Twitter 101 - an introduction to Twitter
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A broad overview of everything to do with twitter. Aimed at the newcomer who may have heard of twitter, and would like to know more. This slideshow is from a presentation that I give regularly at my local community network.
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Twitter 101 - an introduction to Twitter
- 1. Twitter 101 Keith Bradnam Slides from a presentation to the Davis Community Network, 22nd September 2011 Author: Keith Bradnam, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
- 2. Outline
- 3. What is twitter? Why use twitter? How to use twitter?
- 5. What twitter is... ‘Microblogging’ service ‘Social networking’ tool Messaging service hosted over the Internet and SMS Way to broadcast short messages (<140 characters) Messages can contain links to pictures, web pages etc. Free! The 140 character limit was chosen as the developers of Twitter wanted to be able to use all cell phones to send and retrieve tweets, and the SMS character limit is 160 (per text message).
- 6. Simple twitter overview Davis awarded Platinum bike status again Forecast to reach 97ºF tomorrow. Urghh. Cute kitten pics! - http:// flickr.com/F8Fa8 Hope Tony Romo’s ribs don’t break again Different people within the twitter ‘ecosystem’ (dotted line) send out various messages (‘tweets’) at various times of the day.
- 7. Simple twitter overview Davis awarded Platinum bike status again Forecast to reach 97ºF tomorrow. Urghh. Cute kitten pics! - http:// flickr.com/F8Fa8 Non-twitter user Hope Tony Romo’s ribs don’t break again Most tweets from twitter users can still be seen by non-twitter users by going to the twitter website. However, they would have to view separate webpages for each person that they are interested in.
- 8. Simple twitter overview Davis awarded Platinum bike status again Forecast to reach 97ºF tomorrow. Urghh. Cute kitten pics! - http:// flickr.com/F8Fa8 Hope Tony Romo’s ribs don’t break again Other users who are within the twitter ecosystem (i.e. they have a twitter account) can simply specify the users they are interested in and they will then be able to see all tweets in *one* stream (presented in a chronological order).
- 9. Simple twitter overview Davis awarded Platinum bike status again Forecast to reach 97ºF tomorrow. Urghh. Cute kitten pics! - http:// flickr.com/F8Fa8 Hope Tony Romo’s ribs don’t break again
- 10. What twitter is not... Not facebook Not a forum for verbose discussions Not the best tool for sharing lots of photos Not great for commenting on old news Not available in China Some countries choose to ban services like twitter.
- 11. Who uses twitter? @oprah @ucdavis @bp_america @cnn @amnesty @kdvs903fm @kingsthings @nytimes @crepevilledavis @npr @conanobrien @comcast @bbc @yournamehere All news organizations and most celebrities can now be found on twitter. Increasingly, many more smaller companies and non-profits now have a presence as well. However, the largest number of twitter accounts are held by ‘regular’ people.
- 13. What’s twitter for? “Don’t people just talk about what they had for lunch?” It is true that twitter contains many, many tweets that will not cause you to have a life- changing experience. The signal-to-noise ratio can be very low at times. That is not to say that some tweets are not important or useful...
- 14. This is why it can matter Twitter can be a source of real time news, unfiltered by any news organization Increasingly, more and more people carry smart phones (with cameras). This has led to the rise of the ‘citizen journalist’. If you have a phone with you when news is breaking, then you can be the first person in the world to report on the news.
- 15. This is why it can matter Alerting people about major natural disasters, arranging civil protests, or just letting people know of traffic problems that might delay your commute home...twitter can be great source of news, that will typically be faster than any traditional media outlet.
- 16. 230M Twitter is still growing Currently, ~300 million users. ~500,000 new users per day! Twitter continues to grow. Note that most accounts are held by people who tweet very infrequently (if at all).
- 17. Tweets are newsworthy? Easier for news organizations to gauge public opinion News organizations used to send out reporters to get the opinion of the ‘man or woman on the street’. Now they can just search twitter to find out the mood of the nation on any issue of the day.
- 18. Growth of the twitter ecosystem
- 19. The twitter ecosystem Twitter only manages text-based messages... ...but other companies can mine this data stream
- 20. Any website from any reputable company or organization is likely to contain a link to their twitter account.
