Twitter for HR types

Twitter for
HR types
A guide for Human Resources, Organisational Development, Learning and
Development and Recruitment practitioners to get their heads around Twitter.
© NZLEAD Social Ltd
Reproduce with permission only

Introduction
In today’s world we have access to a wealth of
knowledge. With rapid changes in technology,
information is now widely accessible and not
owned by any one person.
Twitter is a great tool for accessing information
and connecting with people. It can transcend
geographical, industry and professional
boundaries.
It's also a great learning resource. The
relationships you build and the knowledge
shared can become incredibly powerful for
your continued professional development.
The NZLEAD community is all about connecting
HR professionals from NZ and around the
world to collaborate and share knowledge.
We believe that by forming these connections;
by sharing knowledge, resources and
innovative ideas; by problem solving together;
and by offering each other support, we can
become better professionals.
Twitter for HR types
Page | 2
However, the volume of information on twitter
can be overwhelming. You might not know
what to say or have time to participate in
conversations. Also, there is a risk that the
technology will remove the human-to-human
relationships.
In this guide, we will cover how to set yourself
up on Twitter; and how to use it in an
authentic and engaging way.
We have put together this guide book to help
you:
• Grow your networks and meet awesome
people
• Filter the quantities of information down to
what is relevant to you
• Manage your tweet time
• Work out what to say, and how to say it, in
a tweet
• Foster authentic human interactions with
people

What this guide covers
Page | 3
The basics
Getting
around
Getting
into tweeting
Filtering
information
Twitter
events

The basics
• About Twitter
• Joining Twitter
• Setting up a great profile
• Some terms
Page | 4

About Twitter
Page | 5
Twitter is a great tool for sharing information
and meeting people.
Essentially you can be referred to great
articles, blogs and comments by people you
follow.
Likewise, you can share links to great articles,
blogs and comments with people who follow
you. It’s all about sharing.
The best sources are often the most tweeted,
so you get a real sense of what is good
information and what is topical.
Twitter also enables you to connect with
people who have similar interests and
challenges. It is a truly powerful networking
tool.

Joining Twitter
Page | 6
Go to www.twitter.com
Under ‘New to Twitter? Sign up’, enter your full
name, email & password.
Pick a user name. This will be your Twitter
handle. They are all preceded by an @ symbol.
For example: @sterling_amanda
For individual accounts: most people go for
their first name followed by their last name.
If you’d like to have your name but it isn’t
available, you could put NZ on the end. You
can be creative with your handle, but
remember that if you’re representing your
business, it needs to be professional.
For business accounts: enter your business
name. Again, if it isn’t available, add NZ or
any other variations that could be appropriate.
Remember that your user name needs to be
easy to remember, so avoid using random
numbers and underscores.

Setting up a great profile
Page | 7
You want your profile to look professional, but approachable.
Potential followers will look here when deciding whether to
follow you. You profile needs to tell them about you and what
you are interested in.
Make sure you include:
A brief description of who you are that gives followers an
idea of what you might tweet about. Include a link to your
blog site or website. Using hashtags in your profile enhances
your searchability and makes your description more succinct.
A photo. It doesn’t need to be as professional as your
LinkedIn photo but not as casual as Facebook.
Recent tweets that demonstrate what you talk about and
who you are. A mixture of professional and personal is good.
You can also set your corporate colours or logo as a
background image.

Some terms
Tweets are limited to 140 characters. Keep
tweets as short as possible but avoid “txt
spk”. Make sure your grammar and spelling
are correct.
@mention is how you tag someone else on
Twitter into a tweet. i.e. “Hi
@sterling_amanda, where can I find
interesting information on leadership?”
Direct Message (DM) is a private
message. You can only DM to someone if
they are following you.
Re-tweet (RT) is something you can do if
you like the content of a tweet and you’d
like to share the same post. On the twitter
mobile app you can also quote tweets. This
is helpful if you want to share the tweet
with a particular person by adding an
@mention.
Page | 8
Hashtag is a # symbol at the beginning of
a word (or series of words without any
spaces). A hashtag (#tag) allows you to:
• Search for every occasion that word is
said.
• Accentuate the word.
• Tag that word to a particular topic or
conversation.
• Add a #tag to your Discover feed (p.11)
or TweetDeck feed to follow a topic.
• Participate in a tweet chat conversation
Following people means you see their
tweets in your Twitter stream.
Every person will have a ‘Follow’ button
that you can click on to follow that person.
If you no longer want to follow them, you
can click on ‘Following’ to un-follow.

