Transcript Twitter 3-30-10 - Seton Hall University

Twitter:
What do so many
people have to say?
March 30, 2010
April 7, 2010
April 8, 2010
Mary Zedeck
Instructional Designer
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mzedeck
Course Resources: http://zedeck.wordpress.com/twitter/
Agenda
 Access and navigate class website with Twitter resources
 What is Twitter and how can you benefit from it?
 How is Twitter different from Facebook?
 Create Twitter account
 Set up and edit profile settings – why is this important?
 Terminology: tweet, retweet, favorite, @reply, dm, #
 Twitter search
 Why follow and favorite?
 Applications for teaching and learning
What is Twitter?
 Free online service that allows you broadcast short
messages to your friends and/or followers
 Combination of various forms of communication like
e-mail, instant messenger, blogs, and RSS feeds
 Difference is that posts, or tweets, are restricted to 140
characters or less
Twitter in Plain English
 How Twitter began…
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o
Twitter Evolution
 Evolved from simply answering the
question, “What are you doing?” into
 Shared
links to interesting content on the web
 Conversations around hot topics
 Shared photos, videos, music
 Real time accounts from people who are in midst
of a newsworthy event
convention or conference
crisis or natural disaster (Haiti, Iran Elections)
everyday life
Twitter Statistics – January, 2010
 Twitter has 15 million
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active users with a
average age of 39
The average number of
tweets per day is almost
50 million
Average number per hour
is 1.13 million
Thursday is the most
active day for tweeting,
followed by Friday and
then Tuesday
10 – 11pm, busiest hour
on Twitter
Getting Started
 Create a Twitter account (http://twitter.com)
 Claim your Twitter handle (i.e. twitter.com/mzedeck)
 Try to fill out your user profile as much as you can for now
 At a later time…
 Create a customized background
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Twitter has a few templates you can choose from
Several applications you can use to create your background:
http://mashable.com/2009/05/23/twitter-backgrounds/
Promote your new social media presence
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email signature
website
blog entries
Start Tweeting and Following!
 Create and post your first tweet
 Remember that you only have 140 characters so make them
count!
 Choose at least two people in the class to Follow
 Find People/enter Twitter name
Twitter Terminology
 Jargon:
• Tweets = 140-character updates on Twitter
• Follower = a user interested in your updates
 Symbols:
• @reply = public conversations
• # = adding a tag to a tweet (hashtag)
• RT = retweeting is sharing tweets with others
• dm = direct messages (private conversations) are similar to
e-mails
Anatomy of a Tweet – link,@, #
Anatomy of a Tweet – retweet, dm
@ Reply = Public Conversation
 For example, @mzedeck in a tweet means you are
either sending a public message to that user or you
are mentioning that user in your tweet
 There is a linked search to your
username on your Twitter homepage
Retweeting or “RT”
 Twitter users share the best links, tweets and gems
they find from others they are following
 Important to do in order to build community and not
just appear to be putting out your own content
 Connect with people and let them know you’re there
(gain followers!)
# = hashtags (tagging tweets)
 Community driven naming convention on Twitter to help spread
information while also organizing it
 Favorite tool of conferences and event organizers
 If everyone agrees to add a certain hashtag after their tweet, it
becomes easier to find that topic in search (search.twitter.com)
 #hcr, #health– health care
 #Easter
 Create your own
 #SHUcommence09
 #edtech
 #pols2290
Favorites
 Similar to a browser bookmark
 Click the star next to a tweet to be able to quickly go
back to it later
How do I build community?
 Building Community with Twitter
 Twitter search
 Twitter directories
 Twitter lists
 Follow Friday
 Let people know you are on twitter
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email signature, blog entries, website, etc.
http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/140Learning/PLN.html
Twitter Desktop Applications
 TweetDeck
 Seesmic
Questions?