Heather McLeod Sherwood Park Elks #481

 What is Twitter?  Why use Twitter?  Twitter 101 ◦ Key Twitter Terms ◦ Getting Started ◦ Examples  Twitter Tips  Demo

 Being able to send a text message to 100,000 people who share an interest in your topic…  Being able to see what people are talking about right now….  Knowing what the hottest links are, the products everyone is excited about, or what events are coming up in your community….  Imagine your words being passed on by 5 people. Then 20. Then 100. Imagine that happening in seconds…

Twitter is an information network made up of 140-character messages called Tweets. These messages can simply be text or a link to an article, web page, or photo. It's an easy way to discover the latest news related to subjects you care about!

 People use Twitter to talk about what they are reading, watching, experiencing, or doing  Breaking news -Twitter is the world’s real- time newspaper ◦ Through Twitter: 23 seconds ◦ Via traditional media: 43 minutes  Promotion and connection of people attending organized functions – concerts, festivals, events, etc.

 It is FREE advertising!  You can connect with other groups and individuals in your community to: ◦ Share ideas ◦ Exchange experiences ◦ Network and create change ◦ Attract new members  It is a way to share your events and celebrations on the virtual stage

 Understanding the terms – 99% of the work  Getting started -setting up a profile  Examples

Hastag Tweet Re-tweet Following Followers Handle

Tweet: The message you send out to your followers from your Twitter account.

Handle: How you are identified on Twitter. It’s symbol, plus the name you have given your account

Following: What you do to receive/view tweets from someone  Tweets are public  You choose whose updates you want to receive  This opt-in model is called Following

Followers: Those people or organizations “following” your tweets.  These people or groups are choosing to receive your updates!

Retweet: When you resend a tweet from someone else. Expressed with an “RT” followed by the tweeter’s handle

Hashtag: A hashtag is a term, prefixed by the # symbol, to mark keywords or topics in tweets so they are easily searchable. Anyone can create their own hashtag!! Messages categorized by a hashtag head to Twitter search #YEG #ILoveTacos #Elks #Cookies #thisisahashtag #isitfridayyet

Direct Messages “DM”: Private notes are called (direct) messages. In order to send a DM the recipient has to be following you

TermDefinitionUsage/Example TweetA 140 character update or post sent via Twitter “I just got a Tweet from message/replyUsing syntax let’s the twitter user know your mentioning The provincial conference is this weekend!” FollowWhat you do to receive/view tweets @City of Edmonton FollowersNumber of people subscribed to receive your Oprah has over 19,000,000 followers HashtagA “hash tag” is included in tweets to group them by topic (i.e. #followfriday) Memebers are excited about the conference #YEG Direct Message “DM”Send a message to someone so only they can see it I would like to learn more about your organization Re -Tweet “RT”The act of forwarding/repeating another person’s message to your followers with attribution HSMcLeod The provincial conference is this weekend!

It is not as scary as you think it is!!! …..it took me less than 5 minutes to create a Twitter account for the Sherwood Park Elks!

 Go to Twitter.com  Sign up ◦ Name ◦ Address ◦ Password

 Add a photo (logo)  Change your background  Write a 160 character bio  Add a link that will help people learn more about you

The good news is when you are going through this process there is a “Twitter Teacher” that walks you through it!

You know the jargon, you have an idea of how Twitter works, and you have created a profile…..now what? Let’s look at some examples!!

 Problem: I live in Gopher Gulch Alberta – how would I use Twitter to promote our pancake breakfast?  Answer: Use hashtags (#) with the airport letters of large cities in your province (#YEG), with what you are doing (#Pancakes) with the name of your town (#gophergultchalberta). You can tweet the same message with more than one hashtag! Get your members to retweet the message!!

 Problem: What would I need to do in order to advertise an upcoming movie night in the park with my community?  ANSWER: Create your message and tag the date, the movie, the location of the park, your local municipal government, as well as the actors. You can send more than one tweet to include these different hash tags. Get your members to support it by retweeting the message!!!

 Check it often  Create hashtags!!!!  Build a voice: Retweet, Reply, React  Click links in other’s Tweets to view: ◦ Images and videos they have posted ◦ Profiles of users mentioned in their message ◦ Tweets related to a hashtag they used  Mention: Include others in your content  Push the 140 character limit!!!

This unusually helpful sentence, including all of the spaces and all of the punctuation, is precisely one hundred and forty characters long.

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