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Twitter

How to start a Twitter account

What is Twitter?

Twitter is one of the most high-profile social networking websites around at the moment. The basic concept for the service has its origins in blogging but with Twitter users are restricted to just 140 characters, which has led to it being referred to as a ‘micro-blog’.

Twitter updates (or tweets) are posted chronologically in the user’s feed (or timeline) and can be viewed by anybody on the web. To get a better idea of how the system works, see the SLIC and CILIPS Twitter account @scotlibraries. The column on the right of the page also offers a quick guide to twitter terminology.

A key feature of using Twitter is the process of developing a network of followers – people who subscribe to your updates. Following and being followed is an important part of the Twitter experience as this begins to open up the communication and build in the collaborative aspects of the service. To find out more about how this might work in practice in the library sector, please see our case studies.

Why should I Tweet?

There are many things that Twitter offers that make it extremely valuable to library professionals, whether they choose to use it to share information with their users or with the wider community of information professionals.

You may not, for now, find a use for Twitter to communicate with your users. However, there are many library and information professionals currently using Twitter. Phil Bradley has produced a list which has 100 librarians who have Twitter accounts. Have a look at their accounts and see if any of them provide or pass on information that you find interesting, or fun.

This is only a small proportion of Twitter users and only a small number who use Twitter. Having access to even some of these people widens your network, which in turn means that you have better opportunities to learn about developments in the profession.

Immediacy

Information can be made available quickly and easily.

Easily shared

Information can be spread beyond your group quickly.

Hints and Tips

Update often

Try to use Twitter to promote new stock and events but also take advantage of its informal nature to inject a little personality into your tweets.

But not too often!

Too many tweets could be as bad as too few, you don't want people to ignore your tweets or, worse, stop following you because you are overwhelming them with information.

Be brief

Don't worry about using abbreviations; 140 characters doesn't allow for much text and carrying an update into a second tweet is usually not well regarded.

Be reflective

Try and use Twitter to provide comment or insight into an event.

Include links to resources

Although Twitter itself doesn't allow for a great deal of depth to updates, it can be an extremely useful aggregator. Ensure that there is supporting text, however. A link which has been shrunken doesn't give a lot of information about what it is linking too.

Get involved!

Twitter is a communications tool. It is richer when people are using it to comment and answer questions rather than using it to simply broadcast information or "lurk" on the sidelines.

Be informal

It can be hard to convey meaning in a small number of words, emoticons and informal language can make this easier.

Remember your audience

Don't, especially if you are using this in a professional context, use potentially offensive language or block capitals. Block capitals should be avoided in electronic communication, they can be construed as shouting.

Follow others

This is a good way to start building a good network. Don't feel the need to follow everyone that follows you and similarly don't feel offended if somebody doesn't follow you back.

Twitter Glossary

@reply [where 'reply' is a username]

A direct reply to another user.

DM

Direct message, a message that will be sent directly to the specified user by putting "D" at the start of the message.

Follower

A person that subscribes to anothers tweets.

Following

The act of following another persons tweets.

Hashtag

#hashtag, users describe an update with this to easily link topics.

Link shortening

When sharing links via Twitter, it is often necessary to shorten them. Two useful tools (there are more) are bit.ly and TinyURL.

Retweet

To forward an update posted by another user. This will be prefaced with 'RT' and include the original posters @name. Twitter have also added retweet functionality to Twitter.

Trending Topic

A topic which has a large volume of tweets about it. These will tend to be important events or an especially popular cultural event.

Tweeps/Tweeple

Twitter users

Tweet

To post an update on Twitter.

Twitpic

Application which allows you to easily share photographs via Twitter

Twitterati

The stars of Twitter, such as @stephenfry.

Twitterverse

The whole Twitter community.

Twittiquette

The social rules that have built up amongst the Twitter community.