The important use of Twitter in the Educators’ World @MKECatholicEd The important use of Twitter in the Educators’ World

The Language of Twitter Explained Twitter Handle Definition: this is a username selected by anyone using Twitter and must be less than 15 characters. Each handle has it’s own unique url, with the handle added after twitter.com (ex. @MKECatholicEd, twitter.com/MKECatholicEd ) The Hashtag Definition: A hashtag on Twitter refers to a topic, keyword or phrase that follows the # symbol and are used to categorize ideas on Twitter. (ex: #CathConMKE) Followers Definition: this means you are subscribing, or following, their tweets or messages. A follower is someone who follows or subscribes to another person's tweets. (You can be someone else’s follower while still having followers) @ Sign (example: @MKECatholicEd) Definition: an important code on Twitter, the @ sign is used to refer to individual users on Twitter. Combined with their username, this is how you can find people on Twitter. It is also used in tweets to refer to that person or send them a public message. Retweet (RT) Definition: a Tweet that you repost for you followers to read

Step One: Open Twitter

Step Two: Click Sign Up

Step Three: Provide Your Basic Information

Step Four: Create Your Username

Step Five: Choose to Stay Always Logged In and Have Your Tweets Tailored From Recent Website Visits

Step Six: Create Account

Step Seven: Upload Profile Photo

Step Eight: Write a Little Bio

Step Nine: Start Tweeting

Step Ten: Search People to Follow

If You Ever Want to Change Your Photo, Bio or Other Information

The Benefits of Twitter Real time search. Besides being a social networking site that connects people from all around the globe, Twitter is a powerful real-time search engine. Twitter search results  contain links to web pages and articles that have been filtered by others before they were tweeted . And while Google disposes of a very sophisticated filtration algorithm, nothing beats the human-induced filtration represented by tweeters, which we call curation. A survey of 755 educators found that Twitter’s capacity to reduce various types of isolation and the personalized, positive, and collaborative community it facilitated were valued by many respondents (Carpenter & Krutka, 2014c). The U.S. Department of Education’s National Education Technology Plan 2010 encouraged schools to experiment with using social media to expand learning opportunities for both students and teachers. Teacher educators, as well, should consider joining in this experimentation and investigate ways to model for preservice teachers pedagogically sound uses of the technologies that are increasingly present in school and students’ lives, in general. Hashtags have really revolutionized the concept of a community of practice. Hashtags are great for creating a community around a topic. They are open and anybody can access and use them. They are also a good way for searching topic-specific content on Twitter Twitter Lists. A list is a curated group of Twitter users and a great way to organize your interests. You can use them to categorize and organize tweets into different areas relevant to the information you are seeking.

Plan to Increase Followers Represent who you truly are through the profile picture and bio (example: @MKECatholicEd) Use hashtags that are trending (#CathConMKE) Tweets with one or more hashtags are 55% more likely to be retweeted than tweets without Make your tweets shareworthy Give followers a reason to share: show value and importance Be resourceful Provide information to followers so they don’t have to go anywhere else to find it Participate in Twitter chats Cross post to other profiles, but not through automation Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram

Call to Action Tweets Research shows that using call-to-action phrases help to engage the audience A study done on promoted tweets shows: Link and ask to download – increase clicks 13% Retweet – increase retweets 311% Ask for Follow – increase follows 258% Ask for Reply – increase replies 334% Give people a reason why they should share Make tweets personal, use conventional tone Balance call to action tweets with useful and entertaining content

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