User
Services
OBJECTIVES
This workshop will introduce
and cover some of the features
of Facebook. You will learn how
to:
• Create an account
• Find friends
• Edit your profile
• Add images
• Create and join groups
This workshop will also
introduce and cover some of
the features of Twitter. You will
learn how to:
• Create an account
• Set-up profile
• Find friends/colleagues/others
on Twitter
September 2009
Facebook and Twitter
Overview
Facebook connects you with the people you know and care about. It
enables you to communicate, stay up-to-date, and keep in touch with
friends and family anywhere. It facilitates friendships online to help
enhance them in person. Specifically, Facebook connects you with the
people you know, allows you to join groups, and become a fan.
Twitter is considered microblogging. This allows users to send a brief (140
character limit) message, called a Tweet, that can be viewed by the user’s
followers. Images and brief videos can also be posted.
These two social networking tools can
be used for fun or leveraged for use as
communication and teaching tools by
faculty, staff, and university groups.
Getting Help
The ITS Help Desk, located in 108 Allen Hall, provides computerrelated services to all Mississippi State University faculty, staff,
and students. The ITS consultants are available to help with various
computer-related problems, as well as provide answers to computer
and technology-related questions. Visit the Web site at www.its.
msstate.edu for handouts and resolutions to common computer
problems. If you cannot find an answer to your question on the Web
or you do not have access to the Internet, please call at 325-0631
(8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday). You may also
contact the ITS Help Desk by email at [email protected].
Instructors
Amy Berryhill
[email protected]
Jason Tiffin
[email protected]
Inside this Handout
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Facebook Terminology........................................................................3
Introduction to Facebook.....................................................................4
Getting Started.....................................................................................5
Adding a Picture to Your Profile........................................................13
Finding Friends................................................................................. 14
Facebook Photos................................................................................16
Tags....................................................................................................17
Groups................................................................................................19
Facebook Applications.......................................................................25
Twitter Terminology..........................................................................27
Introduction to Twitter.......................................................................28
Signing Up with Twitter.....................................................................30
Customizing Your Twitter Profile......................................................33
Uploading Your Avatar.......................................................................35
Controlling SMS Delivery.................................................................37
Twitter Search....................................................................................39
Hashtags.............................................................................................41
Expanding Twitter Use with Clients..................................................43
Resources...........................................................................................45
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Facebook Terminology
Admin An admin is a person who’s in charge of a group. When you create a group, you are
automatically be listed as both an admin and the group’s creator. Admins can invite people to
join the group, appoint other admins, and edit group information and content. They can also
remove members and other admins.
Application Users can add applications to their profiles, pages, and groups. There are dozens upon dozens of
applications to choose from. Some are built by Facebook. Most are built by external developers.
Visit the Application Directory to learn more. See General Application Support for Q&A.
Chat A feature that lets users talk with friends who are online in Facebook. Visit the Help Center to learn more.
Creator The person who started and administers a cause.
Delete One of the most popular searches on Facebook is How do I Delete (... fill in the blank).
Fan A person who has joined a page because they like what that page represents.
Filters Used to separate friends into different categories. Create your own filters using Friend Lists. You can also filter by applications, like Photos. Tour the new Facebook homepage to see the where Filters are used on the profile.
Friend A person who has joined a profile, usually by invitation.
Group A group is not a page or profile. It is a Facebook site created by bands, companies and other organizations to promote their activities.
Inbox The Facebook mail application.
Like A feature that appears as a link next to something you see on Facebook that allows users to let others know they appreciate that something, whether it be a video, a comment or something else
Limited
Profile A profile that allows only restricted access.
Network A circle of friends and acquaintances that centers on a city, school, company, or military organization.
News Feed News Feeds highlight what’s happening in your social circles on Facebook. News Feeds are posted to profiles for all to see.
Notifications Like Mini Feeds, notifications are news feeds from friends, sent automatically as they engage in activity on their profile.
Status A micro-blogging feature called which allows users to inform their friends of their current whereabouts, actions, or thoughts.
