Join the Twitter Conversation
Twitter is a real-time global conversation—carried out in 140-character spurts (called “tweets”).
Like Facebook, you are prompted to tell what you are doing at that moment, but Twitter is much more topic oriented. To find other people talking about the same topic, you insert a hashtag into your post. For example, any time you want to discuss SOCAP-related topics, you can insert the hashtag #socap into your post.
Since you can use Twitter on everything from a Web browser to a cell phone’s SMS messaging utility, it’s an ideal tool for sharing about content in real time – even during a webinar or in a conference session.
Using Twitter is easy!
- Get a Twitter account.
- Set up your favorite Twitter client—preferably on your mobile phone.
- Post 140-character tweets on SOCAP-related topics.
- Insert the #socap hashtag somewhere in your tweet.
Following the Twitter posts is just as easy. This site’s sidebar has a “SOCAP Twitterfeed” for the most recent 10 tweets containing the #socap hashtag. Additionally, you can go to Twitter Search to find all tweets with the #socap hashtag. You can even watch the tweets update in real time at TweetGrid.
Getting Set Up on Twitter
Probably the easiest way to start using Twitter is to sign up for a free account on the Twitter website. After you sign up for your account, you can choose how you wish to post: via laptop, cellphone SMS or even a Twitter client on your Blackberry or a Twitter app on your iPhone (my favorite is Tweetie).
Avid Twitterer Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos) has written probably the best tutorial for how to set up Twitter SMS. There’s also a nice video overview of Twitter that gives you some ideas for how to use the service… though the examples it offers do not really show how Twitter can be used for more professional-level conversations:
To see how people use Twitter to talk about something more than lunch, check out these Twitter feeds from popular past speakers at SOCAP events:
The best way to understand Twitter is to start by “following” others who are using Twitter in inventive ways. If you want to jump in and learn by using, it’s best to start by using a personal (not a company) account. When you have a better feel for the Twitter community, you can even start using it for customer outreach!
Contact us if you need help getting started or if you have any questions.
I’m occasionally asked whether someone should be using Twitter (micro-blogging) in their career. My answer: Twitter has many practical applications for both research and marketing. I don’t, however, think it is imperative for every professional to invest the time or energy to become a super Tweeter. Making the committment to Tweet multiple times a day really depends on what you do, and the degree to which self/company promotion is important to your goals.
At the very least though, using Twitter with a conference or topic hashtag (such as SOCAP’s #symp09) is a powerful way to maintain an electronic and ubiquitous bulletin board. I see this as a great way for SOCAPers to use the tool in a very practical, and manageable way.
I plan to keep an eye on the stream during the symposium.
Brett
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