With Twitter recent redesign of its mobile apps and web interface I’ve decided it’s time to update my Twitteraholic’s Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter post since a lot has changed since I wrote the post in July, 2010.

This post is considerably more detailed and includes topics not included in the original post — we hope this helps you get even more out of using Twitter!

And since the post covers a lot of content I’ve added anchors so all you need to do is just click on a link below to quickly go to the section you want to read:

1. The background behind the original post.
2. How to get the new Twitter web interface now.
3. Tips for signing up for your twitter account.
4. What to do before following other people.
5. Tips on choosing who to follow.
6. Tips for engaging in twitter conversations.
7. Introduction to Twitter terminology.
8. Protected vs Private Twitter accounts.
9. Getting more out of twitter using Twitter Clients.
10. Getting Started with TweetDeck.
11. Posting links when composing tweets
12. Connecting with others using Hashtags
13. Tips for using Hashtags
14. How to create and use Twitter lists
15. How to Schedule tweets
16. How to embed Tweets
17. Adding your own Twitter Background
18. Preventing your account from being hacked.
19. What to do if your twitter account is hacked.
20. Keeping up with links shared on Twitter
21. Getting more out of Twitter with Twitter Tools
22. Using Twitter with students

But first let’s start with why I wrote the original post
I’d just returned from attending a large conference overseas and realised that while a conference can make you feel really overwhelmed and alone — especially amongst the 13,000 ed tech professionals participants who attend it each year — I never felt alone.

Why?

Because for Twitterers conferences are like walking into a big party where you know everyone and are meeting up with old friends.

So I decided to share advice on using twitter to help others and wrote it with assistance from my twitter network and readers comments — thanks everyone who helped!

For those who have heard of twitter and have dismissed it thinking ‘”Twitter is for people with too much time on their hands” — think again

Educators are connecting with each other on Twitter and using it like a lunch room that’s open 24/7 whenever they need help, assistance or just want to connect with others.

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How to get the new Twitter web interface right now

Twitter has been rolling out the new Twitter web interface since December and you’l know when your account has been updated because your tweet timeline switches to the right side.

Unfortunately for existing international users it is taking time.

The good news is you can get it right now!

Just download Twitter for iPhone or Twitter for Android onto your mobile phone and sign into your account using the mobile app.  You’ll find by the next day you’ll automatically get the new Twitter web interface.

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Tips for signing up for your Twitter account:

1. Go to Twitter and create your account.
2. Remember first impressions count!  Choose your username and an avatar carefully
3. Choose a username that makes it easier for others to relate to you as a real person and conveys the right impression of who you are. e.g. Compare spwat3 with suewaters — which is easier?
4. But don’t stress too much — your username can be changed anytime without affecting your twitter account  (Settings > Account)

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Before you start following other people make sure you:

1. Complete your bio and add your blog/website URL (if applicable) — people use this information to decide whether they follow you.  Focus on providing information that helps others work out if you have similar interests/background.   (Settings > Profile).
2. Upload your twitter avatar — people are less likely follow those using the default avatar as it’s common for a spammer to use a default avatar (Settings > Profile)
3. Don’t start following people on twitter until you’ve published some tweets! Most people won’t follow a person who hasn’t updated.

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Tips on who to follow:

1. Choose about 100 people to follow initially.  You can always add more as you go and this helps you not feel overwhelmed when starting out.
2. Find people to follow who have similar interests or with blogs you like who either share great info and links or who willingly engage in conversations.
3. Follow a few people you know and follow who they follow.  Look at who they chat with or check their Following list. 
4. Find a twitter mentor who will help and guide you.  Get them to ask their followers to add you.
5. You can always ask me to help by sending an @suewaters tweet. Make sure when people do start adding you that add them back quickly and thank them for adding you to their account!!!
6. Don’t just follow anyone — follow those who have the same interests and who you like.
7. Remember following does not have to be forever — you can regularly update/change who you follow to suit your needs.
8. Think about how you want to use it — to follow latest news? to follow other educators? to share what you know? to connect with others?
9. Check out the Edublog Awards Best Individual Tweeter 2011 list to find educators others recommend following!
10. Participate or check out the different weekly hashtag conversations.  They are a great way to find new people to follow (refer to hashtag information below).
11. Check out new followers before following.  Look at their bio, how many they are following, how many follow them and their latest tweets.  This information helps you work out if they are the type of people you like to follow.

