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2. Taming Twitter Wednesday 18 May 2011
@rscwales
Welcome to this session...
Introductions...who is doing what
Shortly I will ask Paul to turn on the recording and you’ll hear a voice confirming this.
Just a reminder that we are recording the session so in a few moments I’ll ask Paul to start recording and you’ll hear a voice telling you that the recording is about to start.
It’s very exciting to be able to try out this new way of communicating with our colleagues and I hope it will be useful for you too.
Paul please start recording now!
Lis Parcell
Senior E-learning Advisor
RSC Wales
@lisparcell
Paul Richardson
E-learning Advisor
RSC Wales
@paulbrichardson

3. About this session
Some tips to help you get more out of your time on Twitter
A chance to share your own tips
A chance to practise using a virtual classroom
From time to time I’ll invite you to provide input using basic Elluminate tools
Aimed at people who already have a little experience of Twitter
Will look at
the basic Twitter interface
a popular tool for managing Twitter: Tweetdeck
- some general Tweeting habits that are worth considering, however you use Twitter
Based on personal experience of using Twitter for about three years, mainly to provide a news service for RSC Wales and to extend my professional and personal learning network. Also based on some tips from colleagues.
I would not classify myself as an expert, I feel we are all learning together and one of the joys of social media is how you can learn new things daily.
There are few hard and fast do’s and don’ts.
I’d love to hear your tips as well
This is a personal view!

4. Introducing Elluminate
What is Elluminate and why are we using it?
Recently taken over by Blackboard – now being branded Blackboard Collaborate
Alternatives are available offering varying degrees of interaction.
Some things on the screen you can control for yourself eg layout of panes, and appearance of the video window.
There are a lot of buttons – you don’t need to use them all.
I’ll take you through some of the main tools.
First of all whiteboard tools. We won’t use these today.

5. Interaction Tools Ask questions – raise your hand
SAVE
Save a copy of the presentation: select disk symbol > whiteboard or chat > file type pdf
Ask questions – raise your hand
Use the emoticons! This helps the presenter!
Happy, Confused, Round of applause, Thumbs-down
Yes/No response – your results are shown against your name.
Need to step away for a few minutes? Click this when you leave, and again when you return.
Interaction Tools
We won’t use the mic’s today
First of all use one of the emoticons to show what sort of weather you’re having today – good or bad?
Ask them to use tick/cross to show if they have attended an Elluminate session before

6. Using Chat POST A MESSAGE TO THE GROUP
FONT TOO SMALL?
Right-click in each box and choose Make text bigger or Make text smaller or Text Size
POST A MESSAGE TO THE GROUP
Type your Chat message in the box and press Send
Chat messages will appear in the box above.
REMEMBER: Everyone in the room will see your message.
POST A MESSAGE TO AN INDIVIDUAL/MODERATOR
Send messages to individuals or the Moderators:
Use the drop-down to find the person you want to send you message to before you press Send
REMEMBER: if you change the “Send to” option to Individual/Moderator, you’ll need to change it back to “This Room” next time you want everyone to see your message!
Using Chat

7. POLL: How are you using Twitter?
Mainly for myself, for social/non-work purposes
Mainly for myself, for professional purposes
Mainly to provide a news/marketing service for my organisation
Other?
It would be useful for me to get an idea of how you are currently using Twitter.
The polling feature only allows for up to four options.
If you have another use for Twitter perhaps you could type in the chat pane what you are using it for.
CREATE POLL HERE

8. Why tame Twitter? Reduce information overload
Save time – use it for more effective Tweeting (or other things)
BUT remember: Twitter is by nature somewhat unruly
Overload is not the only problem people have with Twitter – some people initially find it difficult to find people to follow
Some of the techniques we’ll look at to help with overload, may also help with the opposite problem – not enough useful information.
Let’s take a look at Twitter first and some ways you can use it to manage your information.
Image courtesy of Vaguely Artistic on Flickr Creative Commons

9. Here is a typical Twitter home page – my own personal work account (I use three altogether, an RSC Wales account and a personal one I use for non-work).
Brief orientation around the standard tools: timeline on the left and information about your account on the right.
Once you are following quite a lot of people, it can be difficult to handle all the incoming information.
This is when it can be useful to use some of the tools in Twitter to help you organise the incoming information.
1) Lists
2) searching on tags
3) And creating favourites

10. GO INTO APP SHARE
Be prepared for a little time lag
You can drag the window around your screen if you want to get a better view
Here you can see what happens if I pull down the LISTS tab – I’ve got a number of lists which I use when I need to quickly catch up with a lot of different aspects of my job.
A couple are public, anyone can see them.
Most are private. I would keep them private if they were only useful to me, or if I was in the process of building them up. They can sometimes be construed as ‘league tables’ so I wouldn’t want anyone to think they were being unfairly missed out.
I have to report that the list function in Twitter itself is very clunky at the moment which means that it is difficult to edit lists, for example
Tags can expire

11. Can search on tags to find tweets by topic
But note that tags can expire if they fall out of use
I use them mainly at conferences
Useful if you regularly follow a very active conversation on Twitter

12. Favorites – under each tweet is a favorites option which is like bookmarking. Can delete later.
I use this if I spot something that I want to explore in more detail later, or sometimes just something funny or interesting that catches my attention.

