Learn how to teach Twitter to your business communication or business writing students. For a script for this presentation, go to http://www.slideshare.net/Bovee/teaching-twitterscript. Be sure to download it!

1. Teaching Twitter

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3. Who Is Using Twitter?
• Genders: (male 47% -- female 53%)
• Age (median): 31
• Income: 68% make $60,000 or more a year
• Updates: 52% update their status every day
• Tweets: About 55 million are sent each day.
• Users: 106 million people and rapidly growing
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4. Why Are People Using Twitter?
30% 10% 12%
To let people To provide links Other -- develop a
who are following to news and personal brand, learn
them know about blog articles to new things, or discover
their status their followers reading materials
30%
To have a private 6% 3%
conversation To discuss politics, To provide links to
sports, or current images and videos
events 3%
6% To provide links to
To give a product other web content
recommendation or to
make a product
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5. What Twitter Terminology
Should You Know?
• Tweet – When you write and post your 140 characters on Twitter and
hit the “Send” button, it’s called a tweet. You can tell people, “I’m going
to tweet,” so “tweet” can be used as a noun or a verb.
• Handle – This is your Twitter @username, such as @BoveeThill_Blog
is one of my Twitter handles. It can be an individual’s name, a
company name, or anything you want to make up that isn’t currently in
use by someone else using Twitter.
• Follow – Adding a person to your list of people you are
following, which enables their tweets to show up on your Twitter
homepage.
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6. What Twitter Terminology
Should You Know?
• Replies – When a person writes a tweet directly to your handle --
@samjones -- this is usually considered an invitation to engage with
the follower who sent it to you. All of your followers will see your
response when you send a reply. If you want to send a private
message, send a DM.
• DM – direct message – A message that is sent directly to another
user. You can only send direct messages to people who are following
you. This is the best way to have a private conversation with
someone else.
• RT – retweet – When you republish someone else’s tweet, it’s called
retweeting. The original tweet along with the author information
remain intact. Retweeting is a great way to pass along content to
your own followers who you discovered among the people you’re
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7. What Twitter Terminology
Should You Know?
• Hashtag – A hashtag is used to categorize posts (tweets) on Twitter
according to topics. It’s a way to keep track of multi-party
conversations or posts from an event. To add a hashtag to a tweet,
you just preface the relevant term with the hash symbol (#), such as
#buscommconf. This will allow people to search for tweets on this
topic and to see them all.
• Timeline – The “timeline” page is the homepage which displays
tweets from all the people you are following.
• Twitterverse – The “universe” of Twitter
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8. What Is a Twitter Timeline
• When you log in to Twitter, you'll land on the timeline view
of your homepage.
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9. How Do You Get Started?
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24. What Is the Best Way to Use
Twitter Effectively?
• Focus on quality, not quantity, when you tweet
• Make connections with people in your field
• Show that you are knowledgeable, and demonstrate your
thought leadership.
• Use Twitter to get real-time information about an
organization, people, products, or a brand. Companies
often use Twitter to monitor their products and brands to
try and protect them.
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25. What Is the Best Way to Use
Twitter Effectively?
• Promote your ideas and your blog posts, if any.
• Interact with people.
• Proofread. Once a tweet is posted, it cannot be edited.
• Learn to use URL shortening tools like Bit.ly and
TinyURL, so when you use a URL in your tweet, it takes
up a minimal amount of space.
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26. What Should You Tweet About?
• Answer the question, “What has your attention?”
• Share links to articles, videos, and websites
• Ask questions to stimulate a discussion
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27. What Should You Tweet About?
• Tweet about other people’s material that you see on
Twitter, such as another person’s comments, blog post,
video, or website
• Retweet other people’s useful tweets
• Read news tweets
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28. What Should You Tweet About?
• Read or give event updates
• Provide live coverage to an event
• Crowd-source questions and answers
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29. Are There Any Twitter Apps?
• For a extensively list of
more than 250 free Twitter
apps, go to
• http://www.squidoo.com/
twitterapps and
http://twitdom.com
• There are desktop
apps, web apps, and mobile
apps.
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30. Twitter Apps
• Let’s look at just a few:
• Tweetdeck – It acts as your desktop dashboard to help you
organize your incoming and outgoing tweets.
