Getting Started With Twitter

(so THAT’S what I’m supposed to do with this thing)

Keith EngwallAssistant Professor, Web & Emerging Technologies LibrarianOakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

engwall@oakland.edu@librariandad

A Little Background

Twitter Tips

• Treat Twitter as a resource

• You don’t have to tweet to use Twitter

• Follow people for what they have to say

Anatomy of a Tweet

TWITTER HANDLE

SHARED BY (you subscribe to their feed)

AUTHOR’S NAME

WHOM TWEET IS

TO/ABOUT

TOPIC KEYWORD

(abbreviation)

RETWEETED BY

WHEN POSTED

POST TWEET:“@nygenome @EricTopol…”

SHARE THIS (with people

who follow you)“LIKE” / SAVE

HASHTAG MENTION

REPLY TOTHIS TWEET

RETWEETTHIS TWEET

FAVORITE THIS TWEET

140 CHARACTERS

OR LESS

AUTHOR’S USERNAME

Twitter Glossary

• FOLLOW: subscribe

• TWEET: 140 character message

• USERNAME (@librariandad): twitter handle

• RETWEET: share tweet

• HASHTAG (“#hcsm”): keyword (abbreviated subject)

• MENTION (“…@librariandad…”): whom tweet is to/about…

• REPLY (“@librariandad…”): tweet back “to” someone…

• FAVORITE ( ): like / save tweet

https://support.twitter.com/articles/166337-the-twitter-glossary#

Twitter Tips

When you see a tweet of interest…

• Click on the author to find more about them

• Click on users “mentioned” in tweet

• Click on hashtags to find related tweets

• Retweet

• Favorite

• Reply

Creating Twitter Account

Twitter Tips

• Search for people to follow by interest keywords

• Don’t follow people just because they’re friends

• Create separate Twitter accounts for different

purposes

• One Twitter account per e-mail address

• Gmail: user+alias@gmail.com -> user@gmail.com

Twitter Interface

Twitter Tips

• Review your e-mail notification settings

• Use lists to fine tune your twitter feeds

• Occasionally check your followers to see if they’d be

good to follow back

Twitter Apps

Twitter Tips

• Try the official Twitter app first

• Test only one app at a time

• Pay attention to the setup steps

• Check your Twitter account for a while after using a

new app

• Revoke access to any app you decide not to use

Q & A