Stream The stream shows you posts from your friends in real-time. This keeps you up to date on everything that’s happening. You can control who appears here.
Tag Marking a photo or video with text that identifies the image or the person in the image.
Translations A Facebook application that allows translators from around world to translate Facebook into different languages.
Wall A featured section inside a Facebook profile. It’s a space on every user’s profile page that allows friends and users themselves to post messages for all to see.
www.howdoifacebook.com/
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Introduction to Facebook
What is Facebook?
Facebook is a free-access social networking Website where users can join networks to connect and interact with
other people. Users may also add friends and send them messages, and update their own personal profiles to
notify friends about themselves.
The Website’s name refers to the paper facebooks at US colleges and prep schools given to incoming students,
faculty, and staff as a way to get to know others on campus. Facebook, founded in 2004, was initially limited to
Harvard students, where the founders were students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the
Ivy League, and Stanford University. Later, it was expanded further to include any university student, then high
school student, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The Website currently has in excess of 200 million
active users worldwide.
A powerful aspect of the social network on Facebook is that it builds and maintains itself. Each member helps
define his place in the graph. When you sign up for Facebook, you begin by creating your profile - a page
containing whatever information best defines you. Facebook makes it easy for you to find the profiles of the
people you know and establish your virtual connection to them. (Abram & Pearlman, 2008)
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Getting Started
Facebook accounts are free, and have only two requirements: You need a working email address, and you must
be over 13 years old.
1.
Open your browser and enter www.facebook.com for the URL.
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2.
In the Full Name field, type your name. Facebook expects you to use your real name, not an alias. Do
not type in the name of a group or company, and do not include special characters (like parentheses)
or titles such as Mr., Ms., or Dr. Some married women use their maiden name in the full name field to
make it easier for the people who knew them before they married to find them.
3.
In the Your Email field, type a valid email address. This will be the address where updates and
messages sent through Facebook will appear.
4.
Create a password in the New Password field.
5.
In the I am field, select your gender.
6.
In the Birthday field, put your birthdate. Facebook
requires all users to provide their real date of birth as
both a safety precaution and as a means of preserving
the integrity of the site. You will be able to hide this
information from your profile if you wish.
7.
After your information is entered, click Sign Up.
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7.
The Security window appears and you are prompted to enter the displayed words. Click Sign Up after
typing the two words.
8.
You should receive an email message from Facebook in the account you entered as your email address.
Click the Get Started link to begin the steps to setting up your Facebook account.
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9.
You are then prompted to locate friends by entering your email address and password. (This step
is optional.) Facebook goes through your email address book to locate anyone in it that also has a
Facebook account. If you choose not to do this, click Skip this step located in the lower right portion of
the window.
10. In Step 2, you will enter Profile Information. This information includes the High School and Year
Graduated information, College/University and Year Graduated information, and Employment
information. You may chose to leave
out any of this information and
continue. However, if you do not fill
out enough information, Facebook
may not validate your account. For the
most part, it is up to you whether or not
you give Facebook accurate personal
details. However, Facebook uses a
combination of computer programs and
actual humans to weed out obviously
bogus registration details. (E.A. Vander
Veer, 2008) After you complete the
information fields, click Save &
Continue.
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11.
Continuing in Step 2, Facebook will
display the names of people that you
may know depending on the previous
information you entered (high school,
college, employment). You can scroll
through these names and select as
many people as you choose or you
may decide to choose no one. After
completing this step click Save &
Continue.
12.
In Step 3, you are asked to type
the name of the city or town where
you live. This puts you in a Region
Network. Region Networks
correspond to geographic regions
of the world. Joining a Region
Network is a great way to access
some interesting content, either by
seeing more profiles or by checking
out a Network page for posted items,
groups, and more. The restrictions are
that you can only be in one Region
Network at a time, and you can only
change your Region Network twice
every 60 days.
You may also choose to Skip this step
and be in no network.
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13.
In the Welcome to Facebook page, there are quick links to find people you know, view and edit your
profile, friend suggestions based on the information you have already entered, plus more. To get started
with putting information into your page, click View and edit your profile.
