Digital Dates: Making the most of Twitter Michelle Schneider, Academic Skills Development Officer,

Today’s session Twitter & You Being a savvy Tweeter from the start Twitter in Learning & Teaching From a staff perspective From a student perspective Twitter and employability Get a career In a career

What is it? Twitter is a Web 2.0 social networking tool that allows users to send and receive short messages known as tweets. Each Tweet is140 characters & can include videos, photos and links Twitter is a conversation!

Some interesting stats… Over 140 million active Twitter accounts Over 175 million Tweets a day About 1 million accounts added daily! Statistics from 2012, All Twitter:

What’s the point?

By following other people and sources you are able to build up an instant, personalized Twitter feed that meets your full range of interests, both academic and personal. (LSE Public Policy Group 2011) It's also a way to engage, connect, collaborate and network with others that share your personal, professional and academic interests (Me 2013) “ ” “ ”

Twitter & You Be a savvy Tweeter from the start!

1.Add a bio…but not just any bio! What does it say about you? Why should someone follow you?

2.Follow and get followed by the right people! Follow people you are interested in and you want to be followed by! See who the people you follow, follow! Talk to people! (even if they’re not following you). Retweet & reply!

3.Be interesting and be yourself…to a point SMITH, E Be good at social media without trying: A guide for people who don’t have all day to post stuff. [online]. [Accessed 14 March 2013]. Available from: social-media/ Consider balancing the types of Tweets with a ratio of posts addressing: (1) What you do; (2) What you love; and (3) Who you are. (Smith, E. 2013). “ ”

4. Use the power of the hashtag # A great way to start or engage in conversation- you don’t have to follow or be followed by people in the conversation Opens you up to a much wider audience

Summarise discussions into a report if you want a permanent record… Summarised into a report:

Track a hashtag….

5. Think about how you are presenting yourself Consider whether you want two separate accounts Do you want to make your personal account private? Personal and Professional Think about how you could be perceived by employers, they check social media accounts! Don’t criticise/abuse lecturers, students, employers, the University Online persona and reputation Your Tweets could potentially be seen by millions of people if you use hashtags/are Retweeted Consider the implications of a private account Privacy settings Who are you aiming your Tweets at? Think about tone as well as content Know your audience

Making the most of Twitter in learning & teaching

Learning and teaching Staff Student Both Set up a module account e.g. SOEE2212 SOEE2212 Set weekly discussion topics #usehashtags Ask students to sum up a short article or chapter Follow your modules Ask questions and share ideas with other students Use in student projects and set up a project hashtag Tweet links to your content- articles etc/ Tweet links to other peoples’ content. Develop skills: quick evaluation and selection skills; succinct writing skills Share thoughts/ideas/ask questions Follow relevant organisations and keep up-to-date in your field 1h 2h 3h 4h 5h Follow your Uni/School/ Service 4h Follow academic journals for new articles 2h Track or Tweet from conferences (using hashtags) Use backchannel communication in lectures

Ideas and inspiration Academic Excellence in 140 Characters: Using Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities (LSE): (also covers setting up an account & terminology) Spotlight on Social Media (SDDU): 7 things you should know about backchannel communication: Study skills connected (book for students about using technology to support Your studies, includes a section on Twitter): EBL Level 8, Skills B-5 COT

Making the most of Twitter for employability

Some advice from Jess Henderson, University of Leeds Careers Adviser...

Careers workshops for students:

Policies and guidance University policies Communications: Social media code of practice and guides coming soon! Including: General social media guidance Context guides: student education, research Platform guides (including Twitter) Help and guidance Twitter help centre: learning-in-a-digital-age learning-in-a-digital-age Careers centre: / / SDDU:

There’s an app for that! Photo by DavidMartynHunt: