A very basic introduction on Twitter usage for business.

1. Head first with Twitter
Clement Levallois, #twGalway2016
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2. For the next hour
1. First steps
2. Twitter: what for?
3. Practical exercise: create a Twitter account
and using Tweetdeck
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3. You will learn how to…
1. Tweet, retweet, using hashtags and mentions
2. Identify use cases for Twitter in your
professional environment
3. Use Tweetdeck, a leading tool to manage your
communication and information on Twitter.
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4. 1) FIRST STEPS
Starting with Twitter in a professional environment
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5. Origins
• Twitter: company created
in 2006
Twitter is a social network
where users can send and
read short messages made of
140 characters max, called
“tweets”.
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"Jack Dorsey-20080723" by Joi Ito from Inbamura, Japan - Jack Dorsey. Licensed under CC BY
2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jack_Dorsey-
20080723.jpg#/media/File:Jack_Dorsey-20080723.jpg

6. • « Twitter » is the brand and the company’s name
• A « tweet » is the 140-char message
• To « tweet » = writing and sending such a message
• « Retweeting » = reposting a tweet written by
somebody else
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Definitions

7. What does a tweet look like?
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The text
The
author
Infos and
further
actions

8. Mentions and hashtags
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A « Hashtag »
A « mention »
Hashtags start with a # and have no space.
They play the role of thematic signposts:
The use of the same hashtag by several
persons allows to search for all tweets which
mentioned this hashtag, hence we can find
all tweets on this topic.
Your turn: search for #socnet
on www.twitter.com/search
We can invent any hashtag. In general,
hashtags are short (to leave space for the
rest of the tweet!) and should be distinctive
(so that it can’t be confused with others)
Mentions start with a @
They are simply the accounts of Twitter users, called « Twitter
handles ».
It signals to the person mentioned that s/he was mentioned in a
tweet.
-> Here, @emlyon will be notified that somebody mentioned them.
-> users which have an interest in @emlyon will be notified of this
tweet, even if they don’t usually read the tweets of Wagemann

9. 140 characters max, but…
… a tweet can contain:
• Links to web pages
• Up to 4 pictures
• Since April 2015, it is possible to write tweets quoting
other tweets.
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10. Links in tweets
• One of the most frequent
motives for tweeting
1) Spreading an info seen on the
web
2) We are the author of the page
(blog post, news on your
company website) and want to
publicize it
Links can be very long, as they get
shortened automatically by Twitter:
They can fit in much less than 140
chars.
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The link

11. Pics in in tweets…
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12. Interesting function in pics
• It is possible to tag up to
10 Twitter users on pics
inserted in the tweets
• In the same way that you
tag friends on pics on
Facebook
• Great advantage: you can
get the attention of 10
personnes with just a
tweet
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In this example, last year the community manager for EMLYON had tagged the sponsors of the conference in a tweet announcing the conference

13. Tweets and retweets
• To tweet: posting a tweet
• Retweeting: this is sharing somebody else’s tweet
– Retweet is often shortened as « RT ».
• Why is retweeting interesting?
– Because Twitter can be used to curate information for an
audience: you retweet the content which is relevant to
people following you.
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14. 14
Click on this button to retweet it
yourself
Number of times this tweet has
been retweeted

15. Who reads my tweets?
1. Tweets are public and can be read by anybody, including by non
Twitter users.
2. By default, tweets will be displayed only to those who follow you
(a bit like the Facebook wall, that your friends can see)
3. If you mention« #twGalway2016 » in a tweet, then this tweet will
be shown to all the persons who asked to be notified when tweets
mentioning this hashtag are published.
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16. Twitter – who actually reads my tweets?
Case 1: the typical public tweet
-> the followers of @seinecle see this tweet on their « wall »
-> @romainhuet receives a notification that he was mentioned in this tweet
-> it also appears on the Twitter page of @seinecle_FR
-> somebody making a search on Google or elsewhere can find it as well
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17. Twitter – who actually reads my tweets?
Case 2: the semi-public conversation
Because the tweet starts with a mention (@romainhuet), it is not displayed to
the followers of Clement. An exchange of tweets can start between
@seinecle_FR and @RomainHuet without disturbing the people who follow
one or the other.
-> this tweet appears only on the wall of the users who follow both @seinecle_FR and @romainhuet (so, a
very limited set of people!) 17

18. Twitter – who actually reads my tweets?
Case 3: a dialogue, still visible for outsiders
-> pay attention to the dot in front of @romainhuet
-> this tweet can be seen by all the followers of @seinecle_FR
-> @romainhuet still gets notified
Here, there is a play between public and private conversations:
-> I talk directly to Romain Huet, but I make it so that the rest of the audience can « listen »
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19. Twitter and privacy
It is possible to create « protected accounts »
1. Tweets are visible only to persons who
were authorized by the user
2. You choose who follows you
3. Tweets can’t be retweeted (because
then they would become public)
4. Why protected accounts: to use
Twitter as for very personal expression.
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All Twitter users (who have public or
protected accounts) can use a private
messaging system.
1. A bit like Facebook Messenger
2. In practice, it is used often between
users of Twitter who have an intensive
use.

