One of the teachers in our school district is new to Twitter, and requested some tips for getting oriented. I put together this post as a brief tutorial. These instructions are based on Twitter’s web (not mobile) interface, for the purpose of getting preferences set up and defined.
Once on Twitter, limit your email notifications
Teachers have plenty of email to manage from parents, so getting notified for every new Twitter follower can be overwhelming. Once you have a Twitter account, go to the Twitter home page, click the gear on the upper right hand corner, and then Settings. On the Settings page, go to Email Notifications, and unclick everything accept for the notifications you wish to receive.
Use Search to find relevant conversations
Did you know you can save search terms in Twitter for future reference? For example, some educators tweet using the #ipaded hashtag. A hashtag is the # symbol in front of a search term that marks key topics being tweeted. So if you put “ipaded” into the Twitter search bar, and press enter, all of the tweets using #ipaded come up in a single stream. If this conversation is relevant to you, save it for future reference by clicking the search gear and “save this search”. Now, whenever you click your cursor into the twitter search bar, your saved searches will come up automatically. Some education-related hashtags to try are #edchat #edapps #edtech #edu #teachers #appfriday #freeapps #ipaded #elearning #teachertuesday #mathmonday.
Remember to Follow Others
Following contacts and colleagues that you meet at school or a conference is a great way to build your network. Twitter etiquette is to “follow back”. As soon as you start following people, your network will grow. If email notifications are off, check for followers next time you log into Twitter by going to Home > Followers, or Me > Followers. Once on the follower page, click Follow, and Twitter will add that person’s tweets to your view.
Getting Tweeted and Retweeted
If you say something resourceful or witty, it might be nice to see who noticed! 🙂 From the Twitter Home page, click on “@ Connect” at the top of the page. This will show the “at replies” of people who tweeted to you directly or referenced you in a tweet. You can reply to them, thank them for the mention, and start a conversation. Many relationships are built using Twitter. In fact, it’s one of the ways we started Moms With Apps!
Using Public Lists for Quick Reference on the Web
Let’s say you have a list of the top ten educators on Twitter, and you’d like to follow what they are saying without having to look everyone up individually. The feature to do this is called “Lists”, which is accessed from Me > Lists > Create Lists. Add each person you’d like to follow, make the list public, and then click it whenever you’d like to see that conversation. Below are my lists for News, Reviewers, and Moms With Apps developers:
What I like most about Lists is their accessibility over the web. Let’s say you are logged out of Twitter, but you have access to the internet from a computer or mobile device. Simply go to a web browser and enter the URL of your List (for example, my list for app reviewers is http://www.twitter.com/momswithapps/reviewers). Now, you can see this conversation anytime, because it has it’s own URL.
Even better, create a shortcut to this URL on your mobile device, and then the page can come up just like an app!
Twitter on Mobile
Once your preferences are set, feel free to experiment with Twitter apps for mobile devices. Twitter has an app, as well as Hootsuite, Twitterific, and Tweetdeck. What you choose may depend upon other social media accounts worth coordinating.
If anyone has more tips and advice for making Twitter effective and easy to use for teachers, please leave a comment. Meanwhile, good luck with wrapping up the academic school year – we’ll see you soon!
