“Micro-Rhetoric” and Twitter Shealene Johnson, Kathleen Cinar & Ashley Pappalardo

What is Twitter? A place to broadcast yourself/a place for discussion Important for users to add to the community No rules—short self-expression, often quick witted/humorous/informative

Just getting started? Followers: -Quality over quantity How to draw followers: -Be interesting (read/re-tweet/respond to what others want to read) -Be conversational (interactive) -Follow relevant people (common interests)

Know your followers Receive when new followers arise: Use settings to monitor notifications Click around to learn about followers: Twittermailer: tool used to get peoples profiles/recent tweets Easy to forget who follows you/who you follow: DoesFollow: check if person is following you FriendOrFollow: see followers fans/friends TwitterSheep: see what followers say/what interests them

Unfollow: go to person’s page & click remove Too many tweets, long winded, spam, etc Usually person won’t know Occasional 3 rd party apps that tell people—not recommended - Leads to people obsessing about popularity - Focus on making positive relationships, don’t worry about the rest

Tweeting To build relationships tweet a few times a week/day Average = apprx. 4tweets/day Different for everyone—NO RULES Replying First, Twitter-user will get This is a public message—all your followers can see this Proper to respond—usually a friendly message Respond

Don’t be too vague—add context to response Followers may not know who you are tweeting Direct Messages Peer to peer communication: private message to one person

Re-tweeting Reposting someone else’s post—always give credit Aim for clear message (140 characters or less) Leave room for people to re- tweet News spreads quickly To be more interesting comment on why link is important/what it means to you Negative: Page full of same re- tweets—add a spin to it What to re-tweet: How-to’s News Warnings Freebies/contests Unique term/phrase

#Hash-tagging Used to group messages by category When talking to a group of people hash tag subject matter Example: I don’t get question number 2 #MathHomework

Collect ideas Share responses to a question Clarify what your tweeting about Example: Watching Scotty McCreary sing right now! #AmericanIdol Often used for sarcasm/humor Example: Just took my philosophy test #FAIL Click on hash tag to see what other people tweet about it

Tricks of the trade Ask questions for followers—can be conversation starter Good ‘tweeter’ will repost best answer Adds Twitter value and improves your reputation Answer other peoples questions Twitter can be helpful for people to find jobs/schools/etc.

Spam— DO NOT SPAM PEOPLE Mass tweeting with intent to sell/promote Mass message to unknown people can portray someone as a spammer Messages including suspicious links may be considered spam Direct messages: impersonal message to specific person Automatic direct messages are a form of spam Twitter is an opt-in medium—you choose who to follow Follow Twitter’s spam account (twitter.com/spam) Direct message name of spam accounts Submit request to twitter Block spammer (go to page, block is on the right) Un-follow spammer

How is Twitter an example of rhetoric? It involves 5 canons of rhetoric

1. Invention: coming up with ideas in an argument What you invent to tweet 2. Arrangement: Order you arrange your writing Deciding where to place your hashtag in a tweet 3. Style: How a person says a statement Tweeters can have a sarcastic, serious, funny, etc., tone 4. Memory: Others remember what you tweet When celebrities tweet or important news is tweeted about often people tend to remember 5. Delivery: similar to style, appeals to ethos, logos and pathos (how a tweet is presented) Dog just died #timeforanewpet Dog just died #sadday

Connections to Digital Rhetoric: Speed Reach Anonymity Interactivity Ethos; logos; pathos Kairos (timing) Collaboration & community

QUESTIONS: What does everyone think about Twitter? How many people have Twitters? For whoever doesn’t have a Twitter why do you choose not to? How often do you Tweet? What do you Tweet about? Who do you follow? (Friends/Celeberties/etc.) How is twitter better/worse than Facebook?