- 21. Any many websites make it very easy to tweet about whatever you’re reading.
- 22. If you are signed into twitter, then it’s just two clicks in order to send a tweet
- 23. Other sites can be authorized to work with your twitter data Other sites such as LinkedIn, facebook, and many others, can all be authorized to access your twitter account. A status update on one site can also be sent to your twitter account (and vice versa).
- 24. The twitter ecosystem There are 100’s of websites that support & extend twitter Many companies have made their name (and their livelihood) by supporting twitter.
- 25. twitter keeps expanding Twitter now aggregates pictures that you tweet about Sometimes twitter makes moves that steps on the toes on these companies, and conceivably might threaten their business.
- 26. How you can (productively) use twitter
- 27. Passive Keep tabs on friends and family Find out latest news about subject ‘x’ See what your favorite celebrity is up to Get updates on weather, sports results, earthquakes etc. See promotions from your favorite companies It’s perfectly fine to use twitter and never write a tweet...just use it to follow others.
- 28. Active Tweet about your life Post a link to something interesting Ask a question to your followers, get feedback on an idea Interact with your customers/users/students etc. Promote your blog/company Make new friends ‘Live-tweet’ an event However, actively engaging with twitter can be very rewarding.
- 29. Real world examples Headphones Comcast Power outages I once found out about the design of some headphones that I was interested in by contacting someone who just tweeted about them. The information I needed to know was nowhere on the web, and my email to the company responsible went unanswered. Twitter saved the day.
- 31. tweets Most tweets are broadcast publicly...anyone can read them All tweets also track details of time and date of tweet and client used to send tweet
- 32. the timeline tweets from people you follow appear together in the timeline Sorted by date Updates in real time (sort of) The timeline is the main way people engage with twitter. The timeline can be accessed on the twitter website, from a desktop application, or from your phone, iPad etc.
- 33. mentions Mentions are only seen by people who follow both accounts You can reply to tweets. These are known as mentions and twitter tracks the association between the tweets that form a ‘conversation’. Mentions are just tweets that start with the name of the twitter account that you are replying to. This name uses up some of your 140 characters though.
- 34. direct messages (DMs) Direct messages are only seen by recipient. This is like twitter’s in-house email system
- 35. retweets - 1 Retweeting is the action of flagging a tweet to your followers Retweeting allows people who follow you to become aware of tweets you find interesting, funny etc. This can be a good thing, but not if it is overused. Web and desktop clients allow you to easily retweet by clicking on one link.
- 36. retweets - 2 This is twitter’s newer style of retweeting tweets You receive email notifications if one of your tweets is retweeted.
- 37. retweets - 3 Old style retweeting, just add ‘RT @username’ before tweet You can also retweet by essentially copying and pasting a tweet but then adding ‘RT’ before it. The ‘RT’ + username eats into your 140 characters though, and you may have to edit the message to make it fit. The need to edit messages is what led to twitter introducing the newer style of retweeting.
- 38. retweets - 4 Having your tweets retweeted by others is a good thing... ...but it is not the only thing Only 6% of tweets are retweeted 92% of retweets occurs in first hour
- 39. Twitter accounts
- 40. About accounts Accounts can be public or private You can follow other twitter accounts Other accounts can follow you You can search accounts You don’t need an account to see people’s tweets
- 41. Followers vs following Followers Following @kbradnam @karrwinn @jwalls @nerdytwin @trimike @UCD123 @MitoThomas @JanedeLatigue @JanedeLatigue Details of followers/following is public You don’t have to follow someone just because they follow you!
- 42. Which type of account? Public Private Anyone can follow you You approve who follows you Tweets are only visible to All tweets are public people you approve You can still block users from Far less common than public following you accounts Private accounts are quite rare.
- 43. Searching tweets Twitter can let you search tweets from all accounts The ability to quickly search millions and millions of tweets is one of the most powerful features of twitter. It lets you find tweets on any subject you might be interested in.
