Supplementary handout for the Washington University Libraries class called Why Tweet? Learn How Twitter can Help YOU! on March 18, 2010.

1.
key terms
tweet
• An individual message is called a tweet.
• Can be used as a verb: “I tweeted about the stimulus package
this morning.” Alternative is “twittering.”
• Alternatives include “post,” “message” and “update.”
follower or following
• Follow other people and companies to receive their tweets as
they post.
• Conversely, people get your messages by following you.
@username (at reply)
• Send public messages to people by beginning with
@username.
• If the user is following your account, your message will appear
directly on his Twitter home page. (If not, your message will
appear in his @username mentions folder.)
Sample: @WUSTLlibraries Thanks for the great twitter class!
RT @username (retweet)
• Retweeting (RT) is reposting people’s tweets and giving them
credit.
• To retweet, begin with RT and @reply to the tweet’s source.
• Retweeting is common and a form of conversation on Twitter.
• Used to spread messages and ideas across Twitter quickly.
Sample: RT @WUSTLNSS Campus Electric Outage
http://nss.wustl.edu/node/314
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2. d username (direct message or DM)
• Direct messages (DMs) are private – only the sender and
receiver can see them.
• DMs are on your home page under the Direct Messages tab
• Can only DM people who are following you. Conversely, you
can receive them only from people you’re following.
• Send Direct Messages by using the pull‐down menu to choose
a recipient and then typing in your note.
• Send a DM by starting your message with “d username”
Tip: If you’re communicating about Sample: d WUSTLlibraries I’d like to schedule a meeting in the
something potentially sensitive, switch Café next Tue at 10am
to DM or email. Remember, @mentions
are public, so anyone can see them.
#tag (hash tag)
• Hashtags are the way to group and organize tweets from
multiple people.
• Searches for a hashtag result in all of the related messages.
• Hashtags are the # symbol followed by a term describing or
naming the topic.
• If enough people use the same hashtag at once, the term will
appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.
• Conferences and events frequently have hashtags associated
with them (like #TED).
Sample: Are you reading Zahra's Paradise? You should be.
http://www.zahrasparadise.com/ #iranelection
Shortened urls
• URLs use up many of the 140 allowed characters
• Links posted on Twitter via the website are automatically
shortened.
• Many services take regular links and shrink them down to a
manageable length and even let you track clicks.
Samples: bit.ly, tinyurl.com, ow.ly, tr.im, su.pr
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3. Lists
• Twitter Lists are created and maintained by Twitter users.
• You can create your own or follow lists created by others.
• It can be overwhelming to follow everyone in one timeline.
• A way to organize feeds you want to follow:
o follow people without adding them to your home page
o follow topics instead of individuals
• When looking at a user’s profile, click on the Lists icon to add
them to a list.
• Listorious is a directory of Twitter lists.
Trending topics
• The most‐mentioned terms on Twitter at that moment.
• Continuously update, reflecting the real‐time nature of Twitter
and true shifts in people’s attention.
• Trending Topics aggregate many tweets at once and often
break news ahead of the mainstream media.
• Trends often include hashtags.
• Can view what is trending worldwide or in various countries or
cities.
Searching
• Search for people using the Find People Link.
• Search for topics from your home page.
• No advanced search features ‐ all search is done via #tag or
keyword. It’s not very sophisticated but it can get the job
done.
• Google does some twitter searching but it is very new,
methods and quality are uncertain.
Sources
“The Simple Twitter Book | Brent Ozar ‐ Too Much Information,” http://www.brentozar.com/twitter/book/.
“Twitter 101 — Learning the lingo,” http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/learning.
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4.
Key Uses
Twitter for Current Awareness
• Twitter is a primary source document
• #Iranelection
• Trending Topics
• Searching
Microblogging
• Examples: @mcleod, @kinggary
• Why microblog?
• How to become a tweeter of note
• Scott McLeod, Associate Professor at Iowa State University, focuses on educational technology for
administrators
• Gary King, Harvard Professor, social scientist and statistician
• List of other academic tweeters: http://www.twitter.com/andrewcallahan/academics
Teaching with Twitter
• Twitter Etiquette
o Privacy ‐ Make sure that if someone contacts you in private that you respond in kind (via DM)
o Query ‐ Post questions on a regular basis to start a discussion that may not only continue on twitter but
also be incorporated into class or subsection discussions.
o Frequency ‐ Tweeting regularly is important but you also don’t want to tweet too much. Questions and
links are staples of many of the most interesting twitter accounts.
o Be prepared to be kind and to have unkind things said about you
Teaching with Twitter
• Create multiple accounts
• Creating a community
o Create a hashtag for your class (#WUSTLANTH4243)
o Continue classroom chatter
o Create multiple accounts
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5.  If using twitter in the classroom you will likely want to have different twitter accounts for your
different classes
 Don’t use twitter website to monitor multiple accounts, use Co‐Tweet, TweetDeck or other client
• Scholarly Community
o Follow others in your field. Then follow libraries, conferences, publishers, news sources.
o To get the community going ask questions, start discussions, and use #tags. Hashtags will let people
stumble upon your conversations.
o At conferences, have tweetups, which are meet ups of twitter users.
Teaching with Twitter
• Assignment Ideas
o Summarize – an article in 140 characters or tweet a thesis statement.
o Word usage ‐ use the search feature to have students follow the usage of a word throughout the day.
o Public Timeline and Trending Topics ‐ What is the world talking about? Also, look at how people, who
may not know each other in daily life, interact with each other in the Twitterverse.
o Follow a Professional ‐ Have your students follow one of interest and report what was learned.
o Recreate history ‐ Students assume roles and then tweet based upon primary source documents. An
interesting and fun way to look at historical events. See http://twhistory.org/
Questions? Comments?
http://libguides.wustl.edu/twitter
http://twitter.com/wustllibraries
http://twitter.com/jaleh_f
http://twitter.com/b_marston
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