14.
Select the Info tab if it is not showing. There are four sections in the Info tab (Basic Information,
Personal Information, Contact Information, and Education and Work).We will go through each section
and enter information. The first section is Basic Information. As you can see, there is already some
information in place based on what you entered earlier. If you need to change any of that information,
you can do that here.
When this section is
complete, click Save
Changes.
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15.
In the Personal Information, you may type as much or as little as you like. Facebook recommends not
typing pages of information about yourself into every field. When you have completed the information,
click Save Changes. ( You can always go back and edit if needed.)
16.
The next section is the Contact
Information where you can add
contact information such as cell
phone and land line numbers,
address, and your personal
Web page URL. This section
is also optional. If you enter
information here, click Save
Changes when complete.
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17.
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The last section, Education and Work,
usually helps people identify how they
know you when you request a friend
or when you send someone a message.
Additionally, if someone performs a search
for a certain class year from your school,
you will appear in the search results, and
old friends can get in touch with you.
Click Save Changes after entering your
information.
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Adding A Picture to Your Profile
Until you add a picture to your profile, Facebook displays a default silhouette representing you. Replacing the
default image helps searchers identify you more easily.
1.
To add a profile picture, there a only a few restrictions which include proper file format (.jpg, .gif, or
.png) and file must be smaller than 4 megabytes.
2.
Hover over the default image
and the Change Picture edit tool
appears. Click on the tool for the
tool options.
3.
Select Upload a Picture and select Browse.
Navigate to the location of the picture you want to
upload, select it, and click Open.
4.
You may add additional pictures, as well as write
captions for your pictures.
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Finding Friends
Before you can make someone your friend, you have to find that person on Facebook. There are three different
ways to do this:
•
You can look up real-like friends and acquaintances who are already Facebook members.
•
You can invite real-life friends and acquaintances who are not on Facebook to join.
•
You can search Facebook members you have never met, but who share your interests.
Finding Facebook Friends
Some of your real-life friends and people you know may already be Facebook members. There are several ways
to find friends on Facebook.
1.
Search for Facebook members by name. In the search field in the top right of the window, type in the
name of the person you are searching, then click the magnifying glass icon.
Facebook will display all the matches (and near-matches) available in all networks. If you see a large
number of matches, click the People tab to narrow the search. Also, Facebook displays matches within
your network and groups first.
2.
Search for Facebook members who are classmates, ex-classmates,
or co-workers. Under the Friends tab located on the top menu bar,
choose Find Friends.
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3.
Facebook allows you to find people whom you email, who also have Facebook accounts. This means
entering your email address and password in the fields. There are also ways to search networks, high
school, college, and company.
4.
You may also invite people to be your friend on Facebook by locating them through searches within
Facebook or by sending a request to their known email address.
Responding to Friend Requests
When someone tries to add you to their Friend List, two things happen: Facebook send you an email invitation,
and it posts a notice on your profile that you have a friend request. You then have two options: You can confirm
the request or ignore the request, either in Facebook or from the email notice you received.
1.
Look in your email program for a message with the subject “[Somebody] added you as a friend on
Facebook”. Open the email message and click the confirmation link. Clicking the link takes you to the
Facebook page where you can confirm your friendship (or ignore).
2.
In its quest to support polite social interactions, Facebook does not give members a way to explicitly
reject friend invitations, but they can be ignored. If you have sent a friend invitation and have not heard
back after a few days, try sending the person a message. If you still do not get an answer, it means you
have probably been ignored.
3.
If you find your friend list is too long and you spend too much time working your way through all the
news feeds, the rule-of-thumb for un-friending someone is that if you have not thought about a friend or
communicated with a friend in three months, click the “x” to the right of your friend’s listing to remove
him or her. Don’t worry, friends are not told they are un-friended and since you rarely communicate with
them anyway, they probably will not notice.
