
A GOOD TWEET
▸ Call to action
▸ Salient message
▸ Mention
▸ Hashtag
▸ URL
▸ Image

13. EVERY WEEK A NEW PERSON GETS
TO TWEET THROUGH THE TWITTER
ACCOUNT @SWEDEN.
CURATORS OF SWEDEN
http://curatorsofsweden.com/about/
TWITTER

14. IDEA
TWEET A
PHOTO A DAY

15. IDEA
PROMOTE
PHOTO SALES
ON SMUG MUG

16. @bradleywilson09
1,670 Followers
@chiefdavidbrown
68,700 Followers
@acisdjournalism
67 Followers
@archercityisd
632 Followers
cepb
ers
@bowienew
1,453 Followers
@msute
9,496 Follo
srecordnews
335 Followers
@achs_yearbook
57 Followers
@uilciande
1,504 Followers
@short
X Followers
@schoolnewspaper
2.632 Followers
@championsjourna
418 Followers
@decaturjournal
276 Followers

17. BE ONLINE 24/7.
(OR MAKE THEM THINK YOU ARE.)
SCHEDULING

18. TWEET DECK
TWEETDECK.TWITTER.COM

19. TWEET DECK
TWEETDECK.TWITTER.COM

20. TWITTER SCHEDULING

21. HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS
IN A SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD?
ANALYTICS

22. TOP TWEET

23. TOP TWEET

24. OUR MOTTO
Fair.
Accurate.
First.
WE WERE THE GATEKEEPERS.
WE SET THE AGENDA.

25. TEXT

26. OUTCOME

27. TWITTER ANALYTICS

28. TOP TWEET

29. TWITTER ANALYTICS

30. TWITTER ANALYTICS

31. WEBSITE ANALYTICS

32. WEBSITE ANALYTICS

33. WEBSITE ANALYTICS

34. 12 | COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY | a publication of the Journalism Education Association SUMMER 2016
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
STYLEBOOK
Twitter A microblogging platform
that allows users to post updates
of up to 140 characters to their
followers. They can also share
photos or video as well as links to
outside content. The verb is to tweet,
tweeted. A Twitter message is known
as a tweet.
reply On Twitter, an @ reply is a
common technique to speak to
other people directly. A tweet that
begins with @username can be
seen in Twitter feeds by people who
follow both parties though it can
also be viewed on an individual’s
profile page. Example: @APStylebook
I need help with a style question.
retweet The practice, on Twitter, of
sharing a tweet by someone else
to your followers. Users can either
click on a retweet button to simply
relay the tweet exactly as written
and labeled as coming from the
original tweeter or use the informal
conventions of “RT @username”: at
the beginning, or “via @username”
at the end, to share the tweet, which
allows the user to edit and/or add
comment.
tweet A public message of up to 140
characters on Twitter. Also usable as
a verb: to tweet.
Wording matters
“Helpful wording heuristics include adding more information,
making one’s language align with both community norms and with
one’s prior messages, and mimicking news headlines.”
• Ask people to share.
• Be informative.
• Be like the community, and be true to yourself.
• Imitate headlines.
• Use words associated with successful retweets.
• Include positive and/or negative words.
• Refer to other people (but not your audience).
• Generalize.
• Make it easy to read.
From conference proceedings: “The effect of wording on message propagation: Topic- and author-con-
trolled natural experiments on Twitter” by Chenhao Tan, Lillian Lee, Bo Pang, May 2014
The purpose of posting anything online, especially on
a social network such as Twitter, is to either provoke
thought or a response.
NICK LEWIS, AUTHOR, “7 THINGS THAT MAKE FOR A GOOD TWEET ON TWITTER”
Use a hashtag to make
your tweet easy
to find.
Link to a story on
your website for more
information.
Include a high-quality
visual to make your
tweet stand out.
Keep your tweet short,
about 100 characters
by using active
verbs and valuable
information.
TWITTER
If you’d like a handout on
Twitter, bring me your USB
drive or email me.
Or DM me on Twitter.
@bradleywilson09
QUESTIONS
COMMENTS
YOUR SUGGESTIONS

35. By Bradley Wilson, PhD
bradleywilson08@gmail.com
@bradleywilson09