• Tweetgrader – Twitter Grader is a tool that checks the power
of your Twitter profile, and your Twitter influence, compared to
millions of other users who have been graded
• Twitlonger – This is way to let you post to Twitter when 140
characters isn’t enough.
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31. How Do You Know Who to Follow?
• Use the Twitter search engine to find names and brands
• Use directories like Twellow.com to find people with
interests and hobbies similar to yours
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32. What Five Tips Will Help You Get
Benefits More Using Twitter?
• Tweet excellent content as often as possible.
• Reply to conversations.
• Retweet other people’s content.
• Use Twitter search.
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33. What Are Some Great Advanced
Tips for Twitter Users?
• Do not use “&” in your Twitter profile.
• 125 is the new 140.
• Add a period before a tweet.
• Use lists.
• Set up groups.
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34. What Are the Most Common Mistakes
Twitter Users Make?
• Choosing inappropriate usernames
• Not completing a bio
• Not including a photo
• Protecting updates
• Carrying on long conversations between two users
• Using one account for both personal and business tweets
• Posting too many tweets in a short period of time
• Not tweeting regularly
• Posting the same updates repeatedly or tweeting about
inane things
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35. Why Should You Be Teaching Twitter in
Your Business Communication Class?
• Twitter can help business people organize meet-ups at a
physical location.
• Twitter can work well for opinion polling.
• Twitter can direct people’s attention to help other people
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36. Why Should You Be Teaching Twitter in
Your Business Communication Class?
• Twitter can bring great minds together and provides daily
opportunities to learn.
• Twitter can augment customer service.
• Twitter breaks news faster than other sources.
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37. Why Should You Be Teaching Twitter in
Your Business Communication Class?
• Twitter can give critics a forum, but that means you can
study them.
• Twitter can help with business development, if the
prospects are online.
• Twitter can be used at events to build an instant
backchannel
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38. Why Should You Be Teaching Twitter in
Your Business Communication Class?
• Twitter can be used to save money, because many
companies make special offers via Twitter.
• Twitter provides instant access to what is being said
about the Twitter user and the Twitter’s user’s company
and brand.
• Twitter can be used for finding a job.
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39. What Businesses Are Using Twitter?
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50. How Can Twitter Be Used in the
Education?
• Send a direct tweet to a student
• Help classmates get to know each other
• Collaborate on projects
• Make announcements
• Brainstorm
• Take a poll
• Share websites
• Peer feedback
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51. How Should Twitter Be
Integrated into a Textbook?
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57. What types of assignments will I see in
a Bovee and Thill textbook?
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65. All textbook examples and illustrations of
Twitter shown in this presentation were taken
directly from Bovee & Thill’s business
communication textbooks.
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66. For a rich array of resources about Twitter, go to
Business Communication Headline News, look
under “Categories” in the left-hand column, and
select microblogging.
www.businesscommunicationheadlinenews.com
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67. For teaching tips and techniques, often about
Twitter, social media and electronic
communication, go to Bovee & Thill’s blog:
www.boveeandthillbusinesscommunication.com
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68. For more than 175 PowerPoint slideshows on
various aspects of business communication,
go to Real-Time Updates and select
“Instructor Media.”
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69. Credits
Slide 4. The Next Web. "Twitter’s User Demographics Visualised ."
http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2010/12/30/twitters-user-demographics-visualised-infographic/
(15 February 2011).
Slide 5. Digitalbuzz. "Infographic: The Meteoric Rise Of Twitter ."
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-the-meteoric-rise-of-twitter/ (15 February 2011).
Slide 37. Tech n' Marketing. "9 Advanced Twitter Tips." http://technmarketing.com/web/9-
advanced-twitter-tips/ (15 February 2011).
Slide 38. Associated Content. "12 Common and Frequent Mistakes Twitter Users Make (and
How to Avoid Them)."
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1987398/12_common_and_frequent_mistakes_made
_pg2.html?cat=41 (15 February 2011).
Slide 39-42. Chris Brogan. "50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business."
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/ (15 February 2011).
Slide 54. University of Wisconsin--Madison. "50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom."
https://tle.wisc.edu/solutions/engagement/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom (15 February 2011).
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