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Tips for engaging in the conversation:

Twitter is very similar to a face to face conversation.  Think of Twitter as a conversation with work colleagues in the lunch room.   A mixture of small talk, relationship building, helping others, getting help and sharing is just as important on Twitter as it is in the lunch room.

1. Be patient.  It takes time to build your Twitter network.
2. Use it everyday for four weeks, even if only for 5 minutes per day.  Some people find that setting a goal of 15 minutes a day for the first few months helps.
3. Remember twitter is a two way conversation — you need to answer as much as you ask but most importantly share, share, share.
4. Participate and say something, anything.  Don’t always expect people to always answer.  It does depend on who many you follow and what you’re asking. 
5. Get involved in the conversation. Don’t be afraid to reply and if you don’t get a response back, don’t be offended. It happens — you’ll soon see those that do/don’t engage in conversations
   
6. Learn the twitter language and how to use it well i.e. @, DM, #, hashtags, RT
7. Use a twitter client where possible and not the web interface.
8. Avoid using up all 140 characters as it makes Retweeting harder
9. Remember online is forever. If you didn’t want it online don’t say it in the first place.
10. It’s extremely easy for others to misinterpret your written text. Remember this!
11. Think about how what you say reflects on how people visualise you.
12. Educators love following people who share great links since it saves them time. Steven W Anderson’s (@web2classroom) is a great example of this type of Twitterer. Read Steven W Anderson’s (@web2classroom) My Super, top secret tips and tricks for getting the most out of twitter to learn his secrets for finding helpful links for his followers.

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intro to Twitter language

@ mention (also known as an @ reply)

• an @mention is used when a person is having a conversation with another twitterer.
• You’ll also use @ mention when referring to other twitter users.  This means the other users will be alerted of your conversation.
• You’ll only see @ mentions if you follow both twitterers or you are looking at another person’s tweet timeline.
• Your @mentions are located under your @ Connect in the new twitter interface

DM (also known as Direct Message)

• Direct messages are private messages sent from one Twitterer to another.  They can’t be seen by other users.
• You can only send a direct message to a person who follows you and they can only reply to your direct message if you also follow them.
• It’s bad twitter etiquette to send a direct message to someone that follows you that you don’t follow back — they can feel uncomfortable asking you to follow them when you initiated the direct message.

NEVER click on a link in a direct message from any one unless you are absolutely sure the link is fine:

• There are a lot of Twitter worms that work by hacking users account by stealing their account credentials when the user clicks on the link.
• This triggers your account to mass tweet the same direct message to your followers accounts.
• My rule is regardless what they are saying I won’t click on a link in a direct message since they are very good at making the message sound like you really need to check the link.
• The best approach is to tweet them using an @ mention to ask them to confirm it is a safe link that they have sent via DM.

# (Hashtags)

• Any word starting with the “#” hash symbol is known as a hash tag.
• Hash tags make it easier to search and follow the twitter conversations on specific topics.  Hash tags are covered in more detail below.

RT (also known as a Retweet)

• Any tweet starting with “RT” means someone is re-tweeting some one else’s tweet.
• Used to quickly share tweets by someone else that might contain links, news or anything you think your twitter followers will find interesting.
• Retweeting is an important way twitterers share information across the Internet.
• You won’t always see “RT” at the start of a retweet as it does depend on what twitter client you are using.  Some clients enclose the Tweet in quotes while other clients may add via and the original twitterer’s username at the end of the tweet.
• If you are a blogger than it’s important to add a Retweet option to your blog posts as Twitter is an essential way people now learn about posts worth reading.  We use the AddThis Social bookmark plugin on our posts.

Favorite

• Favorites are represented by a small star icon next to the tweet and are normally used when a twitterer wants to save (refer) to a tweet later.

Search (Discover)

• Learning how to search twitter well is a key skill for getting the most out of Twitter.
• You can search for any person, keyword, hashtag etc using the search box at the top of the new twitter interface or use the new # Discover section.
• The #  Discover section is all about discovering new content.  Here you’ll find curated tweets from people who you don’t follow and can search for content.  When geolocation is activated (Settings > Account) you’ll also see curated tweets from what going on near you in real time.
• Try it out for yourself!  Next time there’s an important news story locally or globally go to the # Discover section add the name of the location or event and check out the latest tweets as it is being reported.

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Public vs Protected Accounts

By default, when you sign up for Twitter your account is public and any one can see your tweets.

