Demystifying Twitter

Twitter tactics

Craig Thomler19 September 2011

@craigthomlerhttp://egovau.blogspot.com

What is Twitter? The SMS of the internet

Online social network and 'micro blogging' service launched publicly in 2006

Enables users to send 140 character text posts

Users can follow others to view their posts easily

Anyone can read posts from any public account

One of the top 10 most trafficked sites globally

Tweet Message sent via Twitter

Follower An account choosing to follow your account

Reply Tweet prefixed with the '@' account name of a user you are responding to (also @reply)

Retweet Used to redistribute a tweet from another user to your followers (also RT)

dm Direct message sent privately to a follower

Hashtag The use of '#' to group tweets on a topic

Twitterverse Aggregated participation in Twitter

Twits Derogatory term for Twitter users (normally used by non-users)

Tweeple Polite term for Twitter users (also tweeters)

FF Follow Friday, used to share top tweeters (#ff)

Twitter terminology

What is Twitter used for?

Breaking news Information sharing Intelligence gathering Event coverage Consultation Influencing

Pointless babble?“How could you possibly say anything meaningful in 140 characters?” Australian Journalist

Customer service Emergency/crime reporting Social chit-chat Self-promotion / spam Overthrowing governments

(well, maybe not)

Pointless babble@LeighFaazzina: (137 characters)

I've had a serious injury and NEED Help! Can somone please call Winding Trails in Farmington, CT tell them I'm stuck bike crash in woods.

@AnnCurry: (124 characters) @usairforce find a way to let Doctors without Borders planes land in Haiti:http://bit.ly/8hYZOK THE most effective at this.

@JKrums: (110 characters) http://twitpic.com/135xa - There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.

http://www.twitter.com/usairforce

http://www.twitter.com/usairforce

http://bit.ly/8hYZOK

http://twitpic.com/135xa

More pointless babble@arusbridger: (105 characters)

Now Guardian prevented from reporting parliament for unreportable reasons. Did John Wilkes live in vain?

@reallyvirtual: (62 characters) Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).

@BRL85: (54 characters) http://twitpic.com/7h32m - Azadi Square #IranElection

@jamesbuck: (8 characters) Arrested

http://twitpic.com/7h32m

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=#IranElection



Twitter statisticsGlobal Australia

Active users 100 million(Sep 2011)

1 – 2.5 million(May 2011)

Unique visitors 400 million(Sep 2011)

1.9 million(Jun 2011)

Tweets/month 5 billion(Sep 2011)

105 million(Nov 2011)

Twitter statistics

By population Twitter would be the 12th largest country (after Mexico, ahead of the Philippines)

Considering Australian users, Twitter would be the fourth or fifth most populous city (ahead of Adelaide and maybe also Perth)

Twitter demographics 52% female Average 39 years old

(36% are 45+, 13% are 18-25, only 4% are 13-17)

Average income around $55,000– 11% 100k+– 38% 51-100k– 33% 26-50k– 17% 0-25k

Top twitter countriesPercentage of online population:

1. Netherlands 26.8%2. Japan 26.6%3. Brazil 23.7%4. Indonesia 22.0%5. Venezuela 21.0%6. Canada 18.0%7. Argentina 18.0%8. Turkey 16.6%9. Philippines 16.1%10. Singapore 16.0%

??. Australia 8.0%

Twitter governmentActive tweeters include: 18% of heads of state (at least 35) 82% of US Congress and 85% of US Senators 84% of US State Governors 40% of UK MPs

Australian active tweeters: 44% of Federal politicians (99 of 226) 102 Federal agencies

(378 at all government levels)

Who's who

Excludes @KruddMP (1,006,222 followers) as this distorts the chart.

As a comparison,

@BarackObama (US) has 10,113,784 followers

@Number10gov (UK) has 1,841,417 followers

@pmharper (Canada) has 168,265 followers

@PaulKagame (Rwanda) has 26,753 followers

Twitter democracy

On Federal election day 21 August 2010: There were 95,000 tweets that used the #ozvotes

hashtag, with 36,000 individual users tweeting This doesn't include other hashtags used such as

#ausvotes, #auspol, #auswaits, #ozelection, etc

Twitter in Australian agencies

Exploring Twitter

Setting up Twitter Check for mentions, fakes & impersonators

(ie: @johnhoward)

Personal or positional account name?

