Basic instructions for social media, enabling delegates at #MediaLit14 to join in if they don't already have a Twitter account.

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#MediaLit14 : Join with Twitter
Signing Up
Go to Twitter.com (https://twitter.com/)
Look bottom-right for ‘New to Twitter’, add your full name (for display purposes), your email (not
shared with others), and choose a password. Press ‘Sign Up for Twitter’.
Follow the screen-by-screen instructions, including the prompts to follow a number of users (you can
always unfollow later), an avatar picture (clear headshot is best, and keep consistent as people skim
looking for particular users), and a 160 character bio (usually keywords - the basis for search, which
may be the only thing someone sees when deciding to ‘follow’ you).
Sending a Tweet
Go to ‘Home’
Look for ‘Compose New Tweet’, and write up to 140 characters. You will see that the number of
characters that you have left is next to the ‘Tweet’ button. Once you are happy with your tweet
(don’t take too long over it, but also remember that it’s a public message, so be prepared to stand
behind what you have written), press the ‘Tweet’ button. You can also select the camera icon and

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add a photo, or the pin icon to add your geographical location. Links can be cut and pasted from
elsewhere on the web, and the web-version of Twitter will shorten these so they don’t use up so
many characters. If you write #medialit14 anywhere in the tweet it will appear in the Twitterwall
that we are using for the week, and be visible to the whole room.
Interacting
You can of course respond to any tweet in your timeline, but to respond to those that others have
interacted with you on first, click on ‘Notifications’
You will see something like this, which includes people favouriting your tweets, retweeting them, or
‘mentioning’ you in a tweet (which involves writing the user name with an @ symbol in front –
anywhere in the tweet, e.g. @drbexl – saves you missing any important messages people have sent
‘for your attention’):

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Following Other Users
The core in Twitter is finding other users to interact with. Ask the
other people in the physical room, search for their name in the
search field (top right) – bearing in mind that users with more
followers will appear higher up the list, find someone interesting
& click on their ‘following’ or ‘followers’ and ‘piggyback’ on the
people they find interesting.
Simply click ‘follow’, or ‘unfollow’. The ‘cog’ next to the follow
option gives a range of other options, including mute for people busy at conferences!
There’s lots more you can do with Twitter, but this should get you going for #medialit14. The best
thing with Twitter is just to have a go with it!