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Facebook Photos
Facebook is a great place to share your photos because you can organize them into albums and share them with
all the people who may want to see them. When you upload photos to Facebook, you are prompted to categorize
them into albums. Each album can have up to 60 photos (which may change) and Facebook by default resizes
all photos down to a maximum width of 200 pixels and a maximum height of 600 pixels.
1.
Click the Photo icon located in the bottom left of the browser window. (There are other photo icons
available as well.)
2.
Click Create a Photo Album button in the top right corner.
In the Create Album widow, enter the name of the album and short description. In the Privacy
pulldown menu, you can place restrictions on who can view your photos.
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Editing Captions and Tagging Facebook Photos
After uploading the photos for your album, you have several editing options. To edit an album at any time, click
Photos (in the applications menu), click My Photos, and the click Edit Album under the album title you want
to modify.
Adding captions to your photos
1.
Click the Photo icon located in the bottom left of the browser window. In the Photo window, choose the
tab “My Photos”.
2.
Your photo albums appear in a list. The album that you want to add a caption to, click the Edit Album
link. The photos in the album appear with a Caption box. You may enter the caption, then click Save
Changes.
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Adding Tags to your photos
Tagging is how you mark who is pictured in your photos. When you tag a friend, it creates a link from your
friend’s profile to the photo, and notifies your friend that you have tagged him. Your friends have the option to
remove a photo tag that they don’t want linked to their account. To tag a photo form the Edit Album screen:
1.
Hover the mouse over the photo you want to tag - the pointer turns into a target.
2.
Click the face of the person you want to tag. A
list of your friends appears in a pop-up window.
Scroll through the list and select the name of the
friend in the photo. The photo is tagged and your
friend receives a notification that he has been
tagged. If there are several friends in the photo,
you can continue to tag each one. When you have
finished tagging, click the Done Tagging button.
3.
When someone hovers their mouse over the
photo, the tag appears and the friend’s name.
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Groups
One of Facebook’s most popular and useful features is groups. Groups are collections of people who share interests. Some groups exist only online, but some real-world groups use Facebook to keep members in touch and
up-to-date. If you want to find other people who share similar interests, Facebook can help. If you cannot find a
group that shares your interests, you can create one. This section shows you how to find and join groups, as well
as how to create one yourself.
Whomever starts a group gets to decide who may join. Some groups let anyone join; some let all Facebook
members apply, but then choose who can join; and some groups hide their activities from everyone but group
members. Once you are a member of a group, you can post messages and photos to the group bulletin board,
create and attend group-related events, and more.
Depending on your privacy settings, everyone who can see your profile can also see which groups you have
joined. Some people use group memberships as a way to express their personal and political views, which
means that someone looking at your page may draw their own conclusions about you based on which groups
you are in.
Finding Existing Groups
Facebook gives you three ways to search for groups you may like to join:
•
Browse based on some criteria. Unless you know the name or subject of the group you are looking for,
this is the quickest way to find a group.
•
Search for specific groups and topics. If a friend tells you the name of a group and you are interested
in joining, knowing the name is the quickest option.
•
View the most popular groups on the site. Finding which groups your fellow network members have
joined during the last 24 hours is interesting and may point you in the direction of a group you want to
join.
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Searching Groups
1.
In the top right corner of your Facebook page, enter the word “Mississippi” in the search field and click
the magnifying glass.
2.
In the search results, you can see there are
over 500 results. To narrow the search, click
the groups tab.
3.
The results narrow a bit more, but still too
many to look through.
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4.
To narrow the search, filter groups by type. The results still
need refining.
5.
Go to the search field and type Mississippi State University.
Click the Search button.
6.
The search results have narrowed. If you find
the group you are interested in, click the Join
Group link on the right.
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Joining a Group
Facebook allows you to join/administer up to 200 groups. If a group is closed, you cannot just click Join Group,
you have to be invited and approved. You know if a group is closed because you will not see the Join Group link
in the group’s listing. Instead, on the group’s profile page, you see a Request to Join Group link. Click it to send
the group’s administrator a message requesting an invitation to join. If the administrator decided to approve your
request, you will get a Facebook notification telling you so.
1.
To join a Group, locate the group of your choice.
