Twitter Chats: Tools, Tips. & Techniques in Higher Ed

1. Twitter Chats: Tools, Tips, and Techniques in Higher Ed Inside Online Learning #IOLchat Tweet along! #IOLchatESMS
2. Why start a Twitter chat? What's the Value? •Students - Access & Availability o Host an open discussion with a special guest. o Meet online students in a different environment: you're hip with hashtags! •Educators & Schools - o Deepen relationships with existing network o Expand your influence to a new network o Commit to learning more about your role in education.
3. Maintain the momentum • Decide on your goal. o What do you want to accomplish? o Keep it simple. • Give your chat structure. o Pick a format. o Remember tone. o Remember your brand. o Be flexible
4. Standing Out in the Crowd
5. Promote your chat Pick the perfect hashtag •#IOLchat_edSocialMediaSummit •#IOLESM2013 •#IOLchatESMS Introduce your chat to the world! • Set up a landing page on your site • Write a blog post • Send an invite • Tweet about it!
6. Researching & Selecting Topics Participant input Current events, trends, issues Common questions, concerns
7. Creating Questions Format Options: Q&A, Open Mic, Guest Hosts, Special Events Foster an Exchange: • Ideas and opinions • Recommendations and lessons learned • More than Yes/No response
8. Finding Support Materials Web-based | Current Relevant (topic and point of view) • Type: Academic research, News • Media: Presentations, Podcasts, Graphics • Voice: Students, educators, administration
9. Facilitating Conversation Positive Environment Look for: o RTs, @Replies o Follow-up questions o Shared resources Chat Report & Transcripts Before - During - After Checklist [PDF] http://bit.ly/14NDAGA
10. Facing Potential Challenges • Spam • Hijacking • Technology Issues
11. Attracting Participants Using Twitter Searches and Simply Measured •Search for keywords that deal with your chat and interact with accounts about the topic. •Run a Simply Measured free Twitter report to search your followers' bios for keywords.
12. Twitter Searches
13. Simply Measured
14. Simply Measured
15. Simply Measured
16. Simply Measured
17. Searching Your Follower's Bios
18. Target Chat List This list will help you interact with the right people leading up to your chat.
19. Using Your Chat Hashtag in Conversations and Shares
20. Other Social Media Networks Google Plus Facebook
21. Contact Us! Laura Milligan, Managing Editor @LauraMilli Melissa Venable, Education Writer and Chat Moderator @Melissa_Venable Raheel Ramzanali, Social Media Manager @The_Raheel OnlineCollege.org @OC_org

Editor's Notes

Polls & Surveys Blog, Facebook, Twitter comments, etc. Reading, reading, reading... Use Google Drive Spreadsheet to plan ahead - coordinate among our team members. <<Note several private chat tools in case asked>>

Format: Pre-set questions Q1) - Q5) ... Invite promotion *Guests very popular! Participate in special events - conferences (Sloan-C, NCDA), Open Education Week, Connected Educators Month ... ask to be added to main calendar, use additional hashtags, choose relevant topic. Exchange: Not unlike planning for class discussion or meeting agenda - what is the goal of the session? Tone can also vary from "water cooler" (chance to share frustration, ideas, encouragement) to "workshop" (topic coverage, take-aways)

Provide a mix of items as "read-aheads" to help participants prepare - get an idea of where you would like the discussion to focus. Scholarly research journals, multimedia options, multiple perspectives Student and educator blogs <<Recent Example>>>

Welcome and Introductions help set a positive, encouraging tone Find a way to filter hashtag / monitor effectively - tools available like TweetChat Be ready to prompt the discussion - follow-up questions, feed off of the energy of the group to encourage more input and even the direction they want to take the topic. Wrap-up report as a blog post helps to document the conversation - we include: bullet lists of summarized tweets, links that were included/shared, our read-ahead resources, scrolling feed - live and recorded Also allows you to extend the event, the conversation, the connections ... <<We're Tweeting out the PDF link - also posting on our site>>

Potential challenges - going off topic (personal tangents), take overs- being hijacked for promotion, spam Spam Tweets - we haven't seen a lot of this, but it does happen, especially with the larger chats can be annoying like these examples or worse - ... encourage participants to "report as spam" - may have to make a quick move to another hashtag. Hijacking - a legitimate participant in your chat tries to take advantage of the opportunity for self-promotion of a product or website, for example, or to take the convo on a specific tangent - not where the rest of the group is ... similar techniques to a class discussion to get them back on track, ask specific question "call on" Technology Issues - it happens: lose Internet connection, filter you are using stops working, Twitter over capacity etc... Unexpected Events - big Apple announcement, breaking news, etc.

This is a great tool to help you filter through your Twitter followers. Before this I would load all my followers and hope that Twitter or my browser wouldn't crash. The site is also very simple to use. Just go to SimplyMeasured.com and click on the Free report

SimplyMeasured offers a bunch of free reports that you can use for all your social media accounts, but for Twitter chats, the Free Twitter Follower Report is the best since it puts all your data into an excel file.

Feel free to tweet question to us and we will answer them

Twitter Chats: Tools, Tips. & Techniques in Higher Ed

You are reading a preview.

Twitter Chats: Tools, Tips. & Techniques in Higher Ed

More Related Content

Similar to Twitter Chats: Tools, Tips. & Techniques in Higher Ed

Featured

Related Books

Related Audiobooks