Twitter workshop offered to library faculty and staff at Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte

1. Basics of Twitter
Presented by Professional Activities Committee

2. Why use twitter?
 Networking
 Promotion of the library and your work
 Follow news
 Raise issues
 Communicate with vendors
 Keep up with the university and your peers

3. Private vs. Public
Private
 If you want to use it like Facebook, go private
 You approve of those that want to follow you
 Great for connecting with a group of people you
already know and trust
Public
 Capability for building a larger network
 Tweets are public – so watch what you say

4. DM (direct message)
 DM allows you to hold a private conversation
with another Twitter user, but you can only DM
people who are already following you
 It is the closest thing to e-mail in Twitter
 Check yours by clicking on the envelope icon

5. @ (reply or chat)
Use to reply to or simply chat with another user
@donnalanclos thanks!
@donnalanclos found this article and thought of
you http://www.anthrolib.com

6. Composing tweets
 No more than 140 characters
 The shorter the better
 Best to use 120 characters for re-tweeting
 Shorten links with URL shorteners
 bi.tly (https://bitly.com/)
 ow.ly (http://ow.ly/url/shorten-url)
 goo.gl (http://goo.gl/)

7. RT (re-tweet)
Re-tweet to say…
“I like or am interested in what you’re tweeting – I
want to promote it or share it with others”

8. RT examples
 Original tweet:
 Maureen Sullivan: President Obama’s budget gives libraries funding boost
http://dlvr.it/3CfTLx
 Modifications:
 RT @amlibraries: Maureen Sullivan: President Obama’s budget gives libraries
funding boost http://dlvr.it/3CfTLx
 MT @amlibraries: President Obama’s budget gives libraries funding boost
http://dlvr.it/3CfTLx
 President Obama’s budget gives libraries funding boost dlvr.it/3CfTLx via
@amlibraries
 Must read RT @amlibraries: Maureen Sullivan: President Obama’s budget gives
libraries funding boost http://dlvr.it/3CfTLx

9. Best Practices
 Follow people that interest you
 Be prepared for people to respond to your tweets –
decide how you want to deal with it
 Promote your work and the work of your colleagues
and friends
 Congratulate people on their accomplishments
 Twitter persona: How personal do you want to get?

10. Following
 These are people/institutions you follow
 It is not creepy to follow people that you do not
personally know – that is part of the networking
opportunity that is unique to Twitter
 Start with some of your colleagues or other
people/institutions that interest you. Who do they
follow?
 Follow people that you meet
 If you try to follow people that have private accounts,
you will need to wait for their approval (like FB)

11. Followers
 These are people who follow you!
 After you follow some people, they may
automatically follow you
 You do not need to follow your followers
 Build your following with peers and hash tags

12. # (hash-tag)
 Use in tweets to connect people to your thoughts
or findings on an idea/subject/trend
 Broadens your reach beyond your followers
 Search hash tags to follow certain
trends/ideas/conferences
#highered
#ebooks
#libraries
#edtech
#infolit
#DH
#UNCC
#ClubAtkins
#UNCCproblems
#ala13

13. Favorites & Lists
 Favorites serve as bookmarks
 Create lists or subscribe to lists to follow certain groups or
institutions
 Lists can be private or public
 People may add you to lists
 Subscribing to lists can be used as a substitute for
following people/institutions

14. Campus/Library Tweeters
 Find your faculty or other units to follow:
http://mediamine.uncc.edu/twitter
 Jim Hathaway also started a list of UNCC faculty
and staff: https://twitter.com/jbhathaw/uncc
that you can subscribe to or ask to be added to
 Library Staff on Twitter: Heather McCullough,
Stanley Wilder, Lareese Hall, Donna Lanclos
See http://atkinslibraryprodev.wordpress.com

15. Try it out!
Activities:
o Search for and “follow” the other Twitter team
o RT something
o DM the other Twitter team
o Respond to the other team’s DM
o Reply to (@) a tweet from the other team
o Compose tweet using hash tag #atkinstest

16. Next week…
 Twitter communities – chat via Twitter
 Tweet-ups
 Using #hashtags at conferences
 Following conferences via #hashtags
 Advanced Twitter management tools
 Drafting and scheduling tweets

17. Questions?
Amanda Binder
@ahbinder
Atkins Library
UNC Charlotte