How to Create a Twitter Account a step-by-step tutorial PLEASE remember that this Twitter account is ONLY to be used for professional purposes! Twitter is a valuable tool for building your PLN and networking with other teachers, but please use it wisely! goo.gl/c86gv Brenham ISD Technology Department creativity communication critical thinking collaboration
Step one: Go to www.twitter.com and enter your name, email address (I would use your school email!) and select a password (again, use school so you'll remember it!). Then, click on Sign up for Twitter.
Step two: Confirm your account information and choose a username. First impressions are important! Choose your username carefully! You can choose to stay signed in or get suggestions of who to follow based on your recent browsing. That's your personal preference. Click on Create my account.
Step three: Giving Twitter your phone number is also personal preference. You can choose to skip this step if you prefer.
Don't forget to confirm your account! When you create your account, an email will be sent with a link to confirm and activate your new account. You can have the confirmation email resent, if necessary.
Step four: Now you are ready to find some people to follow! My advice: start by following 5-10 people so you are not overwhelmed! You can always add more as you get comfortable with Twitter! How do you find people to follow?! You can... Google your teaching assignment + Twitter (ex: 1st grade reading twitter). See if your favorite bloggers are on Twitter! Ask a friend and see who he or she follows! Ask your Instructional Technology Specialist for recommendations! Go to Twitter and look around! Read the tweets - if you like 'em, follow 'em!
Go ahead and let Twitter walk you through adding people to follow. I would definitely recommend following me! @edtechchic :) Just click on the Follow button to add me to your Twitter feed. You can always unfollow someone if you aren't interested in their content.
Some other great people to follow... After you have added 5 people to follow, you can either add 5 more or Skip this step to continue. @PrincipalAlton (Michael Ogg) @BigPurpleHat (Kristy Vincent) @FriedTechnology (Amy Mayer) @edtech2love (Kim Strauss) @AnnDeBolt @TCEA
Step five: Updating your profile is VERY IMPORTANT! Upload a picture (or avatar!) and add a brief bio so you do not look like a spammer. If you have a blog or teacher website, add that information, too. The more information you add, the more credible you are to others who might want to follow you back! Click on Done when you are finished.
You are now ready to TWEET! I highly recommend getting the iphone app so you can check your Twitter feed at home, in the car, or even waiting in in line at the grocery store!! You will see updates in your feed from all of the people you follow!
Anatomy of a Tweet Hashtags (#) are used to label tweets for chats or just to easily find them again later. Many times you will see a shortened link to more information or useful resources. When you retweet, it shows up in your feed from the original author and there is an indication that it was a retweet. If you mouse over a tweet, you will see several options. You can expand the tweet to see if others have replied. You can reply to this tweet and it's author. You can retweet, which just copies the tweet into your feed. Or you can add the tweet to your favorites list.
How can I unfollow or block people? If you find that someone you have followed isn't putting out content that is useful for you, it's ok to unfollow them. No, they don't get a sad email from you saying that you've dropped them, so no hard feelings! Click on "Followers" from your homepage and click on the blue "Following' button to change it to "Unfollow." You can also block people and report potential spammers by using the drop down menu next to the follow button. However, be very sure they're spamming before you report them!!
What about MY stuff?! From your homepage, you can always see how many tweets you've sent, how many people you're following and how many followers you have. If you want to update your profile or customize your Twitter page, click on your name from your homepage, click on Edit your profile, and make your desired changes.
What else do I need to know?! 1. What is a "tweet"? A short message that can have up to 140 characters. 2. What's in a tweet? Three components: short message, link to main content, hashtags. 3. What's a hashtag? Hashtags provide a way to find relevant content. They are searchable tags you attach to your message. Ex: #txed, #Google, #elemchat, #mathchat, #edtech... 4. What do I do with the @ sign? You use this symbol when you want to publicly reply to a specific user. 5. What if I want to send a private message to a Twitter user? You can send a "direct message" that only that user can see. Type the letter d in the tweet box and locate the user. 6. What if someone follow me - should I follow them back? Beware of spammers!! Look for a bio, check their followers, read their tweets to check for relevance. You don't automatically HAVE to follow people who
Useful Twitter Resources Twitter Cheat Sheet Twitteraholics Ultimate Guide The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook for Teachers Using Twitter to Build Your PLN A-Z Dictionary of Educational Twitter Hashtags Twitter 101