Are you using Twitter to connect with your audience? Promote your stories? Find sources? The Houston Association for Hispanic Media Professionals hosted a session to provide a quick look at tools and tips to get the most out of Twitter, "Twitter Bootcamp for Journalists." This is the deck I used for the presentation. You can follow me on Twitter at @SandraSays, or through my blog at www.sandrasays.com.

1. Twitter
Bootcamp for
Journalists
Sandra Fernandez
@sandrasays

2. Fill in your bio!
 Include a link to a page
with your relevant stories or
work
 Include keywords, your
beat, areas of interest
 You may want to include
how to contact you –
don’t provide personal
information

3. Tweet regularly about your
beat
 Behind the scenes
 Photos and Tweets
 Teasers
 Videos and photos can be loaded from media
on your phone or computer
 Info from others – Retweet
 Only use credible sources
 Personal insights – people want to
connect with people

4. Tweet regularly about your
beat
 Tag others when relevant.
 Example, in a story about McDonalds, use
@McDonalds
 Use hashtags
 Example: #hounews
 Search the hashtag before using it!
 Include a link to more info

5. Tweet regularly about your
beat
 Include in-Twitter media – photos and
video
 Shows up in your “Photos and videos” section
 Increases engagement
 Schedule some of your tweets
 Tools: Hootsuite & TweetDeck
 Don’t automate autosharing from other
social media

6. Be nice!
 Always attribute
 Examples:
 Via @sandrasays
 h/t @sandrasays
 Tks @sandrasays
 Thank people for retweets and
compliments
 Respond
 Don’t feed the trolls!

7. Learn Advanced Search
 https://twitter.com/search-advanced
 The “Ultimate Guide” is at
https://zapier.com/blog/twitter-
advanced-search-guide/

8. Use lists
 Twitter allows 1,000 lists with up to 5,000
accounts in each.
 You can create a list for every type of
source or info you need by story or beat.
 Lists can be private or shared.
 You don’t have to follow someone to add
them to a list.

9. Embed into online stories
 CAUTION -- Use of photos and of the
tweet in promo may require permission –
check with your legal department
 Several ways to do this
 Twitter’s Embed
 TweetDeck’s Custom Timelines/Collection
 Storify

10. Get to know your analytics
 https://analytics.twitter.com
 Terms to know:
 Impressions
 Engagement

11. Hack Twitter!
 Use “Favorite” as a bookmarking tool
 A period can make your tweet public
 Force the old-style RT (or quote)
 “Steal” the photos

12. Be consistent!

13. Sandra Fernandez
@SandraSays
www.sandrasays.com