Twitter for Professional Development

Twitter for Professional Development

Alida HansonWeston High School

March 4, 2013 MSLA Conference@alidahanson

Welcome

• Please boot up your device

• Please log on to your Twitter account

At the end of this session you will know how to:

• Read all the parts of a tweet

• Find good people to follow

• Use hashtags

• Tweet with impeccable Twitter etiquette

What stops you from using Twitter?

Confess on Wallwisher

http://padlet.com/wall/mslatwitter

Twitter Vocabulary

Tweet: a message of 140 characters or less posted Retweet: 1. A tweet that is repeated by another person on Twitter

(noun). 2. To repeat another person’s tweet to your followers (verb) Synonym: RT Variation: MT

Favorite: 1. Distinguish a tweet as important (verb).DM: Acronym for Direct Message. Best not to use this for sensitive

info—you may inadvertently tweet to your entire stream (noun and verb).

Follow: 1. Invite a person’s tweets to appear in your stream (verb). 2. A person who follows you (noun).

Hashtag: # A tagging convention invented by Twitter users. Hashtagshelp us find topics on Twitter (noun).

@: This is like a stamp on an envelope. If you write “@alidahanson” your tweet will find it’s way into my “mentions” mailbox.

@alidahanson’s Twitter account

https://twitter.com/alidahanson

Challenge: Follow 50 people—GO!

• Search for authors, librarians, journalists, magazines, newspapers, blogs

• Mine the lists of people they follow • Tweet your finds to our class hashtag

#mslatwitter• Example: “following @shellterrell because she posts great

links my teachers will love #mslatwitter”• Mine the hashtag for more people to follow• Share with your neighbor

Challenge: Explore, identify and explain 25 Hashtags—GO!

• Use http://bit.ly/112G4KH for sources

• Tweet your hashtags and explanations to our class hashtag #mslatwitter

• Example:

“recommend #sschat for social studies teachers. Tweetups on Tuesdays 8-9pm EST. #mslatwitter”

• Share with your neighbor

10 Twitter Commandments

• Be nice• Be yourself• Stay on topic; keep your tweet balance 90%

professional, 10% personal• Design a profile page that says something about you• Say “thank you” often, especially for retweets• Try to talk to one person every day• Stay positive• Follow 100 people for 1 month before you give up on

Twitter• Craft your tweets carefully for clarity and completeness.

Everyone should be able to understand what you’re saying.• Report spammers and make sure that everyone who

follows you is a real person

Twitter Clients

• Hootsuite (analytics, multiple accounts)

• Tweetdeck (follow multiple saved searches)

• Storify (collect and share tweets)

• Mobile Apps (tweet from your phone)

• Diigo IFTTT (integrate Twitter with Diigo)

Photo Credits

• All photos were used with permission of Flickruser The Daring Librarian (AKA Gwyneth Jones). And guess where I found out about them? Twitter!

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/info_grrl/8040376757/sizes/o/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/info_grrl/7042054455/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/info_grrl/6895952490/