2.
Click Join Group.
3.
In the confirmation box that appears, click Join. If it is an open group, you are in. If the group is by
invitation only, Facebook sends your request to the Group Administrator, and you have to wait for
approval.
4.
When the time comes when you are ready to leave a group, click Leave Group from the action list and
you are removed from the group.
Creating a Group
You can create almost any group that you can imagine. Facebook does reserve the right to pull the plug on hate
groups and other unsavory elements. If you run across a “questionable” group, you can report the group by
clicking a link
1.
To create a Group, go to the Applications menu, and choose Groups.
2.
Click Create a New Group button in the upper right portion of the window.
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3.
You will need to complete the text fields in Step 1 to
create your group. When you name your group, choose
a name that is meaningful for your target group. For
example, if you are creating a group for a class or
committee, choose a name that members will be able to
easily remember like the course name and semester or
the name of the committee or association. Click Create
Group when all required fields are completed.
4.
In Step 2, you customize your
group. In the bottom portion
of the window, next to Access,
you can indicate whether
your group is open, closed, or
secret. Click Save when you
have completed the required
information.
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5.
The next window allows you to invite friends to join the group. You may choose from your list of
friends or invite someone using their email address. You may also include a message in the invitation.
6.
When your group is in place, you may
send an email message to everyone or
to individuals in the group. You can also
make others Group Administrators
which will allow him or her to also
oversee the group.
7.
There may come a time when you no longer need or want a group. You can only delete a group that you
started. On the group’s profile page, click Leave Group. If you are the one and only member of the
group, it is immediately deleted. If you have more than one group administrator, you can step down as
group administrator.
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Facebook Applications: An Overview
Facebook Applications are small programs that work inside Facebook. They are similar to Web browser plugins such as a video player, and they allow you to do a little something extra - something you could not do before
you installed it. They are easy to install and appear in your Facebook Applications menu.
1.
Click the Applications Menu to access the applications.
2.
The Applications menu displays the applications you are currently
using. Click the Browse More Applications link for a information on
the many types of applications available.
3.
To remove an application, click the “X” next to the name of the
application.
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4. 26
You may also hide any applications that appear in the friends feed by clicking the Hide link and
choosing to hide either the friend feeds or any instance of the application, in this case, by choosing Hide
FARKLE, I will not see the graphic for the application appear in my feed.
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Twitter Terminiology
Tweet
Each of your Twitter posts or updates is known as a tweet. Some people refer to them as “twits,”
but the official term is “tweet.”
@
The @ symbol is a way of referring to another Twitter user. For example, @bullybulldog means
you’re either sending a message to Bully Bulldog or you’re talking about him in your message.
On your Twitter home page, you’ll see a linked search where you can find people mentioning
your username with an @ before it. This is how you find other people’s replies to you.
Retweet A retweet - or RT - is when you share the tweet of one user with all of your Twitter followers. If
you happen to follow a Twitter news feed and they post a link to a story that you feel should be
shared, you can “retweet” it. If you see a beautiful quote or a funny saying that you like, you can
also retweet it. For instance, if Bully tweeted, “Twitter Tips - How To Tweet in 140 Characters
or Less http://ow.ly/5ntl” you could retweet that as: “RT @bullybulldog: Twitter Tips - How To
Tweet in 140 Characters or Less http://ow.ly/5ntl.” Something to be aware of - it’s considered
rude or just plain not nice to take someone else’s Tweet and send it back out as your own. Give
credit for the tweet where it’s due. You will more than likely be thanked for the Retweet and you
may gain new followers at the same time. Retweets are usually prefaced with “RT @username.”
Reply Reply is when you respond to a tweet from a particular user. To reply to any given Twitter
community member where it’s placed in the public feed (everyone can see what you are saying)
is called a Reply. Most Twitter clients (and Twitter itself) prefaces your tweet with “@username.”
If you wanted to send a message to Bully, for example, you would tweet, “@bullybulldog How
are you today, Bully? Hear any good tweets?”