Some twitter users prefer to use Protected twitter accounts where their updates are kept private — where only approved followers can see their tweet updates. You change your privacy options in Settings > Account.

If you choose to use a Protected Twitter account then you need to understand there are people who won’t follow some one who uses a protected twitter account.

For those who won’t follow protected twitter accounts it is important to understand there are numerous reasons why an educator use protected account and it might not be related to concerns of posting an inappropriate tweet.

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Getting more out of Twitter Using Twitter Clients

A twitter client is a MUST as they provide instant notification of the latest updates and easy response to the tweets.

Which Twitter client you use is personal. Here’s recommendations from my twitter network:

For your computer:

• TweetDeck
• Silver Bird for Chrome
• Hootsuite
• Easy Chirp – optimized to assist disabled users

TweetDeck is the most popular desktop Twitter client because it’s ability to add extra columns makes it easy to filter and keep up with conversations using the columns.

For your mobile device:

• Twitter for iPhone – iPhone, iPod touch
• TweetDeck – iPhone, iPod touch
• Twitterific -- iPhone, iPod touch
• TweetBot- iPhone, iPod touch
• HooteSuite for iPad
• Twipple Pro -  iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
• Echofon -  iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, desktop
• Uber twiter – BlackBerry
• Twitter for BlackBerry – BlackBerry
• Gravity – Nokia, Symbian
• Plume for Android

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Getting Started with TweetDeck

TweetDeck is one of the most popular desktopTwitter client because it’s ability to add extra columns makes it easy to filter and keep up with conversations using the columns.

The other benefits of TweetDeck is it allows you to manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts, using your TweetDeck account, and synchronize your configuration when you use TweetDeck on different computers.  No need to reset up your columns of @, searches, inbox, hashtags, lists and so on again!

TweetDeck was purchased by Twitter and they released a new version of the application branded as “TweetDeck by Twitter” in December, 2011.

This means you need to download the new version of TweetDeck directly from their web site if you were using the previous version of TweetDeck to update to the latest version.  Please note you can run both versions of TweetDeck on your computer and can tell which version you are using based on the TweetDeck logo.

“TweetDeck for Twitter” is has been designed to fit the look and feel of the new Twitter.com web interface and Twitter’s mobile apps.  So it does work slightly differently from the original version.

To get started with TweetDeck you just need to:

1. Download and install TweetDeck.

2. Launch TweetDeck and sign up for a TweetDeck account.

• You can’t sign in with your Twitter account, and need a TweetDeck account, because it allows you to manage multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts.
• For example, I manage my own Twitter account and the Edublogs Twitter account using TweetDeck.

3.  Here’s a quick summary of the main features of TweetDeck.

Summary of TweetDeck Features:

4.  Just click Compose a tweet icon to write your tweet.

5  Here’s a quick overview of what each icon on a tweet does.

6.  Sound and pop-up notifications are enabled by default (which can be really annoying).  You changed these settings by editing each column’s setting as shown below.

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How to Post Links

It’s common to see links posted on Twitter appear as shortened links because it makes it easier to include a URL within the 140 character Twitter limit.

Previously if you wanted shortened a link when writing a tweet on the Twitter.com web interface you had to use a URL shortening services, such as tinyurl.com and bit.ly, and then paste the shortened link into the tweet box on Twitter.com.

Twitter has now introduced automatic link shortening which means you no longer need to use a third party service to shorten your links.  All links posted into the tweet box on Twitter.com, TweetDeck and their mobile Twitter apps are automatically shortened.

Please note some twitter clients automatically shorten links for you using services such as bit.ly. For example. if you are using the older version of TweetDeck your links are shortened using bit.ly.

While you can continue to use another URL shortening service the benefits of using Twitter’s automatic link shortening include:

1. It’s quicker.
2. Unlike other URL shorteners, Twitter’s shortener, t.co, creates a link that is a shortened version of the original link and includes the full domain name so your followers will know the site they are going to when they click the link.
3. Shortened links in Direct Messages are a common method used to hacked Twitter accounts . URLs converted by Twitter’s link service are checked against potentially dangerous sites — this is designed to help protect users from malicious, phishing and offensive links.

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Connecting using Hashtags

A hashtag is any word on twitter that starts with the “#” hash sign.

Hash tags make it easier to search and follow the twitter conversations on specific topics.

How it works is everyone agrees to use a standard hash tag in their tweets when they tweet about a specific topic.  Then you set up a search for that hashtag using your twitter client, or use twitter search tools such as Twitter Search and Twitterfall to track the conversation.