- 44. Twitter tools
- 45. Some features of twitter Favorites Hashtags Trends Twitter lists Twitter keeps adding new features (though maybe just 1–2 major features a year)
- 46. The main page of the twitter website is separated into various panels. This is what a user might see when they are logged into an account. There are a lot of links on this page.
- 47. Favorites Just a way of ‘bookmarking’ a tweet Useful when tweets have interesting links to read later Favorites are public Common to ‘favorite’ a tweet which you see on your phone, especially if it contains a link to something, and then read later on when you get back to your computer (favorites are synced between your devices).
- 48. How to favorite a tweet Note that favorites are publicly available for anyone to see. You also get an email if someone ‘favorites’ one of your tweets.
- 49. hashtags A useful way of flagging keywords in a tweet Just put a hash character before a word (no spaces) #ucdavis #idol #genbio2010 It is easy to find other tweets that use the same hashtag Hashtags turn words into clickable links that link to all other tweets that share the same hashtag. Used a lot for sports games (and teams), TV shows, scientific conferences, and other ‘events’. But can be used for anything.
- 51. trends twitter keeps track of words, phrases, and hashtags that are popular Keeps a list of ‘trending topics’ on home page You can see trends for the world, different countries, or some major cities.
- 52. twitter lists An easy way of grouping together different users You don’t have to follow someone to put them in a list Can follow other people’s lists Lists can be made private
- 53. Lists can be public or private (one list in this image is private, denoted by the padlock icon).
- 54. You can add people to lists who you don’t follow as part of your main timeline. You can also follow lists by other people.
- 55. Some do’s and don’ts
- 56. Do Engage with people Try following people that you don’t know Be wary of twitter spam Add a picture and write something for your twitter ‘bio’ It makes a huge difference to how you are perceived by others. People are much more likely to follow you if you add information to your twitter bio.
- 57. Don’t Send too many tweets in a row about one topic Use twitter for conversations with your partner/family Worry about your follower count Expect to read all the tweets from all the people you follow Follow everyone who follows you Your twitter stream can easily become overwhelming as you follow more and more people. Don’t expect to always read everything. Treat it like a stream and just dip your foot in every now and again. If there are people who you feel you *must* follow, add them to a list to make it easier to follow their tweets.
- 58. Twitter is fairly good at getting rid of dubious accounts. When someone follows you, twitter sends you an email and if they have never tweeted, and follow thousands of other people, then maybe consider reporting them to twitter.
- 59. Twitter clients
- 60. Many ways of using twitter Originally, you could only send tweets on the twitter web site or by phone (SMS message) Now there almost a 1,000 different ways of tweeting...from any platform Twitter have started to create their own ‘official’ twitter applications for each major platform
- 61. Take twitter anywhere Platform Number of clients Windows >160 Mac >130 Linux >50 iPhone/iPod >270 Android >60 Blackberry >40
- 62. Why use a client? Go mobile! Software to suit all styles Added functionality compared to web client Better support for adding photos, videos, web links etc Caution: not all clients support all twitter features Personally, I find most clients end up offering a simpler and cleaner experience than the twitter website.
- 63. Final thoughts
- 64. twitter keep changing The website keeps changing The set of available features keeps changing The ‘rules’ keep changing But nowhere near as often as a site like facebook.
- 65. twitter is a business It is free – and will almost certainly remain free – but... ...it has to make money somehow
- 66. Advertising Promoted tweets Sponsored trends Will adverts start appearing in between ‘regular’ tweets? Adverts that appear in your main timeline seem on the cards. One good thing about these adverts is that they still follow the twitter rules. No more than 140 characters!
- 67. Should you use twitter? Yes No Maybe Twitter is not for everyone, but I personally find it rewarding and useful. I’ve met some great people through twitter, and it’s now the first place where I hear about news happening (in my town or across the world). There are people and companies out there who can educate, inform, and entertain you...all in 140 characters or less!
- 68. The End
- 69. What else? Saved searches Multiple accounts Twitter locations The fail whale There are many other features, aspects of twitter that I haven’t covered here.
- 70. Useful twitter resources @kbradnam’s Davis twitter lists Other twitter users! http://friendorfollow.com http://tweetstats.com http://twittergrader.com http://bit.ly http://oneforty.com