Direct
Message Follower Hash Tags
or # Whereas replies are completely public, a direct message is akin to a private message that you
send through a discussion board. You can only send a direct message to someone that is following
your account. Send a direct message by prefacing your tweet with “DM username.”
While Facebook requires that all relationships be reciprocal, Twitter allows for one-way
relationships. If you find Twitter users who are interesting, you can “follow them” to subscribe to
their tweets. They do not necessarily have to follow you back, though the more social users will
want to follow you back.
Hash tags are words or acronyms that begin with the number sign. They are used when many
people are tweeting about the same topic or from the same event. At least one hash tag is often
atop Twitter’s trending topics list.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Twitter-Terminology-101
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Introduction to Twitter
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a tool that you can use to send and receive short, 140-character messages from your friends, from
the organizations you care about, from the businesses you frequent, from the publications you read, or from
complete strangers who share your interests. Twitter is also a form of microblogging. As users of Twitter, you
choose whose updates you want to receive, which means these are people/businesses/organizations you are
following. In turn, others users can choose to follow your updates, known as tweets. You can send tweets
publicly for the whole Twitter community, semi-publicly to users whom you approve to receive your tweets, or
privately from one user to another. You can view these tweets either on the Internet or on your cell phone.
Twitter has changed and enhanced the way people communicate with each other with brands and companies,
and with social movements and initiatives. Twitter has empowered users to raise money for people in need,
coordinate rescue efforts in the wake of a natural disaster, and alert authorities to emergencies and illegal
activities both domestic and abroad.
The New York Times calls Twitter “one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet.” Time magazine says,
“Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app,” and Newsweek noted that “Suddenly, it seems as though
all the world’s a-twitter.” Every day, there are dozens of new ideas and ways to use Twitter.
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How Individuals Use Twitter
Looking at Twitter for the first time, you may be compelled to wonder why are all these people, some random
strangers, posting tweets about anything and everything? At first glance, Twitter seems flooded with disjointed
conversations, interactions, and information. You can find news headlines, political debates, observations on the
weather, and requests for advice. People have many reasons for using Twitter such as, to connect, to record, to
share, and to stay in touch.
How Organizations Use Twitter
The most recent well known use of Twitter is Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign. Twitter was
used to solicit donations, raise awareness, and call people to action. During the campaign, tens of thousands of
Twitter users followed Barack Obama.
The power of Twitter works for much smaller organizations as well. Groups such as churches and local
charities can use Twitter to provide an additional way for members to connect, plan, and reach out beyond
their immediate community. Musicians use Twitter to spread the word about concerts, song releases, charitable
efforts, and their daily lives as celebrities. Twitter has also been used in community efforts such as Amber
Alerts.
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Using Twitter in Higher Education
Twitter also has a place in higher education as a discussion tool to get real-time feedback from students,
committee updates and reminders, and other creative ways to leverage technology for teaching and learning.
Signing Up with Twitter
1.
Go to www.twitter.com to
begin. The Twitter splash page
appears.
2.
Click the Sign up now button
and the signup page appears.
3.
Enter your desired username and basic
information in the appropriate text boxes. The
only information Twitter requires from you
is a username, password of your choice, and
a unique email address where Twitter can
contact you for notifications.
4.
Type the CAPTCHA code in the Type the
words above field. This step is a standard
Web tactic to prove that you are a human and
not a spam program.
5.
Click the Create my account button.
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6.
You should receive a welcome email from Twitter immediately.
The next screen that appears prompts you to find any friends in
your email address book who also may have a Twitter account.
This step is optional. Having Twitter automatically find your
contacts involves entering your email account password.
Although Twitter has established itself as a trustworthy service,
in general, be very cautious about sites that ask you for your
email account and password.
We will skip this step.
7.
The next screen allows you to find users and
invite them to follow you or suggest Twitter
users for you to follow. This is also a step
you may skip.
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8.
The following screen, What are you doing?, you are presented with several options. You may want to
post your first tweet or find and follow friends or turn on your mobile device. This screen also displays
the latest trends in topics.
