Information as of October 2009

(words to be hyperlinked are in plum and the links are in parentheses next to those words – all yellow highlighted text to be deleted before going live online)

Twitter.com (link: www.twitter.com)

At a glance… Twitter is a microblogging link to glossary site with nearly 28 million users. Setting up an account and getting started takes less than 5 minutes. Update daily, but the number of tweets is up to you. http://www.twitip.com/when-

tweeting-less-can-help-you-be-a-more-effective-twitter-user/ User demographics:

o 54% are femaleo 43% are 18-34 and 29% are 35-49o 76% are Caucasian and African Americans, the next highest group, are at 12%.o 43% have kids 17 years of age or younger.

What is it?Twitter (link: www.twitter.com) is a free microblogging site with messages displayed on a webpage in reverse chronological order (the newest post is at the top). While traditional blogs offer unlimited space for each post, Twitter limits individual posts to 140 characters. These short messages are called tweets (link to glossary). Twitter is a community of users whose profiles consist of short “status updates,” similar to the ones on Facebook and MySpace. Link to glossary

The year between February 2008, and February 2009, saw Twitter grow 1382%, according to some sources. (http://mashable.com/2009/03/16/twitter-growth-rate-versus-facebook/) However, it appears that 60% of Twitterers drop off after the first month, which, if true, significantly affects the true growth rate.

Surprisingly, adults are the biggest users of this site. One theory suggests that teens are already established on other popular social networking sites (e.g. MySpace or Facebook) and because Twitter is relatively new (it launched in March 2006), those adopting it are also new to the social media playing field.

Twitter’s growth slowed in the spring of 2009. It’s hard to say if this indicates a bump on the e-highway or the beginning of a decline.

Usefulness

Information as of October 2009

Twitter operates in a ‘burst’ format—sharing small pieces of information while conveying a sense of urgency. A few ways to use Twitter include:

Post news about your organization. Update followers (Link glossary) in real time as an event is unfolding. Let people know you’ve updated your blog (Link glossary). Post reminders to take action (e.g. reminding people to get their seasonal flu shot or a

fundraising reminder). Take an informal poll (“Are you going to get a flu shot?”). If you want to see who is

paying attention and who cares enough to reply, ask a question. Link to a useful article or news item.

Getting started

Setting up your profileNavigate to the Twitter homepage in your internet browser.

Information you will need to open an account: Full Name Username (Twitter automatically checks to see

if it is available and lets you know if it is. If the name you want is taken, you can easily search for another.)

Password Email address

Enter the information as requested and click “Create my account.”

Next, you have an opportunity to add more information, including a link to your website or blog, a short bio of yourself or your organization, and where you are located. You can also customize the look of your page by selecting a theme or uploading your own graphics for the page.

Information as of October 2009

Choosing whom to follow

To follow someone on Twitter means that you will receive in your Twitter stream any tweets they put out.

Whether you are tweeting for yourself as a professional or for your organization, whom you follow says something about you.

Some organizations and individuals choose to follow as many others as possible to build their group of followers (tit for tat—you follow me, I’ll follow you). If you’re indiscriminately following anyone and everyone, then it might be perceived as not being careful about your choice of news sources. Or, it could mean that you’re just following a lot of people so that they will follow you.

Following is easy. Select “Find People” from the menu bar and the box below will appear. If you are setting up an individual account, you could choose to follow anyone who seems interesting to you. As a professional, keep in mind that by clicking on the “Following” link, your choices are made public.

Information as of October 2009

Attracting followers

Once you’ve set up your Twitter profile, it’s time to promote your presence to your volunteers, donors, colleagues, friends, and family. In order for Twitter to be useful for promoting your message, you will need to recruit followers.

Followers will find you on Twitter in a variety of ways. The simplest method of attracting followers is through an email inviting them to follow your new venture. You should also use your organization’s website and traditional media outlets to point people to your Twitter account.

Twitter subscribers may end up using the search feature to find your name or your group’s name. They might also run across you as they search for special strings of words preceded by #hashtags that you’ve tweeted.

Key Elements

#Hashtags

A hashtag is a word with a pound sign (also known as a hash sign) in front of it. By placing the hash mark in front of a word, the mark and word merge and become a “hashtag,” or a word that has been tagged by a hash mark.

Hashtags link to glossary are useful when searching for discussion threads or topics on Twitter. For instance, if you want to search for “infectious” as the word relates to disease, you’ll want to search for #infectious, otherwise your search may pull up tweets that use the term “infectious” in a different way, such as: You have an infectious smile.

As you tweet, you’ll want to use hashtags to make it easy for searchers to find your tweet in their search results.

