Using the tools of the future
A little later today I have someone coming in for a ‘Twitter Tutorial’. The person in question is lively, gregarious, loves people and loves to communicate – in other words, perfect Twitter material! Very soon she will be flying solo across the Twittersphere, but for now here are the tips I shall pass on:
- Profile and pic – your profile is your opportunity to introduce yourself to the world in just a few words. On the basis of it, people decide whether to follow you or not. Some people like to have a cartoon or graphic image for their pic – I prefer a photo as it contributes to the social nature of Twitter.
- Direct messages – if you want to communicate privately with a Twitter friend, use the private (or direct) message function.
- Bots and blocking. If you use a word like “ipad” or “windows”, then techno-bots which trawl the web will contact you on Twitter. If you use a word like MiddleSEX, bots of another kind will seek you out! Have no hesitation in blocking them and reporting them as spam.
- Hacking – hacking is rare, but can happen if you open a link from someone you don’t know. If it happens, change your password immediately and let your Twitter friends know if you think spoof messages have been sent from your account.
- Hashtags (#) These are a way of identifying a particular topic for your tweet. It allows anyone interested in that topic to find your tweet readily.
- #FF and #LoveMonday. These are two special hashtags. #FF means “follow Friday”, and gives you the opportunity each Friday to recommend someone whom you think others should follow. #LoveMonday is a chance to affirm another person on Twitter on a Monday – and who doesn’t need a bit of Monday affirmation?
- Retweets (RT) – a retweet is a way of passing a message on to all your followers which you think they might like to see. Best used sparingly.
- Twitterquette – don’t preach, don’t SHOUT and don’t gossip, but do decide whether your message is for someone in particular (@___) or for the world in general. Whilst on Twitterquette – bear in mind that a little housekeeping is perfectly acceptable and will offend no-one. We all ‘tidy out’ the list of people we follow from time to time.
- Register – its fine to interact with strangers or celebs whom you’ve just met on Twitter, but don’t treat them like your best buddy!
- 3B’s – in my recollection a 3B is a soft pencil which makes a subtle but distinctive mark. Same here – BE genuine, BE generous and BE kind – remember your tweets are there for all to see.
When my ‘student’ joined Twitter yesterday, she declared that ‘reluctance is the fear of it but acceptance is because it’s our kid’s future’. This is clearly a message which the staff of the Albert Camus Kindergarten near Bordeaux have taken to heart. Since the start of 2012 the 29 children at the school have been tweeting their activities each day for their parents to see. The teacher regards this as a good way to improve their language and writing skills, and also to introduce them to technology. Its helping them to ‘use the tools of the future’ ,he said. For obvious reasons the account for the school is private – but their profile pic, seen below, is one to savour.
Whilst you are looking at it – what would you add to my 10 tips above? All improvements welcome!
preachersa2z
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15 comments
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February 21, 2012 at 9:05 am
Phil Maylor (@Maylor)
It may be worth mentioning alongside direct messages, that you can only use this if the person you’re messaging follows you.
February 21, 2012 at 9:06 am
preachersa2z
Thanks Phil – good point
February 21, 2012 at 9:18 am
Jason
On replies and mentions:
When a tweet starts with the @ symbol, it’s called a reply, and will NOT show up in the streams of other people following you. However, if someone looks directly at your feed, they will see the replies you’ve made to others. In other words, this form of reply is semi-private.
When an @username appears anywhere else in the body of a tweet, the recipient is still notified, but the tweet will show up in the streams of other people who follow you. This is a way to refer/link to another user on the service, as opposed to communicating with them semi-privately.
So: “@mycontact Hey fancy meeting up for a coffee?” will not appear in all my followers twitter feeds but, “Meeting @mycontact for a coffee!” will!
It’s also worth bearing in mind that Direct Messages (DM’s) aren’t 100% private if one party to the DM chooses to share the URL for that message anyone can see it. As with all social media never post anything that could cause you embarrassment if the wrong person saw it – it isn’t worth it!
