Twitter101 for Higher Education

Using Twitter In Student Affairs

Webinar for StudentAffairs.com

August 8, 2011

Presented by:Ed Cabellon

Director, Campus CenterBridgewater State Univ.

http://about.me/edcabellon@EdCabellon

#saTwitter

Learning Outcomes:

• Lexicon of Twitter• How to get started• Student Affairs Applications• Assessment of Success

#saTwitter

What is Twitter?

“Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched in July of that year. Twitter rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with 200 million users as of 2011,[6] generating over 200 million tweets and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day.[3][8][9]

It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet".[10]”

According to Wikipedia.com:

My take? Twitter is an online INFORMATION NETWORK, that can be social.

Twitter Lexicon@username: creates a link to that user in your post.

RT: Retweet, to copy someone else’s post in a new update. It is like “forwarding an email” to someone else. Give them credit by adding their @username.

#: hashtag, helps to organize your tweets into categories for easier searching. Like a digital “file folder” of categorized tweets.

DM: Direct message, send someone in Twitter a private message instead of Tweet that all can read.

Initial Steps to Creating Your Twitter Account

1. Create your Twitter account (www.twitter.com) and fill in all the information, including uploading a recent picture of yourself, a referencing website (like a department webpage or maybe your Facebook page or blog) and a quick bio about what you do and why you’re on Twitter! Without this, it is hard to trust whether you are a real person or just a Twitter robot!

2. Click on the Find People link and begin following people whom you know in real life or want to add to your Twitter stream (celebrities like @Alyssa_Milano and brands like @DunkinDonuts and @SouthwestAir are some great examples). Remember, when you read your Twitter stream, you’re only seeing Tweets from the people you follow.

3. In the search bar, type words or phrases that are interesting to you and see who is “tweeting” about those very things, follow them, and introduce yourself!

What should I TWEET about in Student Affairs?

1) Ask for recommended books, program/event ideas, or management tools.Example tweet: Can anyone share a successful Emerging Leaders schedule of events? or Does anyone have a Student Employee evaluation that they could share?2) Thanking the people who respond to you (include their @username)Example tweet: Thanks @tomkrieglstein @the_sa_blog @DebraSanborn for another great #sachat(For new Twitter users, the above tweet is read “Thanks Tom, The SA Blog, and Debra for another great SAChat!”)3) Ask for help or advice about a professional question.Example tweet: Which professional association should I join?4) Tweet about a useful web resource, a particular blog post, video, website, book, product or service that you find usefulExample tweet: If you are interested in the most inspirational and educational talks online, visitwww.ted.com!5) Share new studies of interestExample tweet: ReyJunco: We still need to run some more analyses; however Twitter use = increased student engagement and higher GPA’s. Are you surprised? #sachat6) Tweet about your school’s website, blog and/or podcast.Example tweet: Check out our new Campus Center Blog by students! http://rccblog.com7) Invite people to an event (online or offline). Events can include open-house programs, extracurricular activities, meetings, book clubs, webchat… really anything!Example tweet: Join us for #SAChat tonight 6-7p CST!8 ) Link to photos of projects, places, etc. of things you want to share.Example tweet: Photos from last night’s Graduate Commencement are found on our Flickr stream!

What should I TWEET about in Student Affairs?

9) On Fridays, recommend other tweeters that your followers should check out.Example tweet: I recommend following @CindyKane for all your leadership and Student Activities goodness! #FollowFriday10) Answer someone else’s general question, and reply to those who ask you a direct question.Example tweet: ATECadvise: @slhealy @edcabellon our Engineering school shares their twitter & FB account amongst advisors. #sachat11) Schedule to meet fellow Higher Ed folks at a conference, or organize a professional tweet-up in your area.Example tweet: Anyone interested in a #sachat #tweetup at #acpa in Boston?12) Ask others for favorites / recommendations… for anything. Example tweet: What are your favorite IPhone or BB Twitter apps?13) Post requests for people to come and speak at your events.Example tweet: Searching for an Ethics Speaker for our Emerging Leaders Conference. Recommendations?14) Post and/or search employment postings. If you see someone else looking for a job, retweet their request.Example tweet: Any students looking for summer work? Visit the bridgew.edu/studentemployment15) Ask for something free. If you serve on the planning committee for any type of conference or event and need donations or gifts-in-kind, ask Twitter!Example tweet: Looking for sponsors for our ACUI Region 1 Fall Conference. @ me if you are interested!

Assessment of Success

• How many times are you getting @ mentioned in others Tweets, either through conversation or simple mentions.• How often are your Tweets getting Retweeted? (RT or Quoted RT)• How many times are you listed by others on their twitter accounts?• How often are your tweeted links getting clicked? Are you using a link shortener like http://bit.ly to measure clicks?• How many followers do you have? Has it grown steadily as you’ve used your Twitter account?

Other Twitter Do’s:

1. DO: Be “Active” on Twitter

2. DO: “Unprotect” Your Twitter Stream

3. DO: Use Your Real Name as Your Twitter Handle

4. DO: Fill Out Your Twitter Profile Completely

5. DO: Use Twitter Lists to Build Connections

6. DO: Participate in All Types of Twitter Chats

7. DO: Follow AND Unfollow as Necessary

Questions?

Resources:http://edcabellon.com/tech/teachingtwitter

http://breakdrink.com/twitter-guide/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o (Twitter in ‘Plain English’)

Thank you for participating today!

http://twitter.com/EdCabellon

(Blog) http://edcabellon.com(Web Profile) http://about.me/EdCabellon