Enrico s Twitter Manual

Transcription

1 Enrico s Twitter Manual

2 Page 1 of 7 Posting on Twitter These tips will get the ball rolling for you to use Twitter and schedule tweets. However, if you want to really understand Twitter, I advise that you follow their excellent online tutorial: twitter- tour#topic_181 What is Twitter? Twitter is used to broadcast short messages to your followers (140 characters or less). It s a great way to reach a wider audience, letting them know what s going on without burdening them with too much information. Topics covered Understand the basic vocabulary and anatomy of a Tweet Page 2 Tweet directly from Twitter.com to post immediately Page 3 Connect Twitter and Facebook Page 3 Schedule Tweets to post at a later date/time using LaterBro.com Page 4 Share links using bit.ly to shorten a URL Page 7

3 Page 2 of 7 The basic vocabulary and anatomy of a Tweet Vocabulary: Character: A letter, space, number, or symbol that you type. For example, example is 7 characters long, while how are you? is 12 characters long. Direct messages: A private message from someone via twitter. You can only send a direct message to someone who is already following you. Favorites: The tweets you want to save and revisit. Just click on the Favorites tab. Following: Follow the feeds that you want to keep track of. Your twitter account has been set to Public so that people don t have to be logged in to see your Tweets. People can see the users you follow and who is following you. Hashtags: A # symbol before a name indicates a keyword or topic in a Tweet (e.g., #HayesValley, #sanfrancisco). Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category. If you Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet. Avoid using too many hashtags in a single tweet or spamming a particular hashtag it is bad etiquette. Mentions: Tweets that mention you by using symbol in conjunction with your username. You can keep track of conversations others are having with you even if you don t follow each other. Click a Tweet to see the conversation. Tweet: A short broadcast you send to your followers containing 140 or fewer characters. Anatomy of a Tweet:

4 Page 3 of 7 Tweet directly from Twitter.com to post immediately 1. Click on the field Compose new Tweet or on the blue box with the square and feather. 2. Type your tweet in the text box and hit return. If you are broadcasting only to your followers, just type what you want to say. Example (138 characters): o Come by and try Hen of the Woods mushrooms fresh from the farmer's market. A wonderful delicacy full of antioxidants and delicious flavor! If you are addressing another user, even if you aren t following them, use symbol. Example (37 characters): I love your bruschetta! If you are broadcasting to anyone interested in a hashtage topic, use the # symbol. Example (127 characters): o Hen of the Woods mushrooms fresh from the #farmersmarket are delicious & full of antioxidants. Try it on our menu! #HayesValley If you want to point people to a link, such as a new menu, use a URL shortener such as bit.ly. Example (50 characters): o Check out our new lunch menu! You can combine these things. Example (63 characters): o Check out our new lunch menu! #HayesValley Connect Twitter and Facebook: If you want your Tweets to automatically appear on your Facebook newsfeed, the instructions can be found on the Twitter website: how- to- use- twitter- with- facebook If you want your Facebook posts to automatically appear on Twitter, keep in mind that your posts must not exceed 140 characters. It makes more sense to have Twitter post to Facebook, instead. However, if you decide to have Facebook post to Twitter, instructions can be found on the Facebook help page:

5 Page 4 of 7 Schedule Tweets to post at a later date/time using LaterBro.com 1. Sign in to using your Twitter credentials. The first time you do this, you will need to set your time zone. 2. Once you have logged in, you will be on the main screen and can begin scheduling your tweets immediately. After you ve typed in your message, select the date. 3. Then select the scheduled time using 24- hour mode (hour and minutes):

6 Page 5 of 7 4. Each time you do this, you must select your twitter account by checking the box. If you have more than one Twitter account, this comes in handy. 5. Your scheduled tweets will show up on the bottom of the page. To edit or delete any of them, just mouse over the time. 6. You can change your time zone, add other Facebook and twitter accounts, or even delete them by clicking on the settings icon.

7 Page 6 of 7 7. Remember to log out of Twitter.com before adding an additional Twitter account. 8. To sign out, just mouse over the big green bar at the top. 9. If you want to include a link on your tweet, use a link shortener first so you don t waste your 140 characters on a long URL. The link shortener included with LaterBro.com is currently broken. I recommend you use bit.ly. You do not need to log into bit.ly, since you will not be tweeting through the bit.ly interface. You only want to get the short link.

8 Page 7 of 7 Share links using bit.ly to shorten a URL 1. Copy the long URL you want to shorten. 2. Open a new browser window and go to 3. Paste your long URL into the field. 4. Click the shorten button. 5. Copy the shortened URL and paste it into your Tweet using: Twitter.com, if you are posting immediately LaterBro.com, if you are scheduling it to post later 6. To view your tweets, log into either Twitter (or Facebook, if they are connected) after it is scheduled to post.