Laura Minnis
CSU, Stanislaus
msminnis1035@yahoo.com
Twitter History
• Twitter did not instantly catch on. The website took a
while to catch the attention of the World Wide Web.
Andrea Crewson who wrote, Taming the Twitter
Firehouse, explains that, “Twitter, an online message
service that limits posts to 140 characters, began in
2006, created by Obvious Corp., run by Evan Williams
and Biz Stone. It received little mainstream attention
until 2007” (Crewson 3).
• Statistics from a 2009 Twitter Tally, which was accessed
on Emarketer.com on May 31, 2009, “14 million” people
use Twitter, and that number is expected to influx by
another four million in one year “(Logar 3).
Twitter Craze!
•What truly set Twitter onto the World Wide Web was celebrity usage
such as Ellen Degenerise, Ashton Kutcher and now Oprah.
Twitter had a huge influx of users after Oprah had a show on how to
set up a Twitter account. Business has used Twitter for years for
staying connected and asking coworkers quick, direct questions at
the job site.
•Tee Morris, author of All A Twitter, puts the Twitter Craze into
perspective,
Speak your peace in 140 characters or less, return to your
previous work, and if you are alerted to a reply or a series of
replies, it is your option to reply. In an IM Chat, whether it is
you and another or a conference call, the conversation is
driven by instantaneous, continuous communication. By
design, Twitter is not meant to be a timesink. (Morris Ch1)
Twitter Basics
What is twitter?
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service
that enables its users to send and read messages known as
tweets.
What can we do?
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.
Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or,
by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive
tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or
external applications.
Twitter
Terminology
TweetEach of your Twitter posts or updates is known as a tweet. Some
people refer to them as “twits”, but the official term is “tweet.” Each
tweet is no longer than 140 characters.
FollowingWhile Facebook requires that all relationships be reciprocal, Twitter allows for oneway relationships. If you find Twitter users who are interesting, you can "follow them"
to subscribe to their tweets.
Timeline
The “timeline” page is the homepage which displays tweets from all the people you
are following. On the sidebar (column on the right of each Twitter page)
Public timeline
Retweeting (RT)
Retweeting is the act of sharing someone else’s tweet with your followers –
spreading the word wider. To identify a retweet, the Twitter convention is to put RT at
the start of the retweet and to include the Twitter username of the person you are
retweeting like attributing a quote.
e.g., RT @SCBWI Our summer conference is August 7-10.
More Twitter
Terminology
Twitterazzi - Twitter paparazzi
Twitterverse - the Twitter service
and the people using it
Twit - a person who uses
Twitter ToolsTwitter
Mr. Tweet (http://mrtweet.net)
Twittionary - Twitter dictionary
Finds people with similar interests
Great for jobs
Tweetup - meeting (in person) of
Bit.ly (http://bit.ly/)
people you tweet with
Tracts who uses your links
TwitPic (http://twitpic.com)
Flickr for Twitter
WordPress(http://wordpress. org)
Blog with Twitter Tools http://lminnis2.wordpress.com/
Is.gd (http://is.gd/)
Small URL maker for Twitter
Who is on Twitter
Anyway?
•Looking at who is using Twitter today, Sysomos Inc. created, Inside Twitter; An InDepth Look Inside the Twitter World (a survey) to inform businesses who, where and
when are people using Twitter. Does Twitter have an impact? Who is using it?
• Sysomos Inc., one of the world’s leading social media analytics companies, conducted
an extensive study to document Twitter’s growth and how people are using it. After
analyzing information disclosed on 11.5 million Twitters accounts, we discovered that:
•85.3% of all Twitter users post less than one update/day
•21% of users have never posted a Tweet
•New York has the most Twitters users, followed by Los Angeles, Toronto, San
Francisco and Boston; while Detroit was the fast-growing city over the first five
months of 2009
•More than 50% of all updates are published using tools – mobile and Web-based –
other than Twitter.com. TweetDeck is the most popular non-Twitter.com tool with
19.7% market share.
