Laura MinnisCSU, Stanislausmsminnis1035@yahoo.com

Twitter History

• Twitter did not instantly catch on. The website took a while to catch the attention of the World Wide Web. Andrea Crewson who wrote, Taming the Twitter Firehouse, explains that, “Twitter, an online message service that limits posts to 140 characters, began in 2006, created by Obvious Corp., run by Evan Williams and Biz Stone. It received little mainstream attention until 2007” (Crewson 3).

• Statistics from a 2009 Twitter Tally, which was accessed on Emarketer.com on May 31, 2009, “14 million” people use Twitter, and that number is expected to influx by another four million in one year “(Logar 3).

Twitter Craze!

•What truly set Twitter onto the World Wide Web was celebrity usage such as Ellen Degenerise, Ashton Kutcher and now Oprah. Twitter had a huge influx of users after Oprah had a show on how to set up a Twitter account. Business has used Twitter for years for staying connected and asking coworkers quick, direct questions at the job site.•Tee Morris, author of All A Twitter, puts the Twitter Craze into perspective,

Speak your peace in 140 characters or less, return to your previous work, and if you are alerted to a reply or a series of replies, it is your option to reply. In an IM Chat, whether it is you and another or a conference call, the conversation is driven by instantaneous, continuous communication. By design, Twitter is not meant to be a timesink. (Morris Ch1)

Twitter Basics

What is twitter? Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets.

What can we do?Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.

Twitter Terminology

Following-While Facebook requires that all relationships be reciprocal, Twitter allows for one-way relationships. If you find Twitter users who are interesting, you can "follow them" to subscribe to their tweets.

TimelineThe “timeline” page is the homepage which displays tweets from all the people you are following. On the sidebar (column on the right of each Twitter page)Public timeline

Retweeting (RT)Retweeting is the act of sharing someone else’s tweet with your followers – spreading the word wider. To identify a retweet, the Twitter convention is to put RT at the start of the retweet and to include the Twitter username of the person you are retweeting like attributing a quote. e.g., 　 RT @SCBWI Our summer conference is August 7-10.

Tweet-Each of your Twitter posts or updates is known as a tweet. Some people refer to them as “twits”, but the official term is “tweet.” Each tweet is no longer than 140 characters.

More Twitter Terminology

Twitterazzi - Twitter paparazzi

Twittionary - Twitter dictionary

Tweetup - meeting (in person) of people you tweet with

Twitterverse - the Twitter service and the people using it

Twit - a person who uses Twitter

Twitter Tools-Mr. Tweet (http://mrtweet.net) Finds people with similar interestsGreat for jobsBit.ly (http://bit.ly/) Tracts who uses your linksTwitPic (http://twitpic.com) Flickr for TwitterWordPress(http://wordpress. org)Blog with Twitter Tools http://lminnis2.wordpress.com/Is.gd (http://is.gd/) Small URL maker for Twitter

 Who is on Twitter Anyway?

•Looking at who is using Twitter today, Sysomos Inc. created, Inside Twitter; An In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World (a survey) to inform businesses who, where and when are people using Twitter. Does Twitter have an impact? Who is using it?• Sysomos Inc., one of the world’s leading social media analytics companies, conducted an extensive study to document Twitter’s growth and how people are using it. After analyzing information disclosed on 11.5 million Twitters accounts, we discovered that:

•85.3% of all Twitter users post less than one update/day•21% of users have never posted a Tweet•New York has the most Twitters users, followed by Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco and Boston; while Detroit was the fast-growing city over the first five months of 2009 •More than 50% of all updates are published using tools – mobile and Web-based –

other than Twitter.com. TweetDeck is the most popular non-Twitter.com tool with 19.7% market share.•There are more women on Twitter (53%) than men (47%)

 

Even though most people believe Twitter is only used by young adults, the study shows that older users are on Twitter as well. Sysomos also found that people felt more responsible for tweeting if they had a larger following. Tweeters felt that they let their followers down if they did not keep up with their tweeting.

Just young people, right?

And Why do they Twitter?

Sample Twitter Conversation – Job/School Usage

•Fortune 500 Companies use Twitter. Four of the top five corporations (Wal-Mart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and General Electric) consistently post on their Twitter accounts.

• Rank appears to influence the use of Twitter by the 2009 Fortune 500. Of the top 100 companies on the list, “47 have a Twitter account.

•Employees use Twitter to Help each other.

Job/School Usage continued…

Teachers/Jobs can use micro-blogging to get in touch with students/employees.

Notice board: teacher can send memos on tasks, exams or events.Resources: Recommend resources and share links, web pages, videos, etc.Answers: Teachers can solve students’ doubts or answers very quicklyFeedback: Collect students’ opinions about the classMotivate: Keep interest high helping students to give a sense and utility to what they have learnt.

Example of a Network…

Twitter Future?

•People who now use Twitter have three accounts; one for work, one for home and one for school. Twitter creates social spaces for each aspect of our lives.

•Twitter is being adopted by more companies and is becoming the fast track for being in the know for job advancement, the business community and job placement. You either use it or are left in the dark.•Twitter is becoming the largest site for businesses to hire new employees.•People are using Mr. Tweet to scout out companies on Twitter and

post tweets on job experience. Many are now being hired by how they are tweeting.

Twitter Big Brother???Twitter is now being recorded as to what words each user uses and what the content

means.

Figure 2: 4S analysis of two users: @w3c (left) and @oprah (right). The usage of dimensions from substance (top row), status (second), social (third), or style (bottom) categories is shown in the vertical bars, with Twitter’s average usage shown in the center. Common words in selected dimensions from each category are shown as word clouds. Word size is proportional to frequency in that dimension globally, and word shade is proportional to the frequency in the user’s recent tweets. Light gray words are unused in recent tweets.

Helpful Resources

“Managing an Online Reputation” - Kermit Pattison, The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/business/smallbusiness/30reputation.html?scp=3&sq=Kermit%20Pattison&st=cse

International Higher Education Consulting Blog - David Comp - http://ihec-djc.blogspot.com

“10 Twitter Tips for Higher Education” - Heather Mansfield, University Business - www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1285

“Facebook Driving Mobile Net Usage” - BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8149652.stm

“How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live” - Steven Johnson, Time Magazine (7.5.09) - http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html

“Generation (WH)Y” - Kim Karalekas, from The Project 100 http://theproject100.wordpress.com/

"As Facebook Ages, Gen Y Turns to Twitter" - Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/as_facebook_ages_gen_y_turns_to_twitter.php 

Helpful Resources

“Study Abroad in a Transparent World” - Presented by Penny Schouten and Sarah McNitt at the 2009 NAFSA Conference in Los Angeles, CA http://blog.academic-solutions.com

“Social Networks Around the World” - Doug Coleman, ReadWriteWeb - www.readwriteweb.com/archives/post_2.php

“Why Don’t Teens Tweet? We asked over 10,000 of Them.” - Geoff Cook, Tech Crunch - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/30/why-dont-teens-tweet-we-asked-over-10000-of-them

“TXT Message - Behavior” - SETI.org podcast series “Are We Alone” quoting BJ Fogg, Ph.D. of Stanford Univeristy’s Persuasive Technology Lab.

Wikipedia - for definitions on social networking

8 Why Email No Longer Rules… …And what that means for the way we communicate” - Jessica Vascellaro - The Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970203803904574431151489408372.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter

"Instant Connections" - Mandy Reinig and Penny Schouten - International Educator -http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/novdec09_edabroad.pdf