Chapter 7: Connecting with Twitter: Part B

Web 2.0 and Social Media for Business 2nd Edition

Roger McHaney, Kansas State University

Using TwitterTwitter capitalizes on the methods that busy people use to get tasks done.

Users find a convenient moment to access their smartphone and send a tweet or check on recent tweets from others.

Twitter works well in spare moments when waiting in line at a store or during commercial breaks in a news broadcast.

Twitter collects new information and provides it in easy-to-access ways during short bursts of time.

Basic Twitter Concepts: Handle

Handle – A user name that starts with the ‘@’ symbol is a Twitter handle. Users register their handle and use it as an identifier for their tweets and other users can send messages to it like an address.

Examples Include: @MLB – Major League Baseball twitter handle@BarackObama – U.S. President Barack Obama’s Twitter handle@nytimes – New York Times Newspaper Twitter handle

HANDLE

Basic Twitter Concepts: Mention

Mention – When a handle appears in a tweet, it will automatically trigger a mention and will be placed into that user’s mentions folder. MENTION

Basic Twitter Concepts: Private (Sort of)

If a tweet starts with a handle (e.g. @handle), it will be placed into the home tweet streams of only people that follow both the sender and the one being mentioned.

Although considered a private tweet by Twitter, it can still be viewed by the public (Just ask certain politicians about this one!).

A ‘private’ tweet can be accessed on the senders’ and receivers’ public sites or on the sites of anyone who follows both the sender and receiver.

PRIVATE?

Basic Twitter Concepts: Period

Twitter users will place a ‘.’ in front of the handle.

Since Twitter looks at the first character in determining whether a message is meant to be ‘private’ or public, the ‘.’ ensures that the message will be broadcast to all followers of a sender.

The period came into favor for this function because it is a small character and will not distract the readers.

PERIOD ‘.’

Basic Twitter Concepts: Replies

Twitter replies can be generated by clicking on a mention. Several options appear at the bottom of a tweet including Reply. A reply will format the response tweet as a private message. If any character is placed ahead of a tweet’s ‘@’ symbol, the reply becomes a public tweet.

REPLIES

Basic Twitter Concepts: Direct MessageDirect messages are Twitter’s most private form of communication (a 140 character version of nearly-real-time email).

Type a ‘D’ or ‘DM’ followed by a handle to start a direct message tweet.

Direct messages are sometimes mistakenly made public when the sender forgets to include the ‘D’.

Replies to a direct message must also have the ‘D’ or ‘DM’ or it becomes a public tweet.

Can only be sent to a follower. This reduces the amount of spam sent to Twitter message boxes.

DIRECT MESSAGE

Basic Twitter Concepts: Retweet

A tweet can go viral when it is retweeted by enough people.

Occurs when a user forwards received tweets. Generally starts with the characters ‘RT’. However, can also just be forwarded tweets.

Using the ‘RT’ characters is a form of attribution.

Many organizations use a tweet’s retweets counter as a measure of impact.

RETWEET

Basic Twitter Concepts: Modified Tweet

Some users embed a tweet into their message or add his or her own thoughts to a tweet.

Occasionally, the user will start a message with ‘MT’ for Modified Tweet.

This is a courtesy to the original tweeter and indicates the user has edited the original message.

May occur if user needs to trim characters from the original message to enable more room for added comments.

MODIFIED TWEET

Summary of Common Twitter Lingo

Summary of Common Twitter Lingo (con’t.)

Example Tweets

Twitter ListsA key to successful use of Twitter is to reduce the ‘noise’ and focus on connections consistent with goals.

Twitter lists essentially the equivalent of groups in other social media.

Twitter and a number of third party vendors provide tools to create and manage Twitter lists.

For instance, one list could be created for business contacts, another for personal friends, one for organizations of interest, and yet another for collecting celebrity tweets.

Lists can be private or public.

Dave Charest Suggested Lists to Follow

Peers – At the same level and in the same industry

Pros – Charest suggests creating a list of experts and thought leaders within a relevant industry

Patrons – These people fall into the categorization of customer or client

Other Lists to Create

Friends – Many Twitter users keep their business and personal lives separate with two different accounts.

Personal Interest – Can include those from areas outside the business domain but can provide insight, ideas, and creative outside-the-box concepts.

Some Twitter Lists Have Become Famous

Twitter lists have taken on a life of their own. For instance, popular twitter lists allow people to have a ready-made group of similar people to follow.

Create A Twitter List

1) Navigate to Lists

Create A Twitter List

2) On the right side of the box, the “Create List” button can be pressed to begin a new list.

Create A Twitter List

3) Fill out meaningful information to help describe list to potential followers.

Create A Twitter List

4) Add people to the list.

Create A Twitter List

5) Search and add to one or more lists.

Create A Twitter List

6) View member Tweets.

Private Lists Are Locked

Twitter Users Have a List Page

Includes user’s lists and other lists user has been added to.

Finding Twitter Lists

One way to acquire a useful list collection is to visit the profile page of other Twitter users in the same business domain. Their public lists are visible after clicking "View all" on their lists. Another way of finding lists is to use a third-party application that maintains a directory of Twitter lists.

Using Shortened Links in Twitter

A Web address shortening tool can help conserve characters. Twitter automatically shortens links but services such as http://bit.ly can also be used to obtain extra statistics.

End ofChapter 7 Part B

Web 2.0 and Social Media for Business 2nd Edition

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Slides Prepared by Professor Roger McHaney Kansas State UniversityTwitter: @mchaneyBlog: http://mchaney.comEmail : mchaney@ksu.edu