This is a presentation for a public information session on Twitter held at Coffs Harbour Library 21st May 2013. Whilst certainly not comprehensive it does cover some of the basics of Twitter & how to get started with it. :)
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Welcome – toilets, emergency procedures Catherine – team leader, resources @CatyJ @CoffsLibraries To steal a line from Shrek, Twitter is a lot like an onion – it has many layers We will not cover everything to do with Twitter this morning as we only have an hour and I’m bund to have forgotten something but we try to cover the basics and give you an idea of what twitter is, how you can best use it, and who you might expect to find on twitter
First I’d like to start off with this short video explaining Twitter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhjaJl123BA 3:35 Change settings – quality to 480p
New to twitter?
https://twitter.com/signup
@CoffsLibraries page – background, photo/avatar, header, about info, website address
Our profile – website address; blurby bit (about us); name (show @KeithSuburban @xmotorlib @ellenforsyth examples)
John Taggart works at a Sydney Library but his twitter handle is @KeithSuburban – to make life easy for those who do (and do not) know him he has included his real name along with his twitter name
This is another example of where a person’s name is very different to their twitter handle, so both are listed – Ross works at the State Library of NSW; unlike John Taggart who we just looked at Ross has included a little bit of info about himself.
This is the twitter page of Ellen Forsyth who also works at the State Library of NSW. As you can see her name and twitter handle are both listed and are in fact identical – in Ellen’s case it makes her easy to remember and find :)
This is my twitter feed. My twitter name is @CatyJ but unlike John, Ross, & Ellen I have my profile setup to display my twitter name and name as the same thing. Not only is my primary online identity @CatyJ rather than Catherine Johnston, but it is very similar to my real name. You might want to consider using your name and twitter handle or just your twitter handle when you set up your profile. You can make changes afterwards but the number of times you can do this is limited.
Now I’d like us to take a look at some Twitter 101 tools available from the Goodwill Community Foundation http://www.gcflearnfree.org/twitter101 (20 mins total for these 5 videos)
Even though we’ve seen something similar earlier this morning I’d like to run through this short video as it highlight some additional points to keep in mind. http://www.gcflearnfree.org/twitter101 4:13 Any questions about this process so far?
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/twitter101 3:53 Any questions about this process so far?
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/twitter101 3:19 Any questions? Hashtags – finding or following a theme
And finally, how to tweet http://www.gcflearnfree.org/twitter101 3:29 Any questions?
Coffs Harbour Council on twitter – all media releases from council are published this way https://twitter.com/CHCC_Media
The value of twitter has been highlighted over the past few years with the way people have remained informed about emergencies
People have used Twitter to stay up-to-date with recent emergencies such as the Brisbane floods in 2011 and events earlier this year – accounts such as queensland police kept people in touch with what was going on, what people should do, and how people not affected could help those who were https://twitter.com/policeqld
Another brilliant information feed is from Queensland rail
ses
ambulance
rfs
Fire & rescue
But Twitter isn’t just about information you can also follow your favourite actors - like Russell Crowe – you can tell this is an official account because of the blue tick https://twitter.com/russellcrowe
Or your favourite rock band, again note the blue tick
Or movie
Or your favourite author https://twitter.com/neilhimself @neilhimself is Neil Gaiman – he writes adult & childrens fantasy novels – such as Coraline (which was later turned into a movie), he is married to musician Amanda Palmer who is also quietly huge on Twitter
The art gallery of nsw is on twitter
So too the state library of nsw
And the sydney opera house By being on twitter these organisations connect with their audience, people who like them, their fans. They share information about what they are doing but also reply to comments from the people who follow them
Our own prime minister has an active twitter account – even though this account is primarily managed by a team of media people (TeamJG) when the PM tweets herself she signs those messages with her initials so you can tell they are in fact from her – it’s a nice touch
https://twitter.com/coffsharbour And our own local member
One of the great things about twitter is that you can use it and access it anywhere - especially on your mobile device
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/twitter101/6.1 In order to use a twitter app you must have a smart device (like an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy) – mind you most modern phones are “smart”
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/twitter101/6.2 http://www.gcflearnfree.org/twitter101/6.3 One of the advantages to using twitter on your phone is you can go online & view your tweetstream or if you’re in a rush you can simply sms (or message) direct to twitter
As mentioned in the slide above, once you have twitter all set up you might want to post your own photo – depending on the device you are using you can take a photo and immediately share it on twitter or facebook or google+, or you can take a photo and upload it by clicking on the camera icon, or you can use a third party source such as twitPic or flickr, save your photo to this site, and then share it on twitter Sharing photos can be a lot of fun to play with – show iPad2, take a photo, share it on twitter
This is how easy it is to upload any photo from a smart device (in this case an iPad) Take the photo Click on the arrow out of the square icon Select Tweet Write a short post to accompany the image – easy as
the library uses a number of online social media tools and sometimes it can be a bit tricky trying to keep track of them all so we use a tool could Hootsuite to schedule tweets and facebook posts. I have my own hootsuite account which allows me to keep track of all my social media if I am at a conference – basically I can be taking notes or doing one thing on the library ipad while hootsuite collates all my other social media streams making it very easy for me to keep track of what is going on around the place It is a very useful tool and worth playing around with
Other ways your tweets can be viewed is visually through an app called RebelMouse – this product is still in beta testing but it’s a great way to explore your tweets visually https://www.rebelmouse.com/CatyJ/
Another way to explore the visual world – and then share it on twitter is Pinterest http://pinterest.com/
You might want to collect your tweets into a single document – there are many different tools you can use (depending on your level of expertise) but one of my favourites is Storify – this is an example of the way tweets from a recent seminar at the State Library of NSW were collated into a Storify – they can then be easily shared around, so if anyone missed the tweets from the day they can catch up with them here rather than having to search all over twitter for them. http://storify.com/NSWRISG/2013-reference-the-metcalfe
Finally, As with most other online tools Twitter has a great help menu which can provide you the information you are looking for if you are unsure about something
The best advice I have for learning about Twitter is to simply go and play – it is how I learnt and how I continue to learn I also learn from other people on twitter as we share ideas and discoveries every day – it’s a great community and I must admit that I am on twitter each and every day. I don’t watch the news or listen to news radio yet I find with twitter I know what’s going on in the world pretty much before it hits mainstream media Also it’s fun and its cool