Type in your first tweet. The tweet in the example shows that there are 100 character spaces still
available. This countdown allows you to abbreviate or reduce your wording if your tweet is over the 140
character space limit. After you have typed your tweet, click update. You have just tweeted.
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Customizing Your Twitter Profile
Your public page on Twitter, also known as
your profile, is the first impression of you to
other Twitter users and can make a difference in
whether they decide to follow you. We will take a
few minutes to dress up your profile so it reflects
you, your department, organization, committee, or
club.
After signing up for Twitter, one of the first
things you should do is personalize your profile.
You should include an avatar (a picture or logo representing you or the entity you represent), a bio that is 160
characters or less, and a link to your home page, company, department, or club.
You can customize or update your profile any time you log into Twitter by clicking Settings in the navigator bar
located in the top right portion of your browser screen.
There are several tabs available in the Settings
section of Twitter. In the Account section, you
should see the information you have already
provided. You can add a one line bio up to
160 characters and where you are located (i.e.,
Mississippi State University).
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In the Devices tab, you may choose to
have the tweets of the people you follow to
come directly to your mobile device. You
can be selective of whom you choose.
In the Notices tab, you can choose to be
notified when someone starts following
your or if someone sends you a direct
message.
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Your avatar is displayed to the left of all your tweets, so it’s your official face on Twitter. Some Twitter users
change their avatars almost daily to different photos of themselves, some users leave their avatars the same
all the time, and others change their avatars according to a specific occasion. Your avatar is your face, some
other picture, or the default image - it is your choice. If you choose to keep the default, you should know that
generally, people don’t like following you back if they can’t see who you are. There are restrictions on the file
format and image size. The image must be a jpg, gif, or png and no more than 700k.
Uploading Your Avatar
1.
In the Picture tab, click the Browse button.
2.
Navigate to the location of the avatar image you want to upload and select it.
3.
Click the Save button. When your image is uploaded, it will appear. If you do not like it, click Delete
current and navigate to another image.
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The Design tab is completely optional. You do not have to change the look of your page, but you can if you like.
Twitter allows a lot of customization.
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Controlling the Text-Message Flow (SMS delivery)
If your account has text-messaging device updates set to On, you receive a text message each time someone
in your network sends a tweet. At first, receiving text-message updates from all your new Twitter friends is fun.
But when your network grows, you may find all those tweets a bit annoying.
1.
Click the Settings link at the top-right of your Twitter Home screen. The Settings page opens.
2.
Click the Devices tab.
3.
Enter your mobile phone number in the
text field, check the box granting Twitter
permission to send you a text message,
and click the Save button. You are given
an alphabetical code and instructed to text
this code from your phone to 40404.
4.
Send the code from phone as a text
message to 40404. You will receive a text
message from Twitter confirming that your
device as been verified and SMS alerts
have been enabled.
5.
You can now choose to have text-message notifications on, off, or direct messages only. You can also
opt to have them turned off during a specific time - like when you are at work or sleeping. Choose the
option you prefer and click Save.
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6.
You may also choose whose device messages you want to see. Click Home and click the Following link
to view the list of people you are following. When device updates are select as On for your account, you
will be able to select whose Tweets you want to receive on your mobile device by selecting the mobile
icon next to their name.
NOTE:Make sure your cellphone carrier has an unlimited text-messaging plan or that you are willing to pay for
a lot of extra texts before you set the Twitter device notifications to On.
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Twitter Search
1.
To search topics, click inside the search field
and type, with quotations, “Mississippi State
University”. Press Enter or click the Search
icon.
See the variety of results. Some are useful,
some are not.
2.
To search for people, click the Find People
link at the top of the Twitter window. Enter a
person’s username if you know it, their first or
last name. The more specific you are, the more
accurate your findings.
Enter Lance Armstrong in the search field
and click Search.
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A page full of results appears. The name at the top of the list, in this instance, is the correct person.
Notice the blue circle with the check mark - hover over this icon with your mouse and it tells you this
person has a verified profile. Notice the other entries for Lance Armstrong.