•There are more women on Twitter (53%) than men (47%)
Just young
people, right?
And Why
do they Twitter?
Even though most people
believe Twitter is only used by
young adults, the study shows
that older users are on Twitter as
well. Sysomos also found that
people felt more responsible for
tweeting if they had a larger
following. Tweeters felt that they
let their followers down if they
did not keep up with their
tweeting.
Sample Twitter Conversation – Job/School Usage
•Fortune 500 Companies use
Twitter. Four of the top five
corporations (Wal-Mart,
Chevron, ConocoPhillips and
General Electric) consistently
post on their Twitter accounts.
• Rank appears to influence the
use of Twitter by the 2009
Fortune 500. Of the top 100
companies on the list, “47 have
a Twitter account.
•Employees use Twitter to
Help each other.
Job/School Usage
continued…
Teachers/Jobs can use micro-blogging to get in touch with
students/employees.
Notice board: teacher can send memos on tasks, exams or
events.
Resources: Recommend resources and share links, web pages,
videos, etc.
Answers: Teachers can solve students’ doubts or answers very
quickly
Feedback: Collect students’ opinions about the class
Motivate: Keep interest high helping students to give a sense
and utility to what they have learnt.
Example of a Network…
Twitter
Future?
•People who now use Twitter have three accounts; one for work, one
for home and one for school. Twitter creates social spaces for
each aspect of our lives.
•Twitter is being adopted by more companies and is becoming the
fast track for being in the know for job advancement, the
business community and job placement. You either use it or
are left in the dark.
•Twitter is becoming the largest site for businesses to hire new
employees.
•People are using Mr. Tweet to scout out companies on Twitter and
post tweets on job experience. Many are now being hired by
how they are tweeting.
Twitter Big Brother???
Twitter is now being recorded as to what words each user uses and what the content
means.
Figure 2: 4S analysis of two users: @w3c (left) and @oprah (right). The usage of dimensions from substance (top
row), status (second), social (third), or style (bottom) categories is shown in the vertical bars, with Twitter’s
average usage shown in the center. Common words in selected dimensions from each category are shown as word
clouds. Word size is proportional to frequency in that dimension globally, and word shade is proportional to the
frequency in the user’s recent tweets. Light gray words are unused in recent tweets.
Helpful Resources
"As Facebook Ages, Gen Y Turns to Twitter" - Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/as_facebook_ages_gen_y_turns_to_twitter.php
“10 Twitter Tips for Higher Education” - Heather Mansfield, University Business www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1285
“Facebook Driving Mobile Net Usage” - BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8149652.stm
“Generation (WH)Y” - Kim Karalekas, from The Project 100 http://theproject100.wordpress.com/
“How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live” - Steven Johnson, Time Magazine (7.5.09) http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html
International Higher Education Consulting Blog - David Comp - http://ihec-djc.blogspot.com
“Managing an Online Reputation” - Kermit Pattison, The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/business/smallbusiness/30reputation.html?scp=3&sq=Kermit%20Pattison&st=cse
Helpful Resources
“Social Networks Around the World” - Doug Coleman, ReadWriteWeb - www.readwriteweb.com/archives/post_2.php
“Study Abroad in a Transparent World” - Presented by Penny Schouten and Sarah McNitt at the 2009 NAFSA Conference in
Los Angeles, CA http://blog.academic-solutions.com
“TXT Message - Behavior” - SETI.org podcast series “Are We Alone” quoting BJ Fogg, Ph.D. of Stanford Univeristy’s
Persuasive Technology Lab.
Wikipedia - for definitions on social networking
“Why Don’t Teens Tweet? We asked over 10,000 of Them.” - Geoff Cook, Tech Crunch http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/30/why-dont-teens-tweet-we-asked-over-10000-of-them
8 Why Email No Longer Rules… …And what that means for the way we communicate” - Jessica Vascellaro - The Wall Street
Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970203803904574431151489408372.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter
"Instant Connections" - Mandy Reinig and Penny Schouten - International Educator http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/novdec09_edabroad.pdf