Hashtags are commonly used at conferences to share thoughts on presentations, organise meet ups and coordinate after parties.  For example, the hashtag used at ISTE 2011 conference was #iste11

Here’s the  Edublog Awards Best Twitter hash tag 2011 list:

1. #arted – art education
2. #Comments4Kids- used by educators to tweet student posts that deserves to be commented on such as a post that is awesome or student that needs encouragement (learn more about Comment4 kids here)
3. #earlyed – Early education
4. #edchat - used for discussions between educators on thought provoking topics.  You can read more about #edchat here
5. #ELTchat-used for discussions between EFT educators on thought provoking topics.  You can read more about #EFLchat here.
6. #lrnchat - -used for discussions between educators interested the topic of learning (learn more about #lnrchat here)
7. #edcamp- Edcamp are educator unconferences and #edcamp (or variations of #edcamp with the conference) is the hashtag used for them  Here’s where you can learn more about Edcamp.
8. #ukedchat - ukedchat is a more UK-educator friendly version of the very popular twitter discussion #edchat (learn more about #ukedchat here)
9. #cpchat -where Principals can go to connect on Twitter and have an ongoing conversation with other Principals (learn more here).
10. #d5chat – daily 5 hash tag
11. #edchatie – Irish freiendly version of #edchat (learn more here).
12. #edtech - general hash tag used for posting about technology related resources for the classroom and education.
13. #educationation – created by NBC last summer ti highlight their series on reports on Education in the USA.
14. #educoach – for instructional coaches/leaders.
15. #eduit - Belends the educational side of technology with the technical side.
16. #elemchat -To provide elementary (or primary) school educators a venue for discussing issues and strategies that are specific to teaching in the elementary school context (learn more here).
17. #ellchat - repository of ideas for teaching English language learners (learn more here).
18. #eltpics – used by EFL educators to tweet images that they upload, tag and make available on Flickr to share their diversity
19. #engchat –  English freiendly version of #edchat (learn more here).
20. #ISTE11 - used for the ISTE 2011 conference
21. #kinderchat – for those working with small children (learn more here)
22. #lmchat – For those interested in the topic of learning from one another and who want to discuss how to help other people learn in formal, informal, social and mobile ways (learn more here).
23. #mlearning – for conversations on mobile learning.
24. #musedchat – for music education (see more here).
25. #occupyedu
26. #pegeeks – for health and physical education.
27. #pencilchat – amusing and thought provoking parody about ICT use in schools.
28. #playoutdoors
29. #scichat – for science educators (see more here).
30. #slpeeps – for speech language pathologists and students (learn more about #slpeeps here).
31. #spedchat – for special education (see more here).
32. #tlchat – for school librarian community (see more here).
33. #tmsydney - Sydney Teachmeets (see more here).
34. #yourmatter - Created by @AngelaMaiers to talk about how we are all wonderful in our own ways.

Other hash tags commonly used by educators include:

• #ebshare - Edublogs Twitter hashtag for sharing good links and for educators to tweet links at Edublogs so we can share them with our community
• #teachertuesday - used on Tuesdays to recommend educators worth following
• #followfriday or #ff - used by Twitterers on Friday to recommend people worth following.

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Tips for using Hashtags

• Do not place hashtags in front of keywords in your tweet for no real reason
• Hastags are for referencing events, news, software, or memes, not for random words
• Commonly used hashtags such as #edchat are great for finding new people and conversations you would never have discovered otherwise
• Excessive overuse of hashtags can make you look like a twitter spammer
• Most twitters don’t mind hashtags when used for specific things such as conferences, events, groups but can get annoyed with excessive use of silly hashtags like #thingsthatannoyme
• Always check the hashtag you’re planning to use by searching Twitter Search to make sure it isn’t already being used for another purpose
• Set up a search for hash tags using your twitter client to make it easier to engage in the conversations

Learning how to use hashtags well, and who you follow, are key skills for getting the most out of Twitter.

Monitoring hashtags using TweetDeck columns is as easy as:

 1.  Add your hashtag term to the search box in TweetDeck and press Enter.

2.  When the search window loads click on Add Column.

3.  Your search column will load in TweetDeck and all tweets using that hashtag will be updated as they’re tweeted.

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How to create and use Twitter Lists

A great aspect of twitter is you can organise other twitter users into groups called ‘lists’.  When you view a list, you’ll see a twitter stream of all the users that are included in that group.

