How to Organize, Market, Deliver, Evaluate, and Archive Financial

Education Twitter Chats and Social Media Resources for

Financial Education

Barbara O’Neill,Rutgers University, Ph.D., CFP®

Rutgers Cooperative Extension

oneill@aesop.rutgers.edu

Workshop Objectives • Discuss basic Twitter functions

• Discuss how Twitter chats operate

• Discuss regularly scheduled Twitter chats

• Discuss how to organize, market, manage, and deliver Twitter chats

• Discuss how to evaluate a Twitter chat

• Discuss how to archive a Twitter chat

Why Use Social Media?

IF FACEBOOK WERE A COUNTRY, IT WOULD BE THE THIRD LARGEST IN

THE WORLD. THERE ARE MORE FACEBOOK USERS THAN PEOPLE IN

THE UNITED STATES.

THE WORLD’S SECOND MOST POPULAR SEARCH ENGINE (AFTER GOOGLE) IS

YOUTUBE.

MORE THAN 645 MILLION PEOPLE WERE ACTIVE REGISTERED TWITTER USERS IN MAY 2013. 135,000 USERS

SIGN UP EVERY DAY.

AN AVERAGE OF 58 MILLION TWEETS ARE SENT DAILY

Source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-

statistics/

Here’s How You Tweet

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You Have 140 Characters…to Teach or Promote Something

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Make Sure You Complete a Profile and Include Your Credentials

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Things That You Can Tweet About

• Links to fact sheets/newsletters/press releases, etc.

• Links to news articles where you are quoted

• Links to interesting articles (read completely first!)

• Links to FaceBook pages

• Links to reputable information sources (e.g., WSJ, EBRI)

• Links to blogs and YouTube videos and music

• Short succinct concepts (e.g., “pay yourself first”)

• Re-tweets from reputable sources

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Twitter Tips • Use a # to facilitate searches (e.g., #credit)

• Or a # and an _ for two words (e.g., #credit_cards) or a “word mash” (e.g., #creditcards)

• Use a @ to flag another user (e.g., @RutgersNJAES or @moneymattersNJ)

• Insert short bit.ly links into tweets that can be tracked

• Use 120 characters (makes it easy for others to retweet your messages)

• Follow/contribute to conference Twitter feeds (e.g., #FPABE at recent FPA conference)

Twitter Hashtags

• A key component of Twitter use is the hashtag (#) symbol followed by a series of unique characters

• The hashtag serves like a “magnet” to link together the tweets of Twitter users who are interested in the same topic (e.g., credit) or who are linked together in some way (e.g., professional conference attendees)

• By using a hashtag, users can effectively hold a “conversation” with one another about a topic of interest

Twitter Chats • Online users gather at a specified time (e.g., every

Friday at 3 pm ET) to “discuss” (read: tweet about) certain topics, questions, or issues.

• In other words, they are a synchronous learning environment where participants interact in real time using their Twitter user names (a.k.a.,”handles”).

• As with tweets at conferences, the “glue” that holds Twitter chats together is the designated hashtag

• A Twitter chat hashtag creates a running stream of tweets so that everyone can follow the “conversation.”

More About Twitter Chats • Chat hashtags are often derived from a chat sponsor’s

name (example: #wbchat for WiseBread); industry (example: #creditchat); or program title (#SSHWchat for the Small Steps to Health and Wealth™ program).

• A Twitter chat hashtag creates a running stream of tweets so that everyone can follow the “conversation”

• The formatting convention used to follow Twitter chat threads is Q1 for Question 1 and A1 for participant responses to that question

Still More About Twitter Chats

• There are more than 300 existing Twitter chats on a wide variety of topics such as money, agriculture, etc. (see http://chatter.thundertech.com/post/How_to_run_a_successful_Twitter_chat.aspx)

• There are special Web sites for Twitter chats such as

– http://www.tchat.io/ (Tweet Chat tool)

– http://tweetchat.com/ (Tweet Chat)

– http://twubs.com/ (Twubs)

• You need to use one of these web sites to conveniently see a Twitter chat in its entirety

Ongoing Personal Finance Twitter Chats

• Some have sponsors and offer prizes

• Some have “guest Tweeters”

• All have defined niches and defined topics

• Most popular personal finance chats include:

– #creditchat (Wednesdays, 3 pm ET)

– #wbchat (Thursdays, 3 pm ET)

– #cashchat (Fridays, Noon ET)

– #mcchat (Fridays, 4 pm ET)

Step 1: Set Twitter Chat Goals

Step 2: Designate a Date and Time for Chat

Step 3: Determine a Hash Tag

Step #4: Determine Chat Topic and Questions

Step 5: Market the Chat

Step 6: Deliver the Chat

Step 7: Evaluate Impact and Outreach

Step 8: Write Impact Reports

Step 9: Archive the Chat With Storify

Storify Sample:

https://storify.com/RutgersSEBS/cook-douglass-

community-day-2014-at-rutgers

Step #10: Review, Revise, and Repeat

Twitter Chat Evaluation Methods and Metrics

• TweetReach statistics: http://tweetreach.com/ (type in Twitter Chat hashtag)

• Embedded online surveys (with prizes as an incentive to complete)

• Traffic to web sites referenced in tweets

• Follow-up contact from participants

• Other?

Questions? Comments? Experiences?