(@JuliaGillard vs @SenatorLudlum vs @TheQLDPremier)

Decide who can tweet what

(Consider ‘tweetplates’ – templates for regular tweets like releases)

Define your follow policy

(all following you vs screened followers vs select few)

Setting up Twitter Define who is tweeting

(ie: JG vs TeamJG)

Consider defensive accounts

(ie: @QLDPremier)

Include a meaningful profile, image and link

Consider a custom background & colours

Using Twitter Share useful stuff (information, links, photos)

Follow when followed

Use lists to build specific groups to follow

Respond to other tweeters if you can add value

Retweet good/useful tweets (shows support)

Using Twitter Use appropriate hashtags for conversations

Clarify rather than delete erroneous tweets

Support agency twitter accounts by retweeting

Have someone monitor twitter during speeches – look for

questions & sentiment (like a live worm)

It is all on the public record (be careful of DMs)

Plan on Facebook

Organise on Twitter

Report on YouTube

Keep in mind

Build your account before you need it

If you don't have a presence, you don't have a voice

There's no need (or way) to moderate

(you can report spammers & trolls)

Not all your followers will read your tweets live – or at all

Your reach is greater than your followers

Links and hashtags are powerful

Don’t

Hijack hashtags

Attempt complex debates (Twitter is a poor debating tool)

Overuse sarcasm (translates poorly in 140 characters)

Feed the trolls (more than you have to)

Overuse multi-part tweets

(they confuse more often than they enlighten)

Following – hashtags & listsHashtags #actvcc – ACT's virtual community cabinet (mthly) #auspol – ongoing political discussion #agchatoz – weekly rural discussion #insiders – weekly TV program discussion #qanda – weekly TV program discussion #gov2au – ongoing discussion of Gov 2.0 in Australia

Lists Canberra press gallery

http://twitter.com/#!/HealthAgeingAU/national-press-gallery Most local government agencies

http://twitter.com/#!/myregionGovAu/local-government Most Australian government agencies

http://twitter.com/#!/eGovAU/australian-gov-tweets

http://twitter.com/#!/HealthAgeingAU/national-press-gallery

http://twitter.com/#!/myregionGovAu/local-government

http://twitter.com/#!/eGovAU/australian-gov-tweets

Twitter ToolsManagement & Monitoring Tweetdeck – www.tweetdeck.com Hootsuite – www.hootsuite.com

http://www.tweetdeck.com/

http://www.hootsuite.com/

Hootsuite


Useful URL shorteners – www.bitly.com, http://goo.gl Twitlonger - www.twitlonger.com

Statistics An account – http://twittercounter.com, http://tweetstats.com,

http://www.twitalyzer.com, www.klout.com, https://crowdbooster.com



http://www.bitly.com/

http://goo.gl/

http://www.twitlonger.com/

http://twittercounter.com/

http://tweetstats.com/

http://www.twitalyzer.com/

http://www.klout.com/

https://crowdbooster.com/

Twittercounter

Crowdbooster




http://www.twitalyzer.com, www.klout.com, https://crowdbooster.com Federal politician accounts – http://mptweets.com.au/, www.tweetmp.org.au Hashtags – www.hashtracking.com, http://trendistic.indextank.com,

http://trendsmap.com, http://archivist.visitmix.com




http://goo.gl/







http://mptweets.com.au/

http://www.tweetmp.org.au/

http://www.hashtracking.com/

http://trendistic.indextank.com/

http://trendsmap.com/

http://archivist.visitmix.com/

Trendsmap

The Archivist





http://trendsmap.com, http://archivist.visitmix.com Tweet impact – www.tweeteffect.com, http://tweetreach.com




http://goo.gl/













http://www.tweeteffect.com/

http://tweetreach.com/

Tweeteffect

Tweetreach





http://trendsmap.com, http://archivist.visitmix.com Tweet impact – www.tweeteffect.com, http://tweetreach.com Follower management – www.friendorfollow.com




http://goo.gl/













http://www.tweeteffect.com/

http://tweetreach.com/

http://www.friendorfollow.com/

Craig Thomler19 September 2011

@craigthomlerhttp://egovau.blogspot.com

Questions?

Wikipedia – Twitter - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TwitterTwitter by the numbers - http://blog.kissmetrics.com/twitter-statistics/Twitter blog - http://blog.twitter.com/2011/09/one-hundred-million-voices.html100million twitter users - http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/100million-twitter-users-twitter-users-Cornwall/story-13298596-detail/story.html Social web interaction - http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-web-interaction_b13352#more-13352Researching the Twitterverse - http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/opinions/arts/researching-the-twitterverse-184597Tweets per capita - http://www.slideshare.net/sagolla/tweets-per-capita-wcit2010-sagolla-4239462Twitter vs Facebook users - http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-facebook-vs-twitter-demographics-2010-2011/Tribanalytics – Tweets per day - http://blog.tribalytic.com/Social media statistics Australia – June 2011 - http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-june-2011/Australian government agencies on Twitter - http://egovau.blogspot.com/p/australian-government-twitter-accounts.htmlAustralian Federal Politicians on Twitter - http://mptweets.com.au/, http://tweetmp.org.au

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/twitter-statistics/

http://blog.twitter.com/2011/09/one-hundred-million-voices.html

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-web-interaction_b13352#more-13352

http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/opinions/arts/researching-the-twitterverse-184597

http://www.slideshare.net/sagolla/tweets-per-capita-wcit2010-sagolla-4239462

http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-facebook-vs-twitter-demographics-2010-2011/

http://blog.tribalytic.com/

http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-june-2011/

http://egovau.blogspot.com/p/australian-government-twitter-accounts.html


http://tweetmp.org.au/

Demystifying Twitter

Education

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