13. Useful Twitter tools - summary
Lists: useful for scanning and catching up
Tagging with the hash tag symbol # - useful for tracking conversations
Favorites – useful if for example you want to use a tweet or a link later, or build up a selection of ‘top tweets’

14. Taming Twitter: other tools
A client is a piece of software running on your computer that talks to a remote computer. A Twitter client then, is a piece of software that talks to Twitter, and offers you an alternative interface with some additional features.
There are a number of them – the logos on this slide are just a handful – and there are various apps for mobile devices.
They offer things that Twitter can’t do very well, and can be particularly useful if you run more than one account.
BUT Twitter Inc is not keen and is reportedly discouraging developers from directly competing. Last week Twitter was reported to be in talks to acquire Tweetdeck.
So the situation is fluid. But with such high numbers of users it is likely that whoever owns the products, they are likely to need to offer similar or better services to what we currently have.
In the hope that it is not going away anytime soon (!) I will focus on some useful features of Tweetdeck, the Twitter client that is probably the most popular at the moment, and it’s the one we use most at RSC Wales. It’s particularly handy for us as it means that we can handle multiple accounts free of charge.

15. POLL: How do you normally access Twitter?
Twitter.com
Tweetdeck
Hootsuite
Any others?
SET UP POLL HERE
Note that tools are available for mobiles and this can be useful – fewer options can help you focus, and it’s a job you can easily do on the move

16. Tweetdeck: some useful features
Multiple accounts on one screen
Columns
Ability to clear ‘seen’ tweets
Shortens URLs
Preview and edit re-tweets
Twitpic for sharing images
tweets
Schedule tweets

17. APP SHARE
This is a Tweetdeck screen, which I have set up with various columns
The default Tweetdeck colours are white on black but I used settings to play around with the colours till I found one I liked.
INCOMING - Columns
L > R I have the RSC Wales timeline, then my personal timeline and my mentions
Then a column for a search I have done on the hashtag #Wales
I can change these any time by going to the small Plus symbol top left
If I want to delete any of them I just go to the top right of a column to the T symbol – becomes x (I can get it back any time)
Each new tweet has a tiny dot next to it which I can click to remove it (I can get it back any time). Can clear all.
OUTGOING
I just type a message in the box at the top and then select which account/s I want to send it from – shorten, preview, twitpic, schedule.
On the right are various additional tools eg clock so you can schedule tweets, camera so you can send a photo using twitpic
At the bottom of each column you can view popular tags, mark and clear all tweets you’ve finished with, and some other operations

18. Very easy to add a column – many different types
Can also demo
Clearing tweets
Shortening URLs
Preview/edit
Mention twitpic, and schedule

20. Tweetdeck downsides
Doesn’t give you the same handy visual overview of your account (though you can profiles at any time)
Slight time delay
API limit
I find a combination of Twitter and Tweetdeck works best for me.
There is also a slight delay with 3rd party applications like Tweetdeck but unlikely to be a major problem for most people.
API = Application Programming Interface. API limit restricts how many times Twitter can be accessed in an hour (350).
This isn’t just a Tweetdeck thing, it applies to any 3rd party applications.

21. Do you have a favourite Twitter tip?
If you have a tip, type it in the chat pane.
While people are thinking about their tips, if anyone has a question they are welcome to type it in the chat pane. If we can answer it here and now, we will, if not we’ll try and find out.
Image courtesy of
Imagery by Pete on Flickr Creative Commons

22. Developing effective Twitter habits
Focus on what YOU need to use it for (what do you need to use it for?)
Prune your “followed” and followers
Do you really need to reciprocally follow?
Think before clicking the ‘Tweet’ button on blog posts, articles etc which you like
Avoid busy times (mornings generally quieter)
These are not so much features of any particular tool, as general working habits that can be helpful.
Not necessarily easy to work out what you want to use it for, until you have used it for a while. Also your plans can change over time. But it helps to review your reasons for using it occasionally, to stay focussed.
FOLLOWERS/FOLLOWED
People who look like they could be useful to follow, can turn out to be less interesting over time. It is okay to unfollow them.
You can be followed by some people who you may feel don’t enhance your online presence. Check their profile (you can usually tell from their picture and a few recent posts). You can block people from following you.
I used to find unfollowing and blocking a bit mercenary at first, but you get used to it.
Clicking the tweet button on a blog post or article: can result in followers or comments that you weren’t expecting. Consider other ways to express your approval?
Last but not least, organise your day to avoid busy times.

23. Finding an effective Tweeting style
Work out how you want to use Twitter
Automated updates can be offputting
Automated reciprocal following – ditto
Meaningful tweets are easier to retweet
Short tweets are easier to retweet without editing
What do you want to offer, what do you need from it, who do you want to connect with?
If you’re tweeting, you will want your tweets to appeal to followers, create the right impression and get retweeted
Automated features can smack of marketing and lack the human touch. Including ‘thank you for following me’.
If you are banking on being re-tweeted then make your tweets easy to handle.
All that said, what works for one person may not work for another.
Tweetsmarter is a very helpful resource.

24. More on this topic
Link to this and all other Lunchtime Byte sessions (with resources) at
Contact with any questions
Have any more tips and questions come in?

25. Staying in touch with us
Tel
RSC Wales Online Summer Bytes – now booking

26. Thank you for joining us!
Just before you go...
Save the slides and/or chat if you wish
Look out for an asking you to complete our evaluation form – we appreciate your feedback
Remember to exit so we can close down the session successfully.
To save, click on disk symbol > whiteboard/chat > save as pdf
Last but not least thank you for joining us and we hope to see you at another online event very soon.
Thank you for joining us!