Getting
around • Page layout
• Your Twitter stream
• Notifications
• Finding topics of interest
• Finding people to follow
Page | 9

Page layout
Home is where you will
find your Twitter stream.
All the tweets from
everyone you follow will
show up here.
Notifications is where
you will find notifications of
where people have
followed you, re-tweeted
you or favorited your
tweets.
Discover is where you can
find key topics or people
you may want to follow.
This is also where you can
filter conversations by
hashtags.
Me will show your profile
along with all your tweets
and photos (as pictured).
Page | 10

Your Twitter stream
Page | 11
Your Twitter stream is a constant flow of
information. You don’t need to read every
single tweet. Think of it like a river that
you dip your toes in every now and then.
Your Twitter stream is a great way of
seeing what is topical. Often the most
popular tweets are re-tweeted.
You can also see what topics people you
are following are talking about. Have a look
at the most used hashtags.
Don’t get overwhelmed by this though.
Using lists (p.22) and hashtags (p.23) will
help you filter this information and save
you trawling through your tweet stream.

Notifications
This is where you can see people who have
followed you, replied to you, favorited your
tweets or re-tweeted you.
It is good practice to thank people who have
followed you or re-tweeted you, so keep an
eye on this area.
A Favorite is similar to a like. It will send a
notification to that person to say you have
favorited their tweet.
This favorited tweet will then be available in
your Favorites list.
So you can use Favorites to tell people you like
what they are saying or to save that tweet for
later.
Page | 12

Finding topics of interest
Page | 13
The Discover screen is where
you can find tweets that are
recommended for you, as
well as suggested people to
follow.
You can see trending
topics here too. You can
filter these by location by
clicking on the change
text.
You can also find topics that
interest you by searching by
a hashtag or by a key word.

Finding people to follow
Following people lets you see the tweets they are
sharing with the world. You want to follow people who
are sharing topics you are interested in. Here are a
few ways you can follow people who are relevant to
you.
Go to the Discover tab and type your keyword with
the hashtag into the search function. For example,
#leadership.
This will bring up people who are tweeting about that
particular topic. You can then click on those people
and follow them.
Go to the @Connect and look for people who have
followed you. Click on their profiles and, if they
look relevant, follow them back if they are tweeting
about what you are interested in.
Keep an eye on who is being retweeted by people
you already follow. They might be worth following.
Find out the @handles of people you meet at
events and follow them.
Have a look at the Lists that other people have
created. There might be people worth following.
Page | 14

Getting into
tweeting • How & what to tweet
• Tweeting authentically
• Sharing articles and
blogs
• Sharing photos
Page | 15

How and what to tweet
Page | 16
Tweets are limited to 140 characters. This
means you have to be brief and to the point
with what you are trying to share.
If you re-tweet someone, and the tweet is too
long, you can make adjustments to it so that
it fits into 140 characters.
Trying to work out what to tweet can
sometimes be a challenge. It’s going to
depend on you really, but here are some
ideas:
• What you’re working on
• Something funny that happened to you
• A picture of your surroundings
• An article or blog you found interesting or
relevant
• Or, just reply and ask questions of what
other people are tweeting.
If in doubt, have a look at some of the
communities you want to be part of and see
what other people are tweeting.
Composing a tweet is as simple as clicking
on the icon in the top right hand side of your
screen.
This will then bring up a text box, where you
simply write your tweet and then click ‘Tweet’.
You can also add photos if you like by clicking on
the camera icon.

