2. What is Twitter?
• A free online messaging service
• Tweets are limited to 140 characters
• Quick and easy way to find out what is
happening related to subjects you are
interested in
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3. What is Twitter?
Messages from users you choose to follow will
show up on your homepage for you to read –
similar to a newspaper whose headlines you
always find interesting – you can discover news
as it’s happening, learn more about topics of
interest, and get the inside scoop in real time.
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4. Who tweets?
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• Physicians & health professionals
• Patient bloggers
• Patient advocacy groups
• News outlets
• Medical journals
• Politicians
• Government
5. Why Use Twitter?
• Follow news (general, medical, political, etc.)
• Find new career opportunities
• Connect with other physicians & health
professionals from around the world
• Networking before, during and after events like
the annual meeting
• Connect with users that share common
interests
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8. Add a bio
Use the 160-character bio to describe as
much or as little about who you are and
why you are on Twitter
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9. Public vs. Private
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Decide whether your account will be set as
public or private
10. Types of Tweets: @reply
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@reply: The @ sign is used to call out usernames on tweets,
like this: Hello @ACRheum!
When a username is preceded by the @ sign, it becomes a
link to a Twitter profile.
Example:
11. Types of Tweets: Retweet (RT)
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The act of forwarding another user's Tweet to all of your
followers, similar to forwarding an e-mail.
Example:
13. Searching Twitter: Hashtags
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Words preceded by the # symbol are grouped with other
Tweets containing that same #word. Clicking on a hashtag
will show you all other tweets in that category.
Examples:
15. Types of Tweets: Direct Message (DM)
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Also called a DM, these messages are private between only
the sender and recipient. Tweets become DMs when they
begin with "d username" to specify who the message is for.
Example:
D ACRheum: Can you tell me how to get to the GA
Aquarium?
Thank you for coming to the social media talk! I am Christina and I am a part of the ACR’s social media team. I work with our Twitter initiatives mostly.
Ask the group how many have Twitter accounts; do you log in daily, send tweets & actively participate, or mostly lurk? Or do you know nothing about Twitter, but are just curious?
For the benefit of any beginners in the group, I will very quickly go over the basics of Twitter – after that, I will open up the discussion to the group and will ask for any suggestions. We have this space until 5pm. So after the brief presentation please feel free to stick around and network for a tweet-up.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a free online service that allows you to send messages limited to 140 characters to your online network. Your Twitter network is composed of other users that follow you, people that you follow and mutually following users.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a free online service that allows you to send messages limited to 140 characters to your online network. Your Twitter network is composed of other users that follow you, people that you follow and mutually following users.
There is a popular misconception that Twitter is just used by teens and is a bunch of people talking about what they ate for breakfast. While at first glance this may be true, Twitter can provide a much different and truly valuable experience once you find users that interest you – whether it be physicians, health professionals, patient advocates, political figures, news media, etc.
There are many different reasons to use Twitter – following news, information gathering, pre-networking before events and conferences like ACR, networking and sharing ideas with people with common interests.
Just like you don’t have to have a website to use the Internet and find value – you don’t have to tweet to to take advantage of Twitter. Creating an account is a very easy and quick process – but you don’t even have to do that. For example, ACRheum is a public twitter account, meaning that anyone who simply types in the URL twitter.com/acrheum can see what we are talking about. Similarly – anyone – whether they even have a Twitter account or not – can search for terms on Twitter.
We’ll go over some basics for those just getting started on Twitter and then open up for questions.
Your avatar is your profile picture, which you can change under the settings tab on your profile. Some people and companies use a person’s photo, while some, like ACR, use a logo. It’s up to you.
Also under the settings tab you will find the option to add a 160 character bio. Adding a bio will help you to find users of interest and for other users to find you. Your bio should reflect why you are on Twitter. If you want to promote your practice, you may include that you are a rheumatologist, if you are interested in using Twitter just to find conversations about travel, you may choose to leave your profession off.
Maybe say something about optional disclaimer…….we’ll see.
This is also a personal preference. If your account is public – like ACR’s – anyone can see your tweets, whether they have a Twitter account or not. They simply need to go to www.twitter.com/acrheum to see our tweets.
If you prefer to have a private account, your account details and tweets are not visible to anyone, unless they request to follow you and you approve.
The decision as to whether to have a public or private account all depends on your personal preferences and reasons for using Twitter.
Not sure if I will include this slide. Thoughts, Tammy? It may just depend on what level of understanding the audience seems to be at..
We designated #ACR2010 as the official hashtag for the annual meeting. To follow and/or refer back to tweets from the annual meeting, you could simply search for #ACR2010.
To find users that are interested in the same topics, you could try searching Twitter for terms like #lupus, or #sjogrens, etc. You could also search for the recently created hashtag #rheum. This hashtag was created by one of our attendees here today, a patient blogger, @Rawarrior. She introduced this hashtag to invite anyone interested in topics related to rheumatology to use.
Some examples of what happens when you search for specific hashtags.
You can only direct message a user that is following you.
Thank everyone and let them know that they are welcome to stay and chat amongst themselves for a bit longer, or if they have specific questions or things they would like to discuss to feel free to ask.
Open up for general questions or things that the group may want to discuss. Some options (if no one speaks up) could be:
Share why you use Twitter or how Twitter provides value for you