The benefits of twitter lists include:

# 1 They help you organise who you’re following

Lists let you organize your followers into different groups of people and/or areas of interest.  Instead trying listen to what all your twitter followers are saying; you can focus on the key conversations by the main people whose tweets you want to read.

This reduces the noise created when you’re following lots of users; saving you time, makes your life easier and lets you quickly connect with those you most want to interact with.

Twitter clients and the Twitter.com web interface are designed to let you quickly check your twitter lists.

#2 They help other twitter users

Twitter lists can be public or private.  A public twitter list can be viewed by anyone and other twitter users can quickly follow your list or choose people from your list to follow.

A private list and who is on that list can only be viewed by you.

Public list also highlights who other twitter users recommend as worth following.  If you look at a user’s profile in TweetDeck it displays the number of lists a user has been added to.

Twitter lists are handy if you’re running a workshop on using Twitter, or want to encourage your students to follow specific twitter users.  It’s as simple as creating the list and then getting them to either follow the list or the users on the list.

Tips:

• You don’t need to be following some one to add them to a list.
• Subscribing to someone’s list doesn’t mean you now following all users on that list.  You’ll just see the tweets from users when you view that list.  You need to click follow next a user if you want to follow them to have their tweets appear in your twitter timeline.
• TweetDeck and Twitter mobile apps only allow you to view your twitter lists.  You need to use the web interface at Twitter.com, or a Twitter client that support this feature, to create and add/remove users from your lists.

Creating a list is as simple as:

1.  Go to your Lists page on Twitter.com.

2.  Click on Create a list.

3.  Add the name of your list, a short description (optional) and choose if it is public or private.

4. Click Save List.

5.  Add / remove users to / from your list using the user’s icon drop-down on their profile .

You find users to add by:

• searching for them
• using their profile page
• looking through your follower / following list or other twitter users follower / following list

Subscribing to someone else’s twitter list is as simple as:

1.  Click on the person’s List tab on their profile page.

2.  Select the list you would like to subscribe to.

3.  On the list page click Subscribe to follow the list.

4.  Alternatively you follow people on the list by clicking on List members and then Follow for those you want to add to your twitter account.

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Scheduling Tweets

There are a range of tools that can be used to schedule your tweets to be posted at specific times and date.

This is handy for:

• Promoting events or sharing details on conference sessions – especially when you might be busy at the event.
• Sharing information with twitter followers in different time zones.
• Sharing links and information while you’re away.
• Situations where you might forget or can’t post but want to make sure the information shared.

Examples of tools you can use to schedule tweets include:

• TweetDeck
• Hootesuite
• Twuffer
• Buffer
• TwitDrip

A simple option is to use TweetDeck.

Scheduling tweets using TweetDeck is as easy as:

1.  Click on the Compose Tweet icon

2.  Type your desired message and then click on the time setting icon.

3.  Select the date and time you want the message to be tweeted.

4.  Click Tweet.

5.  A new column will appear with your scheduled Tweets.

6.  You use this column to edit or delete a schedule tweet at any time.

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Embedding tweets

A cool aspect of the new Twitter web interface is a new option that lets you easily embed tweets in blog posts and websites.

It’s as simple as:

1.  Hover over the Tweet you want to embed and an ‘Open’ link will appear — click on Open.

2. Now click Details.

3.  Click on Embed this tweet.

4.  Copy the embed code.

5.  Follow these instructions to embed your tweet into your blog post.

Below is what an embedded tweet looks like:

@suewaters official twitter client on iPhone The “quote tweet” facility allows u to edit existing tweet and add a # to eg a list or a group

— Donal O’ Mahony (@domaho) February 11, 2012

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Adding your own Twitter background

Customzing your twitter background can make you really stand out from the crowd.

You change or upload your own twitter background via Settings > Design.

There’s a few options for creating your own twitter background such as:

1. Use software like PhotoShop to design it yourself.  Here’s some helpful “Design to and best practice tips”
2. Use one of the many free online twitter background generators.

Here’s where you’ll find free twitter backgrounds:

• Freetwitterdesigner.com is very easy to use and provides a wide range of options for uploading your own images and adding text anywhere on the background.
• TwitBacks is also very easy to use.  Creates a design with a text block on the left side of the background.
• Twitrbackgrounds.com
• Twitrounds
• Twitpaper
• Twitterbackgrounds.org

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Preventing your twitter account from being hacked and what to do if it is hacked

There are Twitter worms that work by hacking users account by stealing their account credentials when the user clicks on the link.  Unexpected tweets or sudden unintended DMs being sent from your account are indicators your account might have been compromised.

