Learn how to use Twitter through the #learning3 experiment

Input!

I thought Twitter was just a load of gossip

Think again, it has far more

uses than you might think!

Get breaking newsShare informationAsk questions – and get answers from expertsFollow and participate in conferences remotelyLearn Be part of a professional networkPromote the work you’re doing

What is a tweet?

• A tweet is a short message comprising 140 characters (that is letters plus spaces) which answers the simple question ‘what are you doing?’

• Twitter is based on the sharing of these short messages between people who choose to ‘follow’ each other.

• It’s a bit like a micro form of email

How do I join?• Visit the Twitter website: http://twitter.com• Click on ‘sign up now’ & follow the

instructions.• Choose a user name – this could be your real

name or a nickname. The shorter the better (this will leave more room for your tweets – 140 character messages). Once chosen, you can’t change your username so choose carefully.

Example

Privacy settings & notifications

• Decide whether to make your tweets ‘protected’ – only certain people can read them or ‘public’ - everyone can read them.

• Decide on how regularly you wish to receive emails informing you of new ‘followers’.

Profile picture• In ‘settings’ and then ‘profile’ you can add an image.

Choose a picture that you have stored on your PC. You could use a cartoon or other image, it doesn’t have to be of your face.

• Next to where the image icon is, go to ‘change image’ and then ‘browse’. Find your picture in the box and select it by clicking ‘open’, then click ‘save’ at the bottom of the screen and your picture will upload. This works just like when you add an attachment to an email.

• Having a picture is important as it makes you appear more ‘real’ and friendly. You wouldn’t attend a meeting or a conference with a bag on your head would you?!

Example

Add a biography• It helps if you complete the ‘bio’ section

describing a bit about yourself. This will help people to find you and also help them to decide whether to follow you. Some people use a list of key words, others write a greeting. It’s up to you but don’t leave it blank.

• If you have a blog or company website – add this in the ‘web’ section – this should increase traffic to your site.

Example

What it looks like on my profile

Choose a profile theme• There are a few different ‘themes’ to choose

from to create your profile background. This is what people will see when they visit your Twitter profile. Visit ‘design’ in settings to do this.

• You can design your own background by choosing an image you have stored on your PC and selecting the colour scheme. To do this click on ‘change background image’ and ‘change design colours’.

Settings• You can change any of these things (apart from your

username) at any time by clicking on ‘settings’. • For some tips, have a look at other people’s profiles

to see what they have put in their biographies and also what their photos and themes look like.

• Your profile is like your advertisement for yourself so think about the image you want to portray. Again, I would suggest, be yourself as much as you can!

Find people to follow• The whole of Twitter works by people ‘following’

each other. • When you follow someone, you will see their

most recent tweets appearing on your Twitter home page.

• The easiest way to find people to follow is to find one key person, eg. @BarackObama – and see who they’re following. Click on a name to go to their page and then simply click on ‘follow’.

On the right hand column of any twitter

profile is a list of people being followed

by that individual. Hover over the photo

to see the person’s name.

Click on the photo to visit that person’s page and then click

‘follow’ to follow them.

Find people to follow• Search for the term #learning3 in the search bar on

the Twitter home page.• Here you will see all the tweets of people using the

‘hashtag’ #learning3.• If you’re interested in what someone has said, click

on their name, this will take you to their page and click ‘follow’. See if they’re following anyone you would like to follow and repeat the process.

• The more people you follow, the more useful Twitter becomes.

Search for a person or hashtag/

keyword here

Some recommendations• Here are some recommendations of people/organisations to

follow: Must-follows!@BarackObama

@ll_uk@stephenfry

@vahva

News@bbcbreaking

@reuters_co_uk@bbceducation

@epolitix@MonitoringUK@reutersgovtuk

@FEnews@guardiannews

Government@bisgovuk

@dcsfgovuk@bis_unis@bis_skills

@westminbriefing@CommunitiesUK

@UKCES

The ‘retweet’

• A retweet is like forwarding an email – you basically repeat someone else’s tweet by putting RT (for retweet) and their twitter name @name before it.

• If you see something you want to retweet – click on ‘retweet’ (this will add the RT @name bit for you automatically). This is the major way information is shared across twitter.

The reply

• To reply to what someone has said or asked, simply click on ‘reply’ next to their tweet.

• To see who’s replied to you, in the right hand column you will see your name @name – click here and see all the tweets where people have mentioned your name.

• This is a public one to one conversation.

Click here to reply

Click here to retweet

The direct message

• These are called DMs for short. • A DM is a private message to someone you

follow – only the recipient can view it.• You can only DM someone if you’re following

them and they’ve given permission to receive DMs.

Click here to send a

direct message

What’s a hashtag?• Hashtags are keywords and are a way of tracking topics

on Twitter. By using hashtags, you can help people who are looking for more information on your subject find your Tweets.

• You add hashtags to your tweets by using the hash symbol, #, and a word that defines the tweet's topic. For example, #michaeljackson or #G20. You can include more than one hashtag in your tweet, if appropriate.

• You can also search for tweets with hashtags that interest you. You can click on a hashtag to view everyone’s tweets using that hashtag.

• Many conferences use a hashtag to enable delegates to track comments about the conference online.

Write a tweet!• Some people find it hard to know what to

write about. My advice is ‘be yourself’. • The #learning3 experiment should get you

started.• What thoughts do you have about how

technology is changing the way we learn?• Ask a question, or make a statement and then

write the hashtag #learning3 and click on ‘update’!

Write your tweet in the box under the words ‘What’s happening?’ If you want to add a

comment as part of the #learning3 debate then add the hashtag #learning3

Sharing links• Link sharing is great on Twitter. If you want to

share a link, copy the link from the search bar at the top of your browser and paste it into the tweet. It won’t work as a link unless it’s preceded by http://

• If the link is really long, put it into a url shortening site like: http://tinyurl.com – this will give you more space for your accompanying comment.

Trending topics• ‘Trending topics’ are topics lots of people are

talking about - live. You can see these down the right hand side of your Twitter home page.

• Click on a topic you’re interested in to see all Tweets relating to that topic.

• Alternatively, search for a topic or keyword using the search bar on your Twitter home page.

These are the topics which were

trending in the UK on 24th February 2010.

Click on a topic to see all live tweets related

to that topic or hashtag.

And that’s the basics

• There are many more things you can do with Twitter but hopefully this has got you started.

• The more you use Twitter the more you’ll get the hang of how it works.

• Persevere – it could be the most valuable professional development tool you find this year!

• Finally, don’t forget to follow me: @vahva !