Twitter is a free micro-blogging and social networking site that allows its users to send and receive messages or ‘tweets.’ Tweets are 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.

 

Twitter Terms: 

·         Following - To receive messages on Twitter, you follow other people and companies you’re interested in and get their messages as they post. Conversely, people get your messages by following you.

·         Tweet – An individual message, update or post. “I tweeted about our new blog post.” “I was twittering yesterday when I got a request to join the LinkedIn IFPRI group and IFPRI Facebook fan page.”

·         @username - Start a message with @username of the person you want to reach.

·         DM, or direct message – A private messaging channel. These tweets appear on your home page under the Direct Messages tab, and if you’ve got email notifications turned on, you’ll also get an email message when somebody DMs you. No one but you can see your DMs. (d username this is my phone number…) The one tricky concept with DMs is that you can send them only to people who are following you. Conversely, you can receive them only from people you’re following.

·         RT, or retweet - To help share ideas via Twitter and to give a shout-out to people you respect, you can repost their messages and give them credit. Retweeting is common, and it’s a form of conversation on Twitter. It’s also a powerful way to spread messages and ideas across Twitter quickly. So when you do it, you’re engaging in a way people recognize and usually like—making it a good way to connect.

·         Trending Topics- On the right side of your screen and on the Twitter search page, you’ll see ten Trending Topics, which are the most-mentioned terms on Twitter at that moment. The topics update continually, reflecting the real-time nature of Twitter and true shifts in what people are paying attention to.

·         Hashtag (#) - # symbol followed by a term describing or naming the topic, declaring this message is about the same thing as other messages from other people who include the same hashtag. Then, when somebody searches for that hashtag, they’ll get all of the related messages.

·         Tweetup - An in-person gathering organized via Twitter, often spontaneous. Companies sometimes use them for things like hosting launch parties, connecting with customers and introducing like-minded followers to each other.

·         Shortened URLs – To take full advantage of the 140 character limit, Twitter or other websites, like bit.ly, shrink links to fit into your tweets.

 

Demographics:

·         Median age of user: 31 years  (Facebook: 26, LinkedIn: 40)

·         Average user: young, mobile, racially and ethnically diverse, reside in urban locations

·         Top Twitter Locations: London, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Atlanta, Seattle, Boston, Austin, Sydney, San Diego, Washington, DC., Melbourne, Portland, Houston, Vancouver, Dallas, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia.

 

Tips for Twitter:

·         Update bio, picture, website, location and background to gain more authority and followers

·         Executives and upper management using Twitter individually are seen as intellectual leaders and can improve public relations

·         Listen first for organization name, other relevant organizations and related words

o   try using: http://tweetdeck.com/beta to follow conversations and mentions

·         Follow respected people and organizations to gain more followers and information

o   check out:  http://wefollow.com

·         Follow people back if they will provide useful information, conversation or testimony

·         Start slow, devoting a few minutes a day to see whether and how its valuable to you

·         Determine what content your audience wants to hear and adapt content to their needs

·         Be authentic and provide useful and engaging information

·         Answer the question, “what has your attention?”

·         Tweet several times daily to gain more attention and build a larger network

·         Read all replies and direct messages and respond to others when appropriate

·         Get many employees involved in maintenance of Twitter, so each person spends only a few minutes each day updating content, reading or responding (Try http://cotweet.com )

·         Be transparent about connection to organization for individual Twitter accounts

·         Measure followers, retweets and replies to see what messages receive the best response and post more similar information

 

Benefits of Twitter:

·         Increased blog and website traffic  

·         Lead generation and communication with media contacts and partners

·         Brand building through content spread through network, retweets, and replies

·         Retweets gain more followers, buzz and traffic

·         Increase influence of IFPRI: http://twitter.grader.com

·         Investment is time spent listening, tweeting and responding and requires only a few minutes several times per day, but return is complementing other communication channels, spreading content, inbound links, and increased name recognition

·         Engagement with stakeholders and those interested in organizational work

·         Real time feedback

·         May Improve: PR, loyalty building, networking, customer acquisition, customer service, collaboration, thought leadership

 

Organizations:

·         The UN Refugee Agency  http://twitter.com/Refugees

 

·         The World Bank - each account is directly tied to a World Bank blog.

o    http://twitter.com/WorldBankAsia

o  http://twitter.com/wbclimatechange

 

·         World Food Programme http://twitter.com/fighthunger

 

      ·         The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation http://twitter.com/gatesfoundation

 

·         Greenpeace USA http://twitter.com/greenpeaceusa

          -in their Bio section they list who is managing the account by using their Twitter names, so you can go see      who they are individually.

 

·         WWF http://twitter.com/wwf    http://twitter.com/WWF_Climate  

               - right click background image to look at background image to see who is managing account.

