1 of 38

2 of 38

What is it?

Who's using it?

How do I get involved?

How do I make it better?

3 of 38

"It's almost like ESP."

Clive Thompson, Wired

4 of 38

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers.

Wikipedia

5 of 38

Basic Twitter Anatomy

  • What's on your mind?
  • What are your plans for later? 
  • What's worth sharing on the Web?
  • What do you need to know RIGHT NOW?

6 of 38

"From time to time I realize that 140 characters are a hell of a lot"

Geek and Poke by Oliver Widder

7 of 38

Trending Topics

Popular Topics by the Minute, Day, and Week

8 of 38

9 of 38

#iranelection

"Friday Protests in Iran" - Uploaded on September 18, 2009 by .faramarz

“…primarily Twitter serves as a real-time information network powered by people around the world discovering what’s happening and sharing the news. The Iranian election was the most discussed issue on Twitter in the final year of a decade defined by advancements in information access.” – Biz Stone, Timesonline December 28, 2009

10 of 38

19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others.

Pew Internet & American Life Project

11 of 38

Pew attributes the Twitter rise to three types of Internet users:

Those who already are familiar with social networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace

Those between the ages of 18 and 44

Those who connect to the Net wirelessly using mobile devices

12 of 38

25% of internet users who have wireless access use Twitter

Pew Internet & American Life Project

13 of 38

Who's Using Twitter?

14 of 38

Who's Using Twitter?

15 of 38

Who's Using Twitter?

16 of 38

Who's Using Twitter?

17 of 38

How Do I Get Started?

18 of 38

19 of 38

Account Settings

20 of 38

Protect your updates.

Remove followers.

Block people.

21 of 38

Proper Tweetiquette

@username message

22 of 38

23 of 38

Proper Tweetiquette

D <username> message

24 of 38

RT = retweet

Cite your sources

RT @username message

via @username

25 of 38

Proper Tweetiquette

  • Don't overtweet
  • Find your crowd 
  • Use TinyURL to compress links
  • Keep a good follower/followee ratio
  • Be polite 
  • Be relevant
  • Use #hashtags for serial topics
  • Join/create new conversations

26 of 38

27 of 38

28 of 38

29 of 38

30 of 38

Twitter Lists

31 of 38

Twitter Search

32 of 38

Desktop Apps

33 of 38

Mobile Twitter Apps

Find more at the Twitter Fan Wiki

34 of 38

35 of 38

36 of 38

37 of 38

38 of 38

  • Go to Twitter.com and start a Twitter account
  • Get a Twitter app like Echofon for Firefox or or TweetDeck
  • Spread the word and find friends
  • Start conversing!