Learning to Love Social Media

What is Twitter?Why use Twitter?Taking a tour – Lingo & navigationHow to get startedEtiquetteTools & Resources

Presented by Rebecca Page

What is Twitter?

Microblogging site with 360 million profiles globally. 460,000 new Twitter accounts are created every day.- Free and available to anyone- Public to anyone, even people not on Twitter- 140 character limit, including punctuation- Instant posting of what you enter- No need for special software or program

Why use Twitter?

Conversation. Discussion. Sharing.

Personal InterestsHobbies, stage of life, health issues

Politics and AcademicWorld events and issues, headlines, news stories

Small Business- Networking in your community- Sharing information and asking advice

Big Brands/Corporate- Customer service- Product launches, events, sales, surveys

Twitter is a conversation. Participate consistently, or don’t bother.

Why use Twitter?

Social Media Strategy & Issues to Consider

Who is your audience?Are they on Twitter?What do you want to represent?What do you want to say? Message and image.Who do you want to follow?Beware of bots!Personal vs Business profilesCredibility and professionalism

Twitter is a conversation. Participate consistently, or don’t bother.

Taking a tour – Profile

Avatar

Name

Bio

Handle

Profile

Website link

Taking a tour - Lingo

TweetsHow active on Twitter?

Lists

FollowingHow many and who

do they follow?

FollowersHow many and who

follows them?

Followers are the other Twitter users who will see your tweets in their feed.

When you follow someone, their tweets show in your feed

Feed is the stream of tweets coming from your followers

Lists is a way to organize your followers by whatever category you choose.

Background Feed or Stream Tweet

Review of Terminology

Handle - @RebeccaPageCHS , @ConciergeHomeS, @WBN_OttawaAvatar – photo of yourself or your company logoBio – 140 characters about you and why you are on TwitterFollowers – list of who is following your tweetsFollowing – whose tweets you are followingProfile – snapshot of the above informationTweet – message or post of up to 140 charactersFeed or Stream – flow of tweetsHashtag # - method of tracking content for measurement or searchesDM (Direct Message) – private message between followersRT (retweet) – Forwarding on a tweet to your followersTagging – using a handle in a tweet. “Met lots of awesome #Ottawa women at @WBN_Ottawa event last night”Mentions – seeing when someone has tagged you in a tweet

Review of Terminology

How to get started

1. Decide on handle, avatar, message, strategy2. Sign up and set up your profile3. Start following, listening, and looking for opportunities to engage

Twitter Etiquette

1. Don’t oversell your business. Bring value to your followers. 2. Thank RTs. 3. Reply to DMs. 4. You are not obligated to follow back. Have a reason to.5. Use good manners and language.

Tools & Resources

Free websites which lets you set up a dashboards to

manage lists and streams. Ideal when maintaining

multiple accounts. Can also schedule Tweets.