Presentation at Loudoun SBDC Thursday where we talked about twitter features and components for business. This was a practical session where the group learnt to tweet together.

1. Technology thrills SBDC Thursday
Understanding Twitter

2. Why tweet?
Online content is powerful
90% of consumers online trust
recommendations from people they
know, with 70% trusting the opinions
posted online by unknown users
Source: Neilsen’s Global Online Consumer Survey

3. Twitter
• Microblogging service that allows its users to
send and read text-based posts of up to 140
characters – known as tweets
• Has over 300 million users !
• As of March 2011 there are 140 million tweets
posted daily
• Demographics: Women – 53%
• Average age for users on twitter – 39

4. Home is where you Discover lets you tap into a stream of useful and entertaining
view Tweets from information, customized just for you.
When you use Discover, you’ll see results reflecting your
the people you have
interests—based on your current location, what you follow and
chosen to follow.
what’s happening in the world. As you use Twitter more, Discover
gets even better at serving up more content just for you.
Whatever you’re curious about, Discover will help you find out
more.
Made for you | Find more | Who to follow | Find friends |
Browse interests
The new Connect section is where Your profile, others can
you get in on the conversation. tweet directly to you and
It’s the place to see who has view your lists, favorites,
followed or mentioned you, followers, photos and
retweeted or favorited one of your more.
Tweets.

5. Twitter terminology

6. Tweet
Tweet: 140 characters or fewer, and share interesting
information with the world.
You can upload photos, add your location and link to videos,
news stories and more.
• How to tweet:
– Log in to your Twitter account
– Type your Tweet into the box at the top of your screen (shown in
image 1, below), OR click the blue compose new Tweet button
at the top of your screen - it looks like this:
– Click the Tweet button to post the Tweet to your profile.
– You will immediately see your Tweet in the timeline on your
homepage
– Everyone who follows you on twitter will be able to see it

7. How to tweet:
• Via twitter website
• Via third party
applications
• Via phone (First, set up your
phone to link to your Twitter account, then
simply send your message as a text to your
appropriate Twitter short code.)

8. Communicating with particular tweeps
Mention
• Once you've signed up and chosen a Twitter
username, you and others can mention an
account in your Tweets by preceding it with
the @ symbol, eg: "Glad your shipment arrived
@janesmith!“
Message
• If you want to privately Tweet to a particular user
who's already following you, start your Tweet
with DM or D to direct-message them, eg: "DM
@joesmith234 what is your order number?"

9. Retweet
• When you see a Tweet by another user that
you want to share, click Retweet below it to
forward it to your followers instantly.
• You can also Retweet by writing RT
@username ORIGINAL MESSAGE

10. Timeline
• A timeline is a Twitter term used to describe a collected
stream of Tweets listed in real-time order. This brief article
explains a little more about where you see timelines on your
Twitter account.
• When you log in to Twitter, you'll land on the Tweets timeline
view of your homepage.
• Your home timeline is a long stream showing all Tweets from
those you have chosen to follow on Twitter.
• Newest updates are at the top. You can interact with Tweets
from within the Tweets timeline by hovering your mouse over
an update to reply, retweet, or favorite
• Clicking anywhere on a Tweet in your timeline expands the
Tweet, so you can see photos, videos, and profile information

11. Hashtags
eg: "Check out our new products for the Fallhttp://t.co/link2 #fallsale" Think
of hashtags as the theme of your Tweet
• People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet
to categorize those Tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search
• Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets
in that category
• Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet
• If you Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a
search for that hashtag may find your Tweet
• Don't #spam #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag a single Tweet. (Best

12. • Follow: Following someone on Twitter means:
• You are subscribing to their Tweets as a follower
• Their updates will appear in your Home timeline
• That person has permission to send you direct
messages
Followers: Tweeps that are following you

13. Lists: Twitter users can organize others into groups,
or “lists”. When you click to view a list, you'll see a
stream of Tweets from all the users included in that
group. This article will help you get started with some
lists basics.
Favorites:
ConnectThe Connect tab lets you view Interactions,
Mentions, recent Follows and Retweets. Using the
Connect tab you're able to view who has favorited or
retweeted your Tweets, who has recently followed you,
and all of your @replies and @mentions.

14. https://support.twitter.com/articles/81218-how-to-link-
from-your-website-to-your-twitter-account

15. Widgets
• Profile Widget
• Display your most recent Twitter updates on any webpage.
• Search Widget
• Displays search results in real time! Ideal for live events,
broadcastings, conferences, TV Shows, or even just keeping up
with the news.
• Faves Widget
• Show off your favorite tweets! Also in real time, this widget
will pull in the tweets you've starred as favorites. It's great for
moderation.
• List Widget
• Put your favorite tweeps into a list! Then show 'em off in a widget.
Also great for moderation.

16. Other ways of using twitter
• Advertising on Twitter
– Promoted tweets
– Promoted Trends
– Promoted Accounts

17. Best Practices
• Set it up right – add a picture, add a background, add a description of
who you are and what you will be tweeting about
• Include your website URL and location
• Listen and engage with others
• Look for people talking about you, your company, your industry –
connect with them
• Share your company’s journey
• Share your experience/knowledge – what will others benefit from
• Be yourself
• Introduce your tweeps to others
• Tale advantage of twitter search

18. Best Practices- from twitter
Build your following, reputation, and customer's trust with these simple practices:
• Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better,
give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and
share the latest, so give it to them!
• Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products.
• Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you
are listening.
• Respond. Respond to compliments and feedback in real time
• Reward. Tweet updates about special offers, discounts and time-sensitive deals.
• Demonstrate wider leadership and know-how. Reference articles and links about
the bigger picture as it relates to your business.
• Champion your stakeholders. Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted by
your followers and customers.
• Establish the right voice. Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and of
course, a likable tone from your business, but think about your voice as you Tweet.
How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community?

19. • Fly.twitter.com
• Hootsuite
• Tweet deck
• Cotweet
• Seesmic
• Kissmetrics,
• Bitly
• Klout
• TweetAdder
• Tweepi
• Socialmention

20. Group exercise
• Let’s tweet
• Let’s follow each other
• Let’s learn
• Ask questions