Teaching Twitter

Who Is Using Twitter? • Genders: (male 47% -- female 53%) • Age (median): 31 • Income: 68% make $60,000 or more a year • Updates: 52% update their status every day • Tweets: About 55 million are sent each day. • Users: 106 million people and rapidly growing3

Why Are People Using Twitter? 30% 10% 12% To let people To provide links Other -- develop a who are following to news and personal brand, learn them know about blog articles to new things, or discover their status their followers reading materials 30% To have a private 6% 3% conversation To discuss politics, To provide links to sports, or current images and videos events 3% 6% To provide links to To give a product other web content recommendation or to make a product4 complaint

What Twitter Terminology Should You Know? • Tweet – When you write and post your 140 characters on Twitter and hit the “Send” button, it’s called a tweet. You can tell people, “I’m going to tweet,” so “tweet” can be used as a noun or a verb. • Handle – This is your Twitter @username, such as @BoveeThill_Blog is one of my Twitter handles. It can be an individual’s name, a company name, or anything you want to make up that isn’t currently in use by someone else using Twitter. • Follow – Adding a person to your list of people you are following, which enables their tweets to show up on your Twitter homepage.5

What Twitter Terminology Should You Know? • Replies – When a person writes a tweet directly to your handle -- @samjones -- this is usually considered an invitation to engage with the follower who sent it to you. All of your followers will see your response when you send a reply. If you want to send a private message, send a DM. • DM – direct message – A message that is sent directly to another user. You can only send direct messages to people who are following you. This is the best way to have a private conversation with someone else. • RT – retweet – When you republish someone else’s tweet, it’s called retweeting. The original tweet along with the author information remain intact. Retweeting is a great way to pass along content to your own followers who you discovered among the people you’re6 following.

What Twitter Terminology Should You Know? • Hashtag – A hashtag is used to categorize posts (tweets) on Twitter according to topics. It’s a way to keep track of multi-party conversations or posts from an event. To add a hashtag to a tweet, you just preface the relevant term with the hash symbol (#), such as #buscommconf. This will allow people to search for tweets on this topic and to see them all. • Timeline – The “timeline” page is the homepage which displays tweets from all the people you are following. • Twitterverse – The “universe” of Twitter7

What Is a Twitter Timeline • When you log in to Twitter, youll land on the timeline view of your homepage.8

How Do You Get Started?9

What Is the Best Way to Use Twitter Effectively? • Focus on quality, not quantity, when you tweet • Make connections with people in your field • Show that you are knowledgeable, and demonstrate your thought leadership. • Use Twitter to get real-time information about an organization, people, products, or a brand. Companies often use Twitter to monitor their products and brands to try and protect them.24

What Is the Best Way to Use Twitter Effectively? • Promote your ideas and your blog posts, if any. • Interact with people. • Proofread. Once a tweet is posted, it cannot be edited. • Learn to use URL shortening tools like Bit.ly and TinyURL, so when you use a URL in your tweet, it takes up a minimal amount of space.25

What Should You Tweet About? • Answer the question, “What has your attention?” • Share links to articles, videos, and websites • Ask questions to stimulate a discussion26

What Should You Tweet About? • Tweet about other people’s material that you see on Twitter, such as another person’s comments, blog post, video, or website • Retweet other people’s useful tweets • Read news tweets27

What Should You Tweet About? • Read or give event updates • Provide live coverage to an event • Crowd-source questions and answers28

Are There Any Twitter Apps? • For a extensively list of more than 250 free Twitter apps, go to • http://www.squidoo.com/ twitterapps and http://twitdom.com • There are desktop apps, web apps, and mobile apps.29

Twitter Apps • Let’s look at just a few: • Tweetdeck – It acts as your desktop dashboard to help you organize your incoming and outgoing tweets. • Tweetgrader – Twitter Grader is a tool that checks the power of your Twitter profile, and your Twitter influence, compared to millions of other users who have been graded • Twitlonger – This is way to let you post to Twitter when 140 characters isn’t enough.30

How Do You Know Who to Follow? • Use the Twitter search engine to find names and brands • Use directories like Twellow.com to find people with interests and hobbies similar to yours31

What Five Tips Will Help You Get Benefits More Using Twitter? • Tweet excellent content as often as possible. • Reply to conversations. • Retweet other people’s content. • Use Twitter search.32

What Are Some Great Advanced Tips for Twitter Users? • Do not use “&” in your Twitter profile. • 125 is the new 140. • Add a period before a tweet. • Use lists. • Set up groups.33

What Are the Most Common Mistakes Twitter Users Make? • Choosing inappropriate usernames • Not completing a bio • Not including a photo • Protecting updates • Carrying on long conversations between two users • Using one account for both personal and business tweets • Posting too many tweets in a short period of time • Not tweeting regularly • Posting the same updates repeatedly or tweeting about inane things34

Why Should You Be Teaching Twitter in Your Business Communication Class? • Twitter can help business people organize meet-ups at a physical location. • Twitter can work well for opinion polling. • Twitter can direct people’s attention to help other people35

Why Should You Be Teaching Twitter in Your Business Communication Class? • Twitter can bring great minds together and provides daily opportunities to learn. • Twitter can augment customer service. • Twitter breaks news faster than other sources.36

Why Should You Be Teaching Twitter in Your Business Communication Class? • Twitter can give critics a forum, but that means you can study them. • Twitter can help with business development, if the prospects are online. • Twitter can be used at events to build an instant backchannel37

Why Should You Be Teaching Twitter in Your Business Communication Class? • Twitter can be used to save money, because many companies make special offers via Twitter. • Twitter provides instant access to what is being said about the Twitter user and the Twitter’s user’s company and brand. • Twitter can be used for finding a job.38

What Businesses Are Using Twitter?39

How Can Twitter Be Used in the Education? • Send a direct tweet to a student • Help classmates get to know each other • Collaborate on projects • Make announcements • Brainstorm • Take a poll • Share websites • Peer feedback50

How Should Twitter Be Integrated into a Textbook?51

What types of assignments will I see in a Bovee and Thill textbook?57

All textbook examples and illustrations of Twitter shown in this presentation were taken directly from Bovee & Thill’s business communication textbooks.65

For a rich array of resources about Twitter, go to Business Communication Headline News, look under “Categories” in the left-hand column, and select microblogging. www.businesscommunicationheadlinenews.com66

For teaching tips and techniques, often about Twitter, social media and electronic communication, go to Bovee & Thill’s blog: www.boveeandthillbusinesscommunication.com67

For more than 175 PowerPoint slideshows on various aspects of business communication, go to Real-Time Updates and select “Instructor Media.”68

Credits Slide 4. The Next Web. "Twitter’s User Demographics Visualised ." http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2010/12/30/twitters-user-demographics-visualised-infographic/ (15 February 2011). Slide 5. Digitalbuzz. "Infographic: The Meteoric Rise Of Twitter ." http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-the-meteoric-rise-of-twitter/ (15 February 2011). Slide 37. Tech n Marketing. "9 Advanced Twitter Tips." http://technmarketing.com/web/9- advanced-twitter-tips/ (15 February 2011). Slide 38. Associated Content. "12 Common and Frequent Mistakes Twitter Users Make (and How to Avoid Them)." http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1987398/12_common_and_frequent_mistakes_made _pg2.html?cat=41 (15 February 2011). Slide 39-42. Chris Brogan. "50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business." http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/ (15 February 2011). Slide 54. University of Wisconsin--Madison. "50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom." https://tle.wisc.edu/solutions/engagement/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom (15 February 2011).69

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Teaching Twitter

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