F A C T S H E E T
NAME: T W I T T E R
DATE: March 30, 2010
MAIN FACTS: Main elements and functions of the service
A COMMUNICATIONS 2.0 Tool
TWITTER - What is it ?
I am a twitter. I suggest that you join too. What is it ? It’s a rather new and very exciting social network, which many young people ( and many less young, who have turned older ) are very active in. Until now it “only” has about 25 million members worldwide. But that number is increasing fast every day.
My Twitter name is:
Niels_Thogersen
.
And I already have many contacts. Including president Obama J
Why use Twitter ? 10 strong reasons:
1.
Send News ( also from your mobile )
2.
Send Alerts ( Short message + Learn More... on web link ) ( also from your mobile )
3.
Get News and Alerts from important sources and contacts
4.
Take active part in Dialogues and Discussions
5.
Be present where people are
6.
Put Questions / Ask for Help and Advice
7.
Empower your contacts ( “Be the first to know”, etc. )
8.
Hashtag your subjects ( making it easy for others to find you )
9.
Retweet interesting information and messages
10.
Follow Tweetiquette
J
More in details:
You can follow your contacts and their short messages in real time. And you can be followed yourself by the same people or others, who decide to follow you by seeing your messages.
These messages can be of maximum 140 letters ( like text messages ), and they arrive immediately on the screen of your contact ( if the computer is open ). The service can also be a very efficient News Service. As such it is a very important tool for CNN, BBC World Service and many others.
It was used very efficiently during the recent Italian earthquake and during the swine flu. Many public institutions use it in their communication. The British Foreign Office is one of them. The Dutch government another one. NATO and the European Parliament too.
I was using Twitter to stimulate people to vote in the coming European elections.
During the presidential elections in Iran the opposition used Twitter actively to get information out on the anti-democratic moves by the authorities. And at the elections in Moldova the democratic anti-government forces used Twits in the same way.
And I also used it in my work around the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen and not least in my activities in interactive communications ( COMMUNICATIONS 2.0 ).
More about the practical side:
1)
Sending Twits (max. 140 letters ): Give short facts. Or a comment. Or a question.
Perhaps add: Learn more here ( and then add a weblink )
2)
If the link is too long you can shorten it on this site: http://bit.ly/
3)
If you want to make it easy for other people to find one of your Tweets, then write
a hashtag ( # ) in front of the main word in your Tweet
4)
You can also send your Tweets directly from your mobile phone
· first go to your Twitter site and to Settings/Devices
· then write your mobile number into the site ( remember the national prefix )
· after that you just send your Tweets to: 0044 7624 801 423
·
and your message will be sent automatically to all your Twitter followers
5)
You can also send DIRECT MESSAGES to your individual followers
6)
You can send photos via: http://www.twitpic.com/
7)
You can send automatic feeds from your blog(s) via:
http://www.twitterfeed.com/
8)
Y
ou can reply to incoming Tweets ( click on the @ to the right of the message )
9)
You can retweet ( send a Tweet on to your followers )
10)
You can search for messages or topics on Twitter: http://search.twitter.com/
11)
You can update all your social network sites ( such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,
Plaxo, XING, Flickr, etc. ) via this site: http://ping.fm/
How to get started ?
a) If you don’t know how to start tweeting, then have a first look at what other people are twitting about
b) How to find people to follow ? Have a look at the followers and the people being followed by some established “contacts” you know – and start following those you like
c) You can choose to follow people, who follow you. But you can also choose not to follow them. Either because you think they are not interesting or because you find them weird. It is not a question to follow as many people as possible. It’s a question to follow as many people as possible, which you find interesting and stimulating.
Just unserious and a waste of time ?
Not at all. It’s with Twitter as with anything else: It is what you make of it. Letters, e-mails and phone calls can also be unserious and waste of time. You decide yourself, who your contacts should be.
If you join and want to find out who are already on Twitter you click on Find People in the upper line. If they are not in already you can invite them by e-mail ( further to the right in the same box ). Or you can let Twitter check your electronic address book to find out who are on Twitter. When you have the list you can click and invite those persons you want to link up with also on Twitter. And there is no danger that Twitter will keep or use your address book for anything else.
Let’s TWEET
- about ideas, experiences, reactions, challenges.
Are you on board? www.twitter.com Ok?
3rd edition.
Niels Jørgen Thøgersen
October 2011
e-mail: kimbrer@gmail.com
SKYPE: kimbrer TWITTER: Niels_Thogersen
Web: www.simplesite.com/kimbrer
www.simplesite.com/communicating_better
Niels Jørgen Thøgersen
e-mail: kimbrer@gmail.com
CON AMORE
YOUR EUROPEAN CONNECTION