20. Can I delete or edit a tweet?
Spelling mistake, a tweet you regret to have written…
1. Yes: each tweet has a « delete » button which makes it disappear.
2. But somebody will have probably read it already
3. And screen shots can be made.
Rule of thumb: assume that everything you tweet outside of private
messaging can leave a public trace.
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21. • One idea per tweet. Don’t try to squeeze in a paragraph.
• Pictures have a tredemendous effect on engagement.
– Or at least a link
• Don’t forget to add the person’s Twitter handle, instead of their names
– Write @romainhuet, not Romain Huet
• Use hashtags as relevant
– Hashtags are useful when they pertain to specialized topics, because it is likely that people follow these niche
topics.
– However, using general hashtags like #the #weather #is #changing makes no sense.
• Write the tweet at a time when your audience is active (not on a Friday at 7pm…)
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1) Advice on the style
of the tweet
How to write a tweet that
finds an audience?

22. • One piece of information per tweet.
• Not ego centered (« Leaving work now to pick my kids at school »)
• Related to an expertise (key take away!!)
– Your own expertise, or from your company, industry, profession…
• You can mix a personal viewpoint on these expert topics, or just echo
neutrally a news you read somewhere.
– Both are ok, but a personal touch is more engaging to your readers.
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2) Advice on the
content of the tweet
How to write a tweet that
finds an audience?

23. 2) TWITTER: USE CASES
Starting with Twitter in a professional environment
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24. Common misconceptions about Twitter
« I am neither a journalist nor in an ad agency, why would I use Twitter? »
« I am a professor and I teach very complex things, this will never fit in
140 characters »
« Thank you very much but I don’t like sharing my private life on public
forums »
« Hashtag madness, stars chatting and bragging on Twitter… I don’t see
the relation with my job. »
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25. 1) Reach your audience
• Twitter is not just populated by Beliebers football
fans.
• Your clients are there too. And your competitors.
– And also your colleagues, the mayor of your city, your
bank, your daily newspaper, the sports club of your
kids, your favorite book writer, etc.
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26. 2) Direct communication, targeted, amplified
• Direct: a tweet is immediatly visible
– No email, no subscription to groups , …
• Targeted:
– With hashtags, mentions and your own followers, a tweet is made
visibile to a very targeted audience.
• Amplified: your tweets can be retweeted
– Then you reach an audience which is much wider than your personal
network, and for free: how would you do that without Twitter?
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27. 3) Communication in informal mode
• Twitter is at the frontier between the personal and pro spheres
– Used for professional reasons, also as individuals, and often a mix of
the two.
• This allows for a degree of informal communication, which is rare:
– Facebook: not pro!
– LinkedIn: too pro!
– Twitter: the right mix, to reach informally to persons that in other
circumstances would never find the time for this.
– Extreme example: « #HowardUnCafé » campaign by Michel & Augustin
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29. 4) Publicize content
• A tweet is a good way to advertise the headline of a news hosted
on a separate webpage.
• Besides the catchy title, the tweet includes a link to the web page. It
gives a way to redirect the reader of the tweet to the full version of
the information.
• Is it a small impact?
– No: it drives qualified traffic to your web page, which is hard to get
otherwise.
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30. 5) Information monitoring
• Twitter is a place to write … and read.
• Follow persons and hashtag relating to your
professional interests.
• Strengths: handy way to collect diverse sources of
info in one place, and prime access: news spread
on Twitter first.
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31. « My expertise is too technical, I doubt I’ll find anything on Twitter »
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If you teach Bessel functions…
If you are interested in the aerodynamics of
winglets for planes:

32. 3) TWITTER IN PRACTICE WITH
TWEETDECK
Starting with Twitter in a professional environment
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33. Steps
1. Create a Twitter account (you need a valid email
address)
2. Follow a couple of users
3. Write some tweets
4. Open Tweetdeck
5. Experiment with Tweetdeck functions
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34. 1) Creating a Twitter account
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• www.twitter.com
• Choose a « Twitter handle »: @....
– Often: initials + last name

35. 2) Finding persons to follow on Twitter
• Use the advanced search page on Twitter
– https://twitter.com/search-advanced?lang=en
– Lookup colleagues, competitors and key stakeholders
from your domain (in your industry, knowledge
domain, professional network…)
– You can filter for geographical location and other
features
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36. 3) Write a couple of tweets
• Your first tweets can have a personal tone, just
announcing your first steps on Twitter.
• Then maybe add a couple of tweets on what’s
your occupation, and your professional
centers of interest? Insert #hashtags if
possible!
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37. 4) Open Tweetdeck
• Tweetdeck is a web application owned by
Twitter
– www.tweetdeck.com
• When one is following many users, Tweetdeck
is made to group these users in different
columns, making it easier to read their tweets.
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38. What’s next? Time is needed
• Twitter becomes more interesting with time because:
– You end up finding and following users who post fascinating content
– You take the habit to share interesting content (your own, or the one you
posted by other users), and you get positive feedbacks from your audience
– Interesting bridges develop between your offline activities and your activities
on Twitter:
Your offline activities become more visible thanks to Twitter
Twitter enrich your readings, meetings with new individuals and discovering new events
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39. To know more, follow me on Twitter! :-)
@seinecle
I tweet mainly about digital
innovation and data
science
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