 

       ·         CGIAR

o  http://twitter.com/ictkm

o  http://twitter.com/cgiarclimate

 

      ·         http://twitter.com/Philanthropy

·         http://twitter.com/cop15 (Twitter account made for event. Publicized on their website- http://en.cop15.dk/                   Search hashtag #cop15)

·         http://twitter.com/digg_enviro (stay current with news articles)

·         http://twitter.com/Oxfam

·         http://twitter.com/OECD

 

Ideas for several people managing an account:

·        http://www.grouptweet.com/

·        http://cotweet.com/ Several people staffing account with their own Twitter names identified on background. Each tweet is identified with initials of who wrote it. 

          CoTweet Examples:      http://twitter.com/ford                  http://twitter.com/cotweet

 

Ten Ways to ‘Tweet’

·         Links to current reports

·         Links to blog posts and videos

·         Links to relevant online media, articles, websites

·         Relevant questions for audience response

·         Answers or responses to comments or questions about organization or blog articles

·         Updates of the latest information about organization or topic

·         Comments or questions to stay in touch before, during and after events or conferences

·         Suggestions for further study on a topic

·         Communications to deal with limitations inherent to an international organization

·         Explanations of new website applications and functions

 

Remember:

If it gives you pause, pause.

Be professional, kind, discreet, authentic. Represent us well. Remember that you can't control it once you hit "update."

 

Types of Twitter Profiles

·         Pure Organizational Brand

100% corporate branded with primarily corporate related content. These accounts, which are often sporting the proper brand name of a company, are used often to provide corporate news, deals, and support.  There is no indicator of any individuals involved.

+ This account can be managed by a team, and less risk of an individual being co-branded with the brand, as they may leave later.

- This may be perceived as a just an extension of corporate PR or the corporate website with little human interaction.

·         Organization with Personality

Estimated with about 80% corporate brand and 20% personal brand this account may be a corporate branded account, although it’s clear there’s an individual participating.

+ This account maintains the face of the corporate side, yet shows a human element, building trust with the community.

- The account may be limiting itself as the community may come to expect and rely on the individual person to participate.

·         Employee with Organization Association

In a rough estimate this account consists of 20% corporate related content, and approximately 80% personal information.  Take any personal account, which often indicates their name, they indicate they’re an employee, although may have disclaimers that their opinions are theirs alone.

+ These personal accounts are often organic and are a great way to build connections with a community.

- Even if a disclaimer states that “these opinions only represent me, not my employer” they still are representatives of the brand.

·         Pure Personal Account

These accounts are 100% personal content and have no tie or mention of corporate or branded information. These personal accounts, either created by an individual that doesn’t want to be associated with their employer –or their employer won’t let them is void of any corporate ties.

+ This account has no tie or risk to a brand.

-  Although the risks are reduced, so are the opportunities to talk to people about the organization.

 

Events:

Looking at past tweets mentioning 'IFPRI,' we saw someone twittering during an IFPRI event.

 

·         Establish a hashtag for your event so that your followers can easily watch and search the conversations.

·         Follow @hashtags so your hashtags will be tracked.

·         Type in the full hashtag at Twitter Search to track all the tweets related to that term.

·         Go to hashtags.org and put in hashtag words and follow tweets using that hashtag.

·         Start using Twitter before your event to build followers and buzz. Publicize the hashtag in invites, tweets, e-mail, Let’s Blog IFPRI, Blog World Hunger, Facebook and LinkedIn. Let the audience know they can sign in to a chat on Ustream or Twitter, depending on what you are using, to comment and ask questions.   

·         Use Twitter with your hashtag during and after event. Send tweets during event to announce reminders, announcements and changes.

·         Encourage your attendees to tweet during the live event. Create a place on homepage, Ustream, or projection screen (Wifitti, VisibleTweets) at event which mashes Twitter tweets collected with established #hashtag. Engage audience for immediate feedback.

 

Event Hashtag Example: https://www.pittsburghg20.org/Index.aspx

http://twitter.com/PittsburghG20 Use hashtag #pittsburgh when talking about G20 event on Twitter. Or search #pittsburgh to read some of the conversation.

 

***Twitter can’t be anything more than what you put into it. Like all social media tools, it takes attention, commitment and participation to be of real value. Promote your social media activity. ***

 

Sources

 http://business.twitter.com/twitter101

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/case-study-twitter-usage-at-wo.html

http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

http://www.web2fordev.net/component/content/article/1-latest-news/68-micro-blogging

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/twitter/

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/07/30/from-corporate-to-personal-the-four-types-of-social-media-profiles/

http://socialmediamama.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/using-twitter-to-publicize-events/

http://ictkm.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/social-media-the-next-revolution/