Twitter: Basic Use

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Twitter Basic Use Professional UseOffice of
Information TechnologyBrown Bag Lunch Learn
Series

• John Martin
• john_martin_at_ncsu.edu
• _at_ncsu_oit, _at_nematome
• [phone]

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Agenda

• What it is / how to use it
• Culture
• Tools
• Business and professional use
• Further reading

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What it is / how to use it

• Whos already on Twitter?
• Microblogging application
• Asynchronous
• What are you doing?
• 140 characters or fewer
• Interface
• Sign-up (Full name vs. username, bio)
• UI

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Culture

• The Five Stages of Twitter Acceptance
• Denial
• I think Twitter sounds stupid. Why would anyone
  care what other people are doing right now?
• Presence
• Ok, I dont really get why people love it, but I
  guess I should at least create an account.
• Dumping
• Im on Twitter and use it for pasting links to
  my blog posts and pointing people to my press
  releases.
• Conversing
• I dont always post useful stuff, but I do use
  Twitter to have authentic 1x1 conversations.
• Microblogging
• Im using Twitter to publish useful information
  that people read and converse 1x1 authentically.

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Culture

• A professional and personal blend
• URL shorteners
• tinyurl.com (default)
• idek.net
• Link metrics
• Viral Metrics
• Naked links are frowned upon
• Fail Whale

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Culture

• Hashtags
• topic (e.g., obama, facebook, budgetcuts)
• event (e.g., UNCCAUSE08, GRAMMYS, nsotu)
• group (e.g., ncsu_oit)
• Retweets
• RT _at_orig_username via _at_2nd_username
• If original tweet called for action, try to keep
  it
• If original had link keep it, try not to
  re-shorten
• If original had hashtag, try to keep it
• Keep original thought if possible, add your take
  in ( ) at the end if room
• Articles

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Tools

• TwitterFox (Firefox Plug-in)
• Multiple accounts
• TweetDeck (Application)
• Alternative Twitter interface
• Group function
• Digsby (Application)
• A social networking application aggregator
• TweetGrid (Website)
• Streaming search / thread follower
• Segue into business and professional use

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Further reading

• Retweeting
• Retweet Etiquette
• The Science of Retweets
• Twitter tools
• Twittermania 140 More Twitter Tools
• Metrics / return on investment
• Social Media Metrics Superlist Measurement, ROI,
  and Key Statistics
• ROI is RETURN ON INVESTMENT!
• Business use of Twitter
• 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
• How to Use Twitter for Information Mining
• How Twitter Can Help You at Work
• Using Twitter for Customer Service
• Top 10 Uses of Twitter (from a marketing blog)
• Fun Facts Stats about Twitter Social
  Networking
• 49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 and Internet
  Stats

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_at_questions
questions