The example above contains the hashtag “twibbon.” A search of that term will return this tweet, and the link it provides, as well as all others with that hashtag (#twibbon).The sample below is a search for the hashtag “#flu.”

Information as of October 2009

Hashtags were first used during the San Diego wildfires in 2007 when a user posted status updates on the fires with #sandiegofire. It has since been officially adopted by Twitter.

@Replies link to glossary

When you insert @ directly in front of a username placed before a tweet, this signals that your tweet is a direct reply to something another person tweeted. This automatically places your tweet into their “replies” tab in addition to appearing as one of your tweets.

If you want to publicly reply to a tweet that another user posted, start your own tweet by typing: @[username] followed by a space and the rest of your message. For example, “@PKIDs you’re so right about the need to vaccinate to stay healthy!”

If you are replying from inside your web browser, you can also click the little arrow to the right of a tweet and @[username] will appear in the message box at the top of the page. You can then write the rest of your message.

Retweets

Information as of October 2009

If users say they have “retweeted” something, it means they have simply copied another user’s tweet and posted it as their own. A retweet link to glossary is represented by the letters “RT” and they are usually–– but not always––capitalized, then followed by the username of the original author.

The following is an example of a retweet:

Mentions

Mentions link to glossary are formed the same way as replies, but the@[username] can appear anywhere in your tweet, not just at the beginning. An @[username] is a way to acknowledge another Twitterer, often used as a way of citing your source when you pass along information.

On the sidebar, you’ll see @[username]. In this case it’s @PKIDs because it’s PKIDs’ Twitter homepage. Click on that and you’ll see the “replies” and “mentions” for that username. This is useful when you want to see how often you’re getting mentioned or replied to and who’s doing the mentioning/replying. However, if your account is protected, you won’t be able to send replies to those not following you and mentions won’t be seen by that group.

Information as of October 2009

Direct Message ( also known as a “DM”)

This feature allows you to send a private message to any follower, by typing “d+(a space)+[username]+[your message]” in the “What Are You Doing” box at the top of your Twitter homepage. Or, from your homepage sidebar, the Direct Messages link takes you to a box where you can select from a menu of your followers and compose a direct message. link to glossary

Cellular phones

Twitter supports cell phone interactivity, which means that you can send to and receive updates from Twitter on most cell phones. Higher-end phones and smartphones take things a step further:

Information as of October 2009

users can download applications specifically made for Twitter and navigate to the mobile version of Twitter’s website.

Adding Pictures

Twitpic.com (www.twitpic.com) is a site that is linked to your Twitter account and allows you to post a short link to a photo along with a tweet. On the web, you login to Twitpic using your Twitter login information. Then you upload an image and compose your message, which will appear in your Twitter feed. Twitpic also provides you with login information enabling you to post pictures via your mobile phone. A similar service is available from Snaptweet http://snaptweet.com/ and is linked to your Flickr www.flickr.com account.

Tips for Tweeting

Do:

Information as of October 2009

Tweet only when you have something important to say. Even though it’s an informal medium, don’t forget that everything you communicate adds (or detracts) from your organization’s image.

Formalize a plan for o Who tweets for your organizationo What gets tweeted

What information do you want to convey? How often will you retweet versus tweeting original content?

o When you will tweet. What will your schedule be? What are your goals? Stick to the schedule. For example, you may want to plan an informational weekly or daily tweet about what your organization is doing. If you do it on the same day each week, it becomes something to look for and something people will count on. Frequency will depend on what you have to say. During the week, you will find items of interest that you want to share or items you want to retweet to your audience.

o Pay attention to what others are talking about. You have to engage with people and participate in the conversation in order to maximize Twitter’s effectiveness.

o Utilize a site that shortens web addresses––(link to glossary.doc) like Tweetburner http://tweetburner.com/ or bit.ly http://bit.ly / –– to shorten long URLs link to glossary into a manageable size and minimize your character usage.

Don’t:

Forget to promote your Twitter feed. Link to it from your website, blog, or other social media sites, and add it to your printed media near Web and email addresses.

Exclusively retweeet or post links. Monopolize the conversation. If you’re tweeting all the time, you can’t be an effective

listener. Communication is a two-way street.

Measuring Success

There are a variety of tools available for tracking usage on Twitter. Some track your tweet activity; others give you information on your followers. By paying attention to some or all of these statistics, you can keep an eye on how your activity compares to the average user and how users access your Twitter feed.

These tools will help you evaluate your organization’s effectiveness in using Twitter. Some of the most popular ones are TweetStats (tweetstats.com), TwitterFriends (twitter-friends.com), and TwitterHolic (www.twitterholic.com).

Information as of October 2009

Please see the Twitter video tutorial link to tutorial for detailed information on how to use this social media tool.