Look at the number of followers Lance Armstrong has. The number is over two million. When he tweets,
over two million people reads his message.
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Hashtags
Hashtags have become a part of the Twitter culture for many users. Basically, hashtags are a way to mark a
keyword so other Twitter users can organize discussion around a specific topic or event.
Usually, if someone is Tweeting an event, they will publicize the hashtag. Hashtags are good to use for
note-taking and conversation during events. Especially
organizers say something like “include #ourevent in all your
tweets”. People tweeting about it just type that #ourevent
tag in each tweet to contribute to the combined flow of tweets
that all can watch and respond to. More ad more, talks and
conferences display the search results for the official hashtag,
creating a shared billboard of ideas, notes, questions, and other
information. People not present at the event can also participate
in the discussion by searching the hashtag stream and following
along with the presentation or speaker.
if
Enter #EDUCAUSE09 in the search field in Twitter and click
the search icon.
There are many results returned. You
can go through these to see if there is
any information that interests you.
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If you are organizing an event or want to start a discussion on Twitter, and you want to establish a hashtag for
the Twitter conversation there are only a few steps to follow.
1.
Check Twitter Search for the hashtag you want to use to make sure that someone else has not already
claimed it. You can use the same hashtag as someone else, but the results are cluttered with unrelated
results.
2.
Make sure everyone at your event or those discussing your topic is aware of the proper hashtag in
advance. After you choose your hashtag, make a note of it on your event page or blog post or by
tweeting it out.
Create a Hashtag and View Results
1.
Create a Tweet and put in the hashtag #facebooktwitterworkshop and click Update.
2.
In the Search field, type #facebooktwitterworkshop and click the search icon.
3.
In the results, you should see messages from the members of the workshop.
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Expanding Twitter Uses with Clients
Twitter’s open API means that creative software developers are constantly creating applications, mashups, and
entire services that feed off of the Twitter platform. Many of these third-party applications are Twitter clients,
programs designed to let you update Twitter on your desktop or mobile device, instead of having to use the
a Web browser or text-messaging. Many of these applications auto-load tweets from your Twitter followers.
Each has a different way of displaying, organizing, searching, and letting you interact with tweets, making the
selection very diverse.
In the example below, there are four different ways tweets have been posted.
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Tweetdeck
“TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your
contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more. With TweetDeck anyone can tweet like a Pro. Customise your Twitter experience with columns, groups, saved searches and automatic updates helping you to
effortlessly stay updated with the people and topics you care about. See what people are saying about you and
join the conversation by tweeting, sharing photos, videos or links directly from TweetDeck. We like to think of
it as air traffic control for Twitter. Connect with your Facebook and MySpace friends directly from TweetDeck
by updating your status, posting photos or videos, commenting, liking and groups your friends to make it easier
to follow only those you really want to see what your friends are doing by creating columns for each of your
groups of friends.” (tweetdeck.com)
With this third-party application, you are able to create groups, such as a department, class, committee, or club.
You can create tweets just for one group or groups. This application also has the capability to simultaneously
update your Facebook status, if you choose that option.
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Resources:
How to Use Twitter for Marketing and PR
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4034/How-to-Use-Twitter-for-Marketing-PR.aspx
Twitter for Higher Ed Marketing
http://doteduguru.com/id178-social-survey-twitter-for-higher-ed-marketing.html
Using Twitter in the Classroom
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/A-Professor-s-Tips-for-Using/3643
Twitter Tips for Higher Education
http://www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1285&p=1#0
Twitter in the Classroom
http://4tm-services.com/2009/09/twitter-in-the-classroom/
Twitter for Academia
http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/
Twenty-Seven Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_118cfb8msf8
Facebook Offers New Tools to Higher Education
http://www.htmlcenter.com/blog/facebook-offers-new-tools-to-higher-education/
Does Facebook have a place in higher education?
http://bibliotech.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/does-facebook-have-a-place-in-post-secondary-education/
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A publication of ITS User Services,
a division of Information Technology Services,
Mississippi State University
Mississippi State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion,
national origin, sex, age, disability, or veteran status.