1. TWITTER
WORKSHOP

2. ABOUT TWITTER
•Twitter is a real-time social media platform that allows you to
share information with your followers in small posts called
“Tweets”
•Tweets are 140 characters or less and can include
links, photos, videos
•Twitter can also be useful as a listening tool to monitor what
others are saying about your agency and what’s going on around
you
•Twitter is good for updates and information in emergencies

3. TWITTER

4. GETTING STARTED
When creating your twitter account:
•Choose a handle that is recognizable and descriptive such as
@nycHealthy as opposed to @DOHMH
•Be sure to register your twitter account with DoITT at
http://cityshare.nycnet/html/cityshare/html/social_media_form.h
tml
•Choose an appropriate avatar to represent your agency
•Add a headline/brief description of your agency/account
•Link to the City’s social media policy at
http://nyc.gov/socialmediapolicy

5. GETTING STARTED
Before you start tweeting:
•Follow other agencies.
Agencies will frequently
follow your agency back, may
retweet your content or write
a tweet welcoming you- all
great ways to add more
followers
• Go to http://bit.ly/vLZI2l to
see a list of all NYC
government twitter accounts .

6. STYLE GUIDE
•Remember you are representing the
City of New York and your agency
when you tweet.
•Remember to check all spelling and
use proper grammar
•Do not use abbreviations and slang
–Such as “2” for “to” or “r” for “are”
•Avoid using more than 1 exclamation
mark and all capital letters
•Remember to speak in the voice of
your agency

7. TWITTER BASICS
• To start using twitter, log on to your account and
type your tweet under the “What’s happening” box.
• Your tweets are limited to 140 characters including
spaces and the remaining characters appear to the
right of the tweet button

8. ENGAGEMENT
How do I see what people are saying about my agency or
programs on Twitter?
• The first thing you should do is click “connect ” on the top-left corner on
Twitter.com and then click “mentions.” You will then see every time your
Twitter handle was mentioned in a tweet.
• There is also search box on Twitter. Typing in your agency’s name as well
as other keywords affiliated with your agency will yield the results of any
tweets that mention these terms. You can use this to sift through popular
tweets, tweets with links, or all of the tweets with the keywords.

9. ENGAGEMENT
There are many ways to engage users through twitter:
• Mention: Anytime you mention an entity with a twitter
account, use their Twitter handle, e.g.: Check out
@nycHealthy’s new ad campaign to quit smoking at
on.nyc.gov/zc123
• Many times, the account you mention will retweet your
content and will likely engage back with you
– Why should you do this?
• People like to showcase positive mentions of themselves
• Retweets by others can lead to new followers

10. HASHTAGS
• Hashtags: You can use a hashtag to categorize a
tweet, hashtags are usually themes or subjects so that others
can easily search for your tweets and you can find other
tweets about similar topics
– For example during Hurricane Irene the hashtag #Irene
was used and during the State of the City #SOTC2012 was
used
– You can click on the “Discover” tab at the top of
twitter.com to see the popular hashtags

11. HASHTAGS
When using hashtags:
• Avoid using general terms such as #food
• Limit the number of hashtags per tweet
• Use hashtags only when there is topic you feel others will
likely use. If a hashtag is too specific and others do not know
about it, it will not be useful
• Hashtags are useful for promoting specific campaigns or
events. Instead of creating a new twitter account for a
campaign, you can use a hashtag.

12. RETWEETS
Why would you Retweet?
• Retweet: When you see a tweet that you would also like to
share with your followers you can retweet that same piece of
information.
• You would retweet when:
– A tweet mentions your agency in a positive light
– A tweet is about a project or campaign of your agency
– A tweet is about an issue that is relevant to your agency

13. RETWEETS
There are 2 ways to retweet a message
1. The newer way to retweet is by clicking the Retweet
button on the top of the desired tweet
• The retweet button places the original tweet with the
original user’s avatar into your twitter stream
• This is faster and you do not have to count
characters, but the tweet does not contain your
account’s avatar

14. RETWEETS
2. The older way of retweeting is copying the tweet’s text
and prefacing it with RT and the original account name
• This tweet will contain your avatar and will look like an
original tweet from your account
• You can also add in your own text to the tweet such as
“Thank you” or “Excellent resource”
• If you see MT in a tweet that means the original tweet
has been modified.

15. PICTURES
Best practices show that posting exclusive, engaging content
such as videos, links or photos is extremely effective in social
media.
How do I include pictures in my tweets?
• With the updated version of Twitter, there is now a camera
icon that shows up underneath the “What’s Happening?” text
box, as well as an icon to add your location.
• There are also mobile apps you may use to add images to your
tweets including Twitter for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android
and Instagram

16. LINKS
How do I include links?
• Bit.ly and ow.ly are sites that allow users to shorten, share, and
analyze the links they post to Twitter. Using these sites will help you
optimize your 140 character space.
• Twitter will also automatically shorten your links now to t.co
• We suggest going to bit.ly to shorten links as nyc.gov site will be
automatically shortened to the format: on.nyc.gov/_______
• If your agencies websites do not shorten to on.nyc.gov, please email
digital@media.nyc.gov
• In addition, please email digital@media.nyc.gov if you would like
your bitly account upgraded to a pro account.

17. STRATEGIES
There are many ways to gain followers on Twitter:
• When referring to an agency, individual, organization or company that has a
presence on Twitter, always use their Twitter handle when referring to them.
• Respond frequently to Tweets
– When you check your “mentions,” you may find that people have asked
you questions. While no one would expect you to respond to every
question, regular engagement shows your followers that you diligently
monitor activity on Twitter.
– There are two ways of responding:
1. When you begin a tweet with a twitter handle only that user and
users who check their profile will see the account. This can be
helpful if answering a specific question
2. If you start the tweet with a phrase or even a period, your
followers will see the response on their feeds (e.g. .@johnsmith
Thanks for your help.) This can be helpful if you have received
many questions on a topic and would like your followers to see
the response.

18. STRATEGIES
Add value and stay topical
• Tell your followers something useful in Tweets or direct them
to compelling content.
• Think about the question of “What’s in it for me” when
creating content for your followers
• A generic tweet telling them “Good morning,” “Visit our
website” is not valuable, and would not lead a user to follow
you. Agencies are specialized, so we advise you to stay topical
by tweeting about issues relevant to your agency.

19. STRATEGIES
Provide a next step or call to action
• Give your followers something to do, be it watching a
video, going to a website, voting in a contest, following
another account or attending an event. When directing users
to content on the web, always link to the content in your
tweet.

20. MEASUREMENT
Measuring success with Twitter:
• Be sure to set goals and monitor Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs)
– Fans
– Retweets
– Followers
– Impressions
– Klout Scores