The best way to prevent your account being compromised are:

• NEVER click on a link in a direct message from any one unless you are absolutely sure the link is fine.  Most Twitter worms work by clicking on the link and it can cause your account to mass tweet the same direct message to your followers accounts.
• My rule is regardless what they are saying I won’t click on a link in a direct message since they are very good at making the message sound like you really need to check the link.
• The best approach is to tweet them using an @ mention to ask them to confirm it is a safe link that they have sent via DM.

Here’s what you need to do if your account has been compromised.

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Keeping up with links shared on Twitter

A twitter network is a rich source of great links to read and it’s handy to grab these links using twitter tools so you can check them out at your leisure.

Here’s some options:

1. Flipboard – collects the content of social networks and websites and then presents them in a magazine format on an iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
2. Zite – similar to Flipboard and collects the content of social networks and websites and then presents them in a magazine format on an iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
3. Shiftlinks – creates an RSS feed of your links posted by your twitter followers which you can subscribe to using an feed reader such as Google Reader. This works works well when following a small number of people.
4. Tweeted Times - creates a daily newspaper based on the top links shared by your twitter follower and can be read on your iPad. This works works well when following a large number of people.  Here’s my personalised Tweeted Times.  You can also subscribe by RSS.
5. Paper.li -  creates a daily newspaper based on the top links shared by your twitter follower. Here’s my personalised Paper.li.

Both Tweeted Times and Paper-li can be set up to send an automatic tweet of your daily newspaper and identify the source of your top stories of the day based on RTs, Favorites etc.

Flipboards is very popular for any one using an iPad because it allows you to easily read, share, bookmark and retweet links from your iPad.

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Cool Twitter tools

There are so many tools for getting even more out of using twitter.  Here’s where you’ll find more about these handy tools:

1. The Definitive list of Twitter tools
2. The Ultimate List of Twitter tools

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Using Twitter with students

Educators aren’t just using Twitter for their personal learning; they are also using it in innovative ways in their classrooms.

Here’s where you can find out more about using Twitter in your Classroom:

1. The Ultimate Guide to Using Twitter in Education.
2. 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
3. 30 Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom
4. 60 Inspiring examples of Twitter in the Classroom

What Do You Think?

Have we missed any important tips or resources?

Let us know in the comments below and we will be sure to add it to the post!

Please note this post has been updated and it is better to refer to our new “The Twitteraholic’s Ultimate Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter” post since:

1. It is a more detailed post
2. Includes an updated version of this post
3. Covers additional topics.

Here is where you’ll find our new Guide to Using Twitter.

Conferences can make you feel really overwhelmed and alone — especially at a conference like ISTE amongst 13,000 ed tech professionals participants who attend each year.

But never for a twitterer.

For us Twitter users conferences are like walking into a big party where you know everyone and are meeting up with old friends.

So how do we use Twitter?

Here’s advice on using Twitter written with assistance from my twitter network and readers comments on this post — thanks everyone for sharing their tips!

And for those of you who have heard of twitter and have dismissed it thinking ‘”Twitter is for people with too much time on their hands” — think again   Educators are connecting with each other on Twitter and using it like a big teachers lunch room that’s open 24/7 whenever they need help, assistance or just want to connect with others.

Here’s tips for signing up for your Twitter account:

1. Go to Twitter and create your account.
2. Remember first impressions count!  Choose your username and an avatar carefully
3. Choose a username that makes it easier for others to relate to you as a real person and conveys the right impression of who you are. e.g. Compare spwat3 with suewaters — which is easier?
4. But don’t stress too much — your username can be changed anytime without affecting your twitter account  (Settings > Account)

Before you start following other people make sure you:

1. Complete your bio and add your blog URL (if applicable) — people use this information to decide whether they follow you (Settings > Profile).
2. Upload your twitter avatar — people are less likely follow those using the default avatar (Settings > Profile)
3. Don’t start following people on twitter until you’ve published some tweets! Why would anyone follow you if you haven’t even bothered to update?

Tips for who to follow:

1. Choose about 100 people to follow initially
2. Find people to follow who have similar interests or with blogs you like who either share great info and links or who willingly engage in conversations
3. Follow a few people you know and follow who they follow
4. Find a twitter mentor who will help and guide you.  Get them to ask their followers to add you.
   