February 21, 2012 at 9:25 am
preachersa2z
Your description of how visible @messages are is really helpful – thanks
February 21, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Phil Maylor (@Maylor)
Note that the @replies will appear in other people’s streams, if they follow you & the person replied to, so they can join in the conversations their friends are having too.
February 21, 2012 at 9:31 am
Steve H
Thanks for this, Richard.
As a relative newcomer to tweeting, I think the register/tone/etiquette is the hardest part to get right – or at least to feel confident about. The best bit of advice I read was ‘treat Twitter like a conference/convention’ – faced with the question, ‘should I contribute to that conversation/say this to that person/crack that joke?’ asking myself whether I would do it at a conference seems a good guide to the twitterquette.
February 21, 2012 at 9:43 am
preachersa2z
Seems like a really good “rule of thumb” – thank you Steve
February 21, 2012 at 9:49 am
Pam Smith (@revpamsmith)
1) Actually some people do get incredibly upset when they are unfollowed and will tweet about it eg ‘Why has @Bonzo unfollowed me? What have I done? huh!’
2) Once you’re following above a certain number of people you can’t catch up with everything you’ve missed since you last logged on – don’t even try
3) If you address a tweet to a specific person by starting it ‘@Bonzo’ (for example), everyone who follows you AND Bonzo will be able to see it on their timeline. It’s best to treat every conversation other than those in Direct Messages as public
4) If you retweet something someone else posted, including a link that you saw on a tweet from someone else, it is good manners to name them – eg ‘via @Bonzo’ or ‘HT @Bonzo’ (HT = Hat TIp)
February 21, 2012 at 9:55 am
r.littledale@btinternet.com
Sound and helpful comments Pam – thank you
Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media
February 21, 2012 at 9:56 am
Bex Lewis
My best tip – enjoy it
Expect a mix of random conversation, pictures of food, helpful information, fun/deep chats. It’s a constant learning experience (I took 3 months before I really ‘got it’, but once you ‘get it’ you’ll wonder how you did without it!). Be happy that what you write may be seen by your mum, God, your worst enemy, and on the front page of a newspaper, then enjoy it as a relationship building tool – around shared interests (and it’s not like Facebook – you don’t need to ‘know’ the people you interact with before you connect).
February 21, 2012 at 10:54 am
preachersa2z
A great comment – and one which you embody daily, Bex!
February 21, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Nancy Wallace
I think of tweets rather like my blog posts as being like postcards which I assume anyone could read. Bex Lewis has a helpful checklist in her comment, “may be seen by your mum, God, your worst enemy and on the front page of a newspaper”.
I’m not sure why you think retweets are best used sparingly. I see the problem if you retweet what you think is a fact which then becomes a rumour about something untrue, or when it’s to bully someone, or if you never have anything to say yourself. Do you have other reasons?
February 21, 2012 at 3:47 pm
preachersa2z
Like you, I thought Bex’ list was very helpful. The reason for using retweets sparingly is only that it can be a lazy way to tweet. If I feel that the only tweets I ever get from a particular person are retweets – then I am left wondering what the retweeter him or herself actually thinks.
February 22, 2012 at 9:27 am
Pam Smith (@revpamsmith)
I retweet quite a lot but I don’t use the ‘RT’ button (which simply reposts the tweet) very much. I’ve added ‘classic retweet’ to my browser which brings up the original comment for editing – so I can add something myself.
This can be fiddly within the character limit because I usually have to shorten the original comment to make space for my own comments but it does add to the conversation.
Also, if someone posts an interesting link, I try to add a comment explaining why I think it’s interesting rather than just expect people to look and work it out for themselves.
Classic RT details are here: http://jonpierce.github.com/classic-retweet/
February 22, 2012 at 10:40 am
preachersa2z
Really helpful advice Pam – thanks