Basics on Twitter use for burgeoning museums, galleries and arts orgs.

1. To tweet or not to tweet?

2. Need to know stuff
• Twitter is an online message subscription service.
• Twitter is free.
• Individual messages are called ‘tweets’.
• Registered users can read and post tweets, but
unregistered users can only read them.
• Users access Twitter through the website
interface, SMS, or mobile device app.
• Users subscribe to other peoples’ conversations
by ‘following’ them.
• You can interact with tweets in a number of ways:
replying, retweeting and favouriting.

4. A Twitter account can be used to:
• circulate your news;
• support partner organisations and their
events;
• participate in general arts and cultural
conversations;
• and to provide twitter streams from
professional development and major cultural
events.

5. The anatomy of a tweet
• Tweets are a mini messages of 140 characters.
• There are two parts of a tweet which are integral
to sending one: the handle or address, and the
message.
• Tweets can carry photos and web addresses (urls)
to other things on the internet.
• Links are auto-generated using a link shortening
facility.
• All attachments to a tweet count in the 140
character limit.

6. Handles
• @MGNSW is a twitter handle
• It identifies you, locates you, and functions
like an email address or an url.
• Several handles can be added to a tweet to
send your message to multiple recipients.
Good morning @MGNSW @GoGogirl
@Yourmuseum, welcome to our ABC of
Twitter!

7. • Handles are used as in-tweet text to save
characters.
Type this:
It was a pleasure to meet @yourmuseum
at the seminar today.
instead of this:
It was a pleasure to meet ‘Your Museum’ at
the seminar today. @yourmuseum

8. Hashtags

9. • Hashtags are really useful – they help you find
things.
• You can create hashtags yourself or follow
trending ones. Use the search bar to find
them.
• Hashtags are most effective in conversations
about current issues with multiple parties.
• They are essential in creating or participating
in a twitter stream used at conferences and
live events.
• A twitter stream is aimed at circulating the
main points or the essence of a presentation
and sharing these with your followers.

10. Hashtags can be used just for fun.
• This @MGNSW seminar has made my day
#drearyseminars #letmegohome

11. Rules of engagement for hashtags
• Get a grip! No more than 2 per tweet.
• Ensure they relate to an event or a trending
topic.
• Don’t let them get lost: be accurate in
transcribing them.
• Use the hashtag to replace the name of the
event rather than adding it at the end.
It was a pleasure to meet @yourmuseum
at #ABCseminar today.

12. • Hashtags are written without spaces or
any special characters. Anywhere.
• Some hashtags are designed for
readability, graphic presentation etc. but
this makes no difference to the way they
are stored and retrieved by a server.
In Twittersphere: #MGimagine = mgimagine =
MGIMAGINE = mgImAgInE

13. The good, the bad and the ugly
Good: #MGimagine
Good: #ArtPower
Bad: #MGareawesomeevenifitstrue
Bad: #MGNSWrocks
Ugly: Don’t use #wonderful #beautiful
#loveit unless you are deliberately being
#funny.
Yes: Am loving the #ABCseminar today
@MGNSW
No: Am loving the ABC Twitter seminar
today @MGNSW #ABCseminar

14. Retweeting, replying, favouriting
• Retweeting: passing on a message from one
set of followers to another.
• It’s viewed as polite and generous and it will
earn you friends.
• Twitter automatically adds ‘RT’ meaning
retweet when you hit the retweet button. This
lets others know you are passing something
on from one source to another.

15. • Its OK to modify the content of the tweet to
say something as long as you don’t change
the meaning or remove critical info.
Original tweet: Stars + Stripes American Art of
the 21st Century from the Goldberg Collection
opens tonight at 8pm @BRAG bit.ly/1wIqMMn
Our retweet: This is a great show, we’ll be
there! RT Stars + Stripes opens tonight at 8pm
@BRAG bit.ly/1wIqMMn

16. • To reply use the return arrow.
• Replying means the message goes back to the
sender and can be seen by everyone!
• It’s the way conversations are generated.
• Favouriting adds the tweet to your
notifications so others can see it.
• It’s an excellent way of supporting things that
have been widely circulated, or when you are
in a hurry or have nothing else to say.

17. • Don’t confuse replying with direct message.
• Direct messages are ‘private’ messages and
are accessed using the cog icon.
• You can only send a direct message to
someone who follows you.

18. Twitter niceties
• DON’T USE ALL CAPS. PEOPLE THINK YOU ARE
SHOUTING AT THEM!
• Know and understand that Twitter is a public
forum; be mindful of what you say and what
you imply.
• @MGNSW would love to connect with you via
Twitter – if you are starting off, why not follow
us and copy, replicate what we are doing until
you get the hang of it.

19. If you touch on a sensitive issue, or manage
to attract a stalker, best practice is to:
• Apologise for any offence caused, then,
• Keep quiet for a while and let it pass.
• Time is your ally in all things social media
and currency is critical.