5. You can always ask me to help by sending an @suewaters tweet. Make sure when people do start adding you that add them back quickly plus thank them for adding you to their account!!!
6. Don’t just follow anyone — follow those who have the same interests and who you like
7. Remember following does not have to be forever — vet your following list to suit your needs
8. And think about how you want to use it — to follow latest news? to follow other educators? to share what you know?
9. Check out the Edublog Awards Best Individual Tweeter 2010 list to find educators others recommend following or quickly add all 42 of the top educational tweeters to instantly create or grow your PLN!

Tips for engaging in the conversation:

Twitter is very similar to a face to face conversation.  A mixture of small talk, relationship building, helping others, getting help and sharing.

1. Be patient it takes time to build your network.
2. Use it everyday for four weeks, even if only for 5 minutes per day.
3. Remember twitter is a two way conversation — you need to answer as much as you ask but most importantly share, share, share.
4. Participate and say something, anything
5. Get involved in the conversation. Don’t be afraid to reply and if you don’t get a response back, don’t be offended. It happens — you’ll soon see those that do/don’t engage in conversations
   
6. Learn the twitter language and how to use it well i.e. @, DM, #, hashtags, RT — here’s information that will help.
7. Use a twitter client where possible and not the web interface
8. Avoid using up all 140 characters as it makes Retweeting harder
9. Remember online is forever. If you didn’t want it online don’t say it in the first place.
10. It’s extremely easy for others to misinterpret your written text. Remember this!
11. Think about how what you say reflects on how people visualise you.

Getting more out of Twitter Using Twitter Clients

A twitter client is a MUST as they provide instant notification of the latest updates and easy response to the tweets.

Which Twitter client you use is personal. Here’s recommendations from my twitter network:

For your computer:

• TweetDeck
• Seesmic
• Hootsuite
• Yoono – FireFox addon
• Accessible Twitter – optimized to assist disabled users

For your mobile device:

• Twitter for iPhone – iPhone, iPod touch
• TweetDeck – iPhone, iPod touch
• Twitterific -- iPhone, iPod touch
• Twitbird - iPhone, iPod touch
• echofon – - iPhone, iPod touch
• Osfoora – iPad
• Uber twiter – BlackBerry
• Twitter for BlackBerry – BlackBerry
  
• Tweetcaster – Android
• Gravity – Nokia, Symbian

Connecting using Hashtags

A hashtag is any word on twitter that starts with the “#” hash sign.

Hash tags make it easier to search and follow the twitter conversations on specific topics.

How it works is everyone agrees to use a standard hash tag in their tweets when they tweet about a specific topic.  Then you set up a search for that hashtag using your twitter client, or use twitter search tools such as Twitter Search and Twitterfall to track the conversation.

Hashtags are commonly used at conferences to share thoughts on presentations, organise meet ups and coordinate after parties.  For example, the hashtag used at ISTE 2010 conference was #iste10.

Check out What is a Hashtag by Silvia Tolisano for a more detailed explanation.

Hashtags commonly used by educators include:

• #edchat – used for discussions between educators on thought provoking topics.  You can read more about #edchat here
• #ebshare – Edublogs Twitter hashtag for sharing good links and for educators to tweet links at Edublogs so we can share them with our community
• #teachertuesday – used on Tuesdays to recommend educators worth following
• #followfriday or #ff – used by Twitterers on Friday to recommend people worth following.
• #comment4kids – used by educators to tweet student posts that deserves to be commented on such as a post that is awesome or student that needs encouragement.
• #lrnchat – used for discussions on thought provoking topics.  You can read more about #lrnchat here

And here’s the  Edublog Awards Most Influential Tweet Series 2010 list:

1. #Comments4Kids- used by educators to tweet student posts that deserves to be commented on such as a post that is awesome or student that needs encouragement (learn more about Comment4 kids here)
2. #cpchat -where Principals can go to connect on Twitter and have an ongoing conversation with other Principals (learn more here).
3. #edcamp- Edcamp are educator unconferences and #edcamp (or variations of #edcamp with the conference) is the hashtag used for them  Here’s where you can learn more about Edcamp.
4. #edchat – used for discussions between educators on thought provoking topics.  You can read more about #edchat here
5. #edtech
6. #eltpics – used by EFL educators to tweet images that they upload, tag and make available on Flickr to share their diversity
7. #ELTchat-used for discussions between EFT educators on thought provoking topics.  You can read more about #EFLchat here.
8. #ISTE10 - used for the ISTE 2010 conference
9. #lrnchat – -used for discussions between educators interested the topic of learning (learn more about #lnrchat here)
10. #midleved
11. #nswdet - used for discussions by public school educators from New South Wales, Australia
12. #ntchat – used for discussions by new teachers (learn more about #ntchat here)
13. #scido – used for discussions by science educators (learn more about #scido here)
14. #slpeeps – used for discussions by Speech Language Pathologists and students (learn more about #slpeeps here)
15. #speakloudly
16. #tlchat -
17. #ukedchat – ukedchat is a more UK-educator friendly version of the very popular twitter discussion #edchat (learn more about #ukedchat here)
18. #ultranet – used by public school teachers in Victoria, Australia to discuss topics related to the use of their State’s Ultranet

Tips for using Hashtags

• Do not place hashtags in front of keywords in your tweet for no real reason
• Hastags are referencing events, news, software, or memes, not for random words
• Commonly used hashtags such as #edchat are great for finding new people and conversations you would never have discovered otherwise
• Excessive overuse of hashtags can make you look like a twitter spammer
• Most twitters don’t mind hashtags when used for specific things such as conferences, events, groups but can get annoyed with excessive use of silly hashtags like #thingsthatannoyme
• Always check the hashtag you’re planning to use by searching Twitter Search to make sure it isn’t already being used for another purpose
• Set up a search for that hashtag using your twitter client to make it easier to engage in the conversations

Thanks everyone who shared their tips on using hashtags!

Public vs Protected Accounts

By default, when you sign up for Twitter your account is public and any one can see your tweets.

Some twitter users prefer to use Protected twitter accounts where their updates are kept private — where only approved followers can see their tweet updates. You change your privacy options in Settings > Account.

If you choose to use a Protected Twitter account then you need to appreciate there are people who won’t follow some one who uses a protected twitter account.

For those who won’t follow protected twitter accounts it is important to appreciate there are a range of reasons why an educator might choose to use a protected account and often it isn’t related to concerns of posting an inappropriate tweet.

It is also important to consider followers may be using a protected account when taking screenshots from Twitter — and where possible I prefer to ask if people mind me taking a screenshot.

Don’t forget here’s a cool way to grab a screenshot of a tweet and embed it to a blog post!

Thanks to Esra and Jane Lofton for reminding me to discuss Protected Twitter accounts!

And standing out from the crowd

Customzing your twitter background can make you really stand out from the crowd.

You change or upload your own twitter background via Settings > Design.

There’s a few options for creating your own twitter background such as:

1. Use software like PhotoShop to design it yourself.  Here’s some helpful “Design to and best practice tips”!
2. Use one of the many free online twitter background generators.

Here’s some worth trying:

1. Freetwitterdesigner.com

Freetwitterdesigner.com is very easy to use and provides a wide range of options for uploading your own images and adding text anywhere on the background.

2.  TwitBacks

TwitBacks is also very easy to use.  Creates a design with a text block on the left side of the background.

3.  The Escape

The Escape is a very simple, cute twitter background creator.

Keeping up with links shared on Twitter

A twitter network is a rich source of great links to read and it’s handy to grab these links using twitter tools so you can check them out at your leisure.

Here’s a couple of options:

1. Shiftlinks – creates an RSS feed of your links posted by your twitter followers which you can subscribe to using an feed reader such as Google Reader. This works works well when following a small number of people.
2. The Twitter Times – creates a daily newspaper based on the top links shared by your twitter follower.  This works works well when following a large number of people.  Here’s my personalised Twitter Times.  You can also subscribe by RSS.
3. Backtweets – used to monitor who is tweeting links to your blog and posts.

Thanks to Dolores Gende for reminding me to discuss how to monitor links shared!

And let us not forget how we can use with our students

Check out Tom Barrett and friends 30 Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classro0om from Tom’s Interesting Ways To… Series.

Download a PDF version of  30 Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom here!

Final thoughts

Everyone has their own secret ingredients for using Twitter.

1. What did I miss?
2. What are your tips for getting more out of twitter?
3. Do you have any favourite twitter tools?

And please share your thoughts on why educators should use twitter and how to get more out of using it.

Thanks to everyone in my twitter network that helped write this post –really appreciated it and apologies for not listing everyone’s names but there were so many who helped!

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