Getting started with twitter may 2010

Getting started with Twitter a guide for beginners Huib Koeleman, May2010

Negative views on twitter
It takes time
You can’t twitter at work
Twitter contributes to information overload
Twitter is a techno nerds hobby.
Twitter cannot be controlled
Twitter doesn’t replace email
Twitter makes the organisation vulnerable

Positive views on twitter
Twitter makes interesting items visible
Twitter helps to get feed-back after a meeting
Twitter is faster than any other channel
Twitter makes it easy to organise meetings
Twitter is great for polls and surveys
Twitter unites people who want to share knowledge
Twitter offers a forum

What is your aim with twitter?
Contact friends and family?
Know what’s going on in the world?
Share knowledge and keep in touch with colleagues?
Tips
In the case of 1 and 2 you can use a fun name and an avatar
In the case of 3 you better use your real name, so people can find you. It makes you more trustworthy (and it prevents other people from using your name)
Don’t use dots, spaces or comma’s . The shorter the name the better

How to start a twitter account
Full Name: use your full name. (Search machines can find you now)
Username: The name that pops up at the twitter screen Tip: keep it short and simple
Web: your website, or your LinkedIn web address

Make it easy to be found! Use “settings” & “profile”
Use a recognizable picture with a smile (max 700k). It makes you reliable (cartoons can be fun, but not for business purposes, logos make it impersonal)
Bio: the more words/tags you write down, the easier you can be found. Use words like ‘project manager’, ´communication’, ‘infrastructure’, (check the examples on the tweepguide),
Location: the place where you live or work

How do I find friends and interesting people to follow?
Type at “Find People” the name of a person you know. If the right person appears, follow that person by clicking the follow-button (the +)
Google can help too; just search for a name, in combination with “twitter”
Other sources:
Search the twitter web with # (hashtag) on keywords. That’s a great way to find people with the same interests.
Look at www.tweepz.com . It searches biographies on key words
Or follow the original source of a retweeted message

By clicking the word “profile” you can see your own tweets

In the field “what ’ s happening” you can leave your tweet in 140 characters (and click on “tweet”)
And if you want to reply.... Click on “reply” and write your answer.
If you want to share a message click on “retweet” (you can also copy and paste, and add your own comment)

The twitter language
Follower: someone who follows you and gets all your messages on screen
Reply: reply on an older message
D (or direct message) a reply on an older message that’s not public. Only the other respondent can read it. (Direct messages are only possible when you follow a person)
RT: retweet, to copy that interesting message you’ve received to your own followers
#: hashtag. You use it for a key word. When other tweeters click the hashtag, they can see all the messages using that same key word.
Listed: you can list the people you follow (work, friends, et cetera). NB you can choose to follow lists of other tweeters , and they can follow your lists.

Hashtag #
A label you use to tag a topic, some examples #ashtag: everything about the ashcloud #internalcomms: internal communication
If you want to follow a discussion on hastags? Use www.twubs.com
Don’t invent your own hashtag. Check twubs.com first. It prevents twitter space from having different hastags for the same item
Twitterfall helps you to get recent information on a hashtag, it will show every new tweet that is posted
If the topic doesn’t have a hashtag, try search.twitter.com, Twazzup or Tweetgrid to find tweets on a certain topic

When you click @name (“mentions”) you can see all messages that mention your twitter name (repl ie s on one of your tweets, but also other discussions)
You can also find one-on-one messages clicking “direct messages”.

What kind of messages should you tweet?
Basic questions
“ What are you doing?, What are you working on?, What strikes you?
But also:
Links to interesting documents, blogs or sites (also your own blog or site)
Opinions on (work related) topics, don’t forget to use the #hashtag, if you do, so other people can find your opinion when they don’t follow you yet
Ask your followers questions (or ask the whole world question s , using #daretoask)

Codes
Twitter is a friendly environment
Your followers don’t like negativism. If they don’t like what you write they will “unfollow”. And if you don’t like what you read, you can do the same
When you retweet, or quote somebody, let him or her know by using @with the name of the person

Paper.li helps you to have an overview of your tweets

Some suggestions
Your tweets are visible for everybody in the whole world, EVERYBODY. Even when you retweet to a message. That’s a big difference to email.
The group of people you choose to follow, doesn’t have to be exactly the same group of people that follows you.
Check “mentions” on a regular base, otherwise you don’t see the messages from people who are not on your list of people you follow
Following famous people can be fun, but don’t expect them to react on your messages. Real communication takes place between you and your friends/colleagues

Some suggestions (2)
Links to articles, blogs and sites are great for sharing knowledge
Attach pictures or videos. They draw a lot of attention
You only have 140 characters. Use TinyURL to make links tiny
Don’t expect to have 100 followers in two weeks’ time. It takes more time for the right people to find you.
Using twitter costs time and energy. If you don’t want to spend that time, don’t start twitter.

Some suggestions (3)
5 to 5 rule. To be of any interest to others you should post at least 5 messages a week. To prevent overload, you shouldn’t tweet more than five messages a day
Reply on tweets of others
And if it ’ s a private matter: use “direct message”
And… you don’t have to read everything.

Monitoring
Monitor if other tweeters use your name (@name), or use Search.twitter.com, CoTweet.com or Hootsuite.com to discover how they talk about you or your company
Or use Twanalyst, Twitalyzer or Twittergrader to find out what kind of tweeter you are.

And if you are an organisation
Find out if your target group uses twitter.
Start monitoring, organise a web care team
What’s your PR- or marketing-strategy? What role can twitter play in that strategy?
Start one or more accounts to tweet
Use your website and blogs to mention your twitter address and the other way around
And keep tweeting

An astonishing amount of time is being wasted on investigating the amount of time being wasted on social networks.

Sources
Blogs and articles on my website (some in English, some in Dutch) www.twitterenopjewerk.nl
My followers and all the people who joined me in discussions
Follow me at twitter.com/huibkoeleman
In Dutch:
“ Aan de slag met twitter”, Paulus Veltman
“ Strategisch Twitter & Yammer”, Savitri Changoe, Furoz Ramanand, Christel van Capelleveen, Christel van Capelleveen
“ Zakelijk Twitteren”, Saskia de Laat

http://www.slideshare.net/huib.koeleman/twitter-at-work-social-media-and-employee-communications

Getting started with twitter may 2010

by Huib Koeleman on May 25, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 42

Statistics

Getting started with twitter may 2010 — Presentation Transcript