Tweeting authentically
Page | 17
Generally, your Twitter interactions are a mix of personal
and professional. People connect with other, real, people. So
you want your Twitter interactions to reflect this.
Here are some tips:
Interact – share things that you find interesting and also
engage with people who share interesting things.
It’s not all about you - If you want to build a professional
network you have to show interest just as much as if you
were talking face to face.
Don’t over promote – when you are a recruiter or
business it is easy to constantly send out tweets for new
positions you are recruiting for, or the services that you
provide. It is important to make the engagement personal
and interactive.
Be authentic – be yourself. It is easy to be someone else
online, but if you want to build this into a professional
network with people that you will eventually meet
(hopefully), it is important to be who you are in real life.
Examples of tweets that help build authenticity.

Sharing articles
There are a couple of different ways to
share articles on Twitter.
Scroll down to the bottom of the article and
you should see a ‘Share’ button.
If you hover over ‘Share’, it will bring up
the different options for sharing.
If you don’t see a Share button, you might
see these buttons (without having to hover
over Share).
Click on the button for the application you
want to share to. You can share to LinkedIn
or Facebook this way too.
Page | 18

Sharing articles
When sharing the article, show that you know what the article was about. This
encourages more conversation and shows that you’ve read it.
Here are some suggestions:
Write a brief summary of what the article was about. For example, I have written
“Successful leadership and self-awareness” below.
Share one thing that you learnt from the article. For example, leaders need to
consider relationships, empathy and righteousness.
Share a key point from the article. For example, leaders need emotional intelligence
to be successful.
Wherever possible, attribute the article to whomever wrote it or shared it with you in
the first place. For example, “thanks for sharing @LisaBellHR”
Page | 19

Sharing photos
Photos are a great way to visually
demonstrate a point or give insight into
your life.
You can take photos with your phone
camera and share them straight to Twitter,
or upload photos on your desktop.
Some other applications also let you share
to Twitter, for example, Instagram.
However, use common sense around what
you share. Twitter is very public. You might
not want to tweet drunk pictures or
anything else that might be inappropriate.
Ask yourself, am I comfortable with my
boss and/or grandmother seeing this?
Page | 20
Example of photo shared through instagram

Filtering
information • Lists
• Hashtags
• An intro to other
tools
Page | 21

Lists
Page | 22
A list is a curated group of Twitter users.
Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream
of Tweets for people on that list.
You can use lists to find people who are
talking about a particular topic, and then
follow them.
You can also follow discussions from a
particular group of users.
You can subscribe to lists created by others or
create your own lists.
To subscribe to other lists, go into the profile
of the list owner, go to ‘Lists’ and click
‘Subscribe’.
You can create your own list by going to ‘Lists’
in your profile and clicking on ‘Create list’ or
do this when you add someone to a List. Enter
the details of your List.
To add someone to a List, go to their profile
and click on the drop down box then ‘Add or
remove from list’ and then select the lists.

Hashtags
A hashtag (or #tag) is a word or a selection of
words (without spaces) that you use in a tweet
with a # at the beginning. Anyone can make
up or use a hashtag.
These are the main reasons for hashtags:
• Search for every occasion that word is said.
• Accentuate the word.
• Tag that word to a particular topic or
conversation.
• Add a #tag to your Discover feed or tweet
deck feed to follow a topic.
• Participate in a tweet chat conversation
These are some of the commonly used New
Zealand-specific hashtags for HR types:
• #nzrec – for all recruitment related news
and insights
• #nzjobs – for all jobs you’d like to list on
Twitter. This is a feed for employers,
recruiters and jobseekers
• #nzhr - for HR-related news and insights
• #nzlead - for connecting NZ HR people with
international HR people
Page | 23
If you want to create or use a #tag, check
first whether it’s being used by others.
You can do this by entering the #tag into the
search box. This will bring up all the tweets
using that tag.
For some #tags, it is perfectly ok, and
encouraged, for as many people as possible to
use them.
However, if you are trying to do a specific
campaign or convey a specific message, you
might not want to use a #tag that is already
being used for tweets that might not align to
that.
Also, be considerate. Think about the tweets
you are sending out and whether someone
else is using the #tag to send a different type
of message. #tag hijackers are not very
popular.

An intro to other tools
If you want to keep track of multiple hashtags,
conversations, and Lists at the same time,
then using a tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck
might be right for you.
Tweetdeck allows you to manage your twitter
streams much more efficiently and is great for
facilitating tweet chats.
The advantage of Hootsuite is that it enables
you to manage multiple social media platforms
at the same time. For example, Google+,
Facebook (including groups) LinkedIn as well
as Twitter.
Page | 24
Tweetdeck
Hootsuite

Twitter
events • Tweet chats
• Hashtags at
conferences
Page | 25

Tweet chats
A tweet chat is when a group of people all
tweet about the same topic at the same time
on Twitter. A hashtag is used to identify tweets
in the conversation, for example #nzlead.
A tweet chat can be quite intimidating at first,
so here are some tips for participating in a
tweet chat.
• Identify the moderator and follow them.
The moderator is the person who will be
asking questions and prompting the chat
along. Pay attention to what they are
asking.
• Reply directly to moderator questions. Most
tweet chats will have some structure to the
questions and have 3-5 questions. You
might see Q1, Q2, Q3 etc. (as in question
1, question 2 etc.) in the moderator
tweets. Reply to them with A1, A2, A3 etc.
(as in answer 1, answer 2, etc.). This
makes it easier for other tweet chat
participants to follow your conversation.
Page | 26
• Include the hashtag (e.g. #nzlead) in
every tweet. This means that everyone
participating can see what you tweet in
their stream.
• If you are chatting with a large group,
select a small number of participants to
interact with. There can be several
different topics going on at the same time
so this will help you get the most value out
of your conversation.
• Make new tweet chat members feel
welcome. If someone joins the chat who
you have not seen before, say hello and
tell them what we are talking about
today/tonight.
• If you are replying to a tweet, include a
brief summary of the original tweet. This is
so everyone knows what you are talking
about. For example, “I agree that
leadership self-awareness cannot be
learnt”. Rather than just, “I agree”.

Tweet chats
• If you like or support a tweet then re-
tweet it. Similar to the previous point, a
RT shows that you like the tweet but
also means that other participants can
still follow the conversation.
• If you want to reply to a tweet or RT,
and include a comment, but there is not
enough space in 140 characters, you
can shorten the original tweet. Copy and
paste the original tweet and delete any
parts you don’t believe key.
• Follow up afterwards. Tweet chats are
great for networking. If you had a great
tweet chat with someone, follow them
and send a tweet to say thank you. You
could even keep the conversation going.
Page | 27
In a tweet chat you follow a particular hashtag, for example #nzlead

Hashtags at conferences
Page | 28
Often events and conferences will assign a
hashtag. For example, #RHUB
(Recruitment Hub), #SOLGMHR (Society
for Local Government HR Forum).
This means that you can tweet key
insights, voice your opinions on topics,
meet and connect with other delegates
and, in some instances, ask questions of
the presenters.
Also, if you cannot attend the event you
can follow the feed to stay in touch with
what is happening.
If you are holding an event, just notify
attendee’s of the hashtag you have
created. It is generally 6-8 letters long,
easy to remember and ideally not being
used by anyone else.
You can display the tweets on a big screen
to encourage people to participate.
Tweets from the recent Society for Local Government HR Forum

Thank you! Resources in this guide book were compiled from
a number of sources, including:
• Kirsti Grant (@KirstiGrant), Social Sauce.
For what we didn’t know we didn’t know.
• Carol Hyams (@chyams), Firebrand. For
writing about Twitter etiquette.
• Sarah Miller (@SarahMillerAU). For great
resources on how to use twitter.
For more information and resources on how to
use social media for HR type processes please
visit:
www.nzlead.com
Page | 29

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Editor's Notes