Learn the basics of Twitter in Part 4 of MLC's Social Media for Libraries series with Kayla Martin-Gant, MLC's Continuing Education Coordinator. YOUTUBE: http://bit.ly/librarymarketingplaylist RESOURCE GUIDE: http://bit.ly/socmedforlibraries

1. Mastering Twitter
Social Media for Libraries

2. AGENDA
 Introduction
 How It Works
 Best Practices
 Statistics

3. What is Twitter?
Twitter is a "microblogging" website created by Jack Dorsey
and Evan Williams in 2006. It has quickly grown into one of
the most-used news and social networking sites in the
world, with over 100 million daily active users and 500
million posts, or "tweets," sent.
Twitter's 280-character limit makes for fast-paced,
scannable exchanges among users.

4. Twitter is Ideal For:
 Real-time amateur reporting
 Interacting with high-profile
people/celebrities
 Unconventional marketing
 Conversational interaction with patrons

5. Terms You
Should Know
 Tweet – "Tweet" is both a verb and a noun. It
is your update typed in the status bar to your
followers.
 Replies – The @ sign is used at the start of
a tweet to reply to someone. Only the person
you're replying to or people that follow both
of you will see the reply.
 Mentions – Tagging, or @ and a person’s
Twitter name, anywhere else except in the
very beginning of a tweet

6. Terms You
Should Know
 Retweet / RT – Sharing someone else’s
tweet to your followers. RTs give the
original person credit for the tweet
with “RT @username"
 Quote Tweet – allows you to tweet
another person's tweet with your own
comment added above it.
 # / Hashtag –They can be simple
keywords or unique phrases or acronyms
that allow people to follow a trending
conversation.

7. Examples of These Terms

8. Terms You
Should Know
 Bookmarks – Bookmarks allow you to
save Tweets in a timeline for easy, quick
access at any time.
 Block – Blocking an account means that
account will be unable to follow you or
add you to their Twitter lists, and you will
not receive a notification if they mention
you.
 Mute – You can mute accounts, words,
phrases, usernames and hashtags from
your notifications; and mute Direct
Message notifications.

9. How It Works

10. Getting Started
Basics
Choose a handle, cover photo,
and profile picture (avatar) that
matches your other accounts.
Bio
Your library's full name (not
just an acronym)
Your location (city, county, state,
and/or service area—especially
it's a single account for a whole
system!)
Extra Info
Your website's URL
Include relevant hashtags and
brief version of your library's
mission.

11. Tools & Options
THREADS MOMENTS TOPICS CHATS CARDS

12. What is a
thread?
A thread is a series of connected tweets from a
single person or account.
 When there are 4 or more tweets in a thread,
they will be truncated. Click "Show this thread"
to expand.
 Threads on your profile timeline will appear separately
and in reverse chronological order.

14. How do
you make
a thread?
 When you draft a tweet, a + will appear. Click that + to
add another tweet and create a thread.
 Once you have all the tweets you want to add, click
"Tweet All."
 You can always add to a thread later by clicking "Add
Another Tweet" from the thread detail page.

15. What is a
Moment?
A Moment is a curated story of the top content for
popular or relevant topics.
 Go to the "Explore" tab to see Moments customized for
you. You can select them based on categories like
Trending, News, Sports, Entertainment, etc.
 Click any Moment to see the entire story.
 Any public tweet can be included in a Moment.
To remove your tweet from a Moment created by
someone else, you may block the account.

17. How do
you make
a Moment?
 You can RT and QT any Moment, and if you click any of
the tweets within the Moment you can interact with
those directly.
 Twitter users can create Moments and can see the
engagement on their Moments.
 Read Buffer’s article on 4 Ways You Can Utilize Twitter
Moments for marketing.

18. What is a topic?
With Twitter Topics, you can follow topics as well
as people that often tweet about relevant topics.
 Go to "More" on the sidebar left of your feed.
 Click "Follow more Topics," to see topics to follow.
 Follow library and library-adjacent topics to keep
up with news and trends or for networking.

19. Twitter Topics will have plus signs next
to them. When you click on a plus sign,
you will see a drop-down menu with
more specific topics within each
industry.
Combine hashtags with topics in your
posts to maximize exposure.

20. What is a
Twitter Card?
Twitter Cards are visuals that show up when people tweet links to
your content and that are visible to their followers. With a bit of
code on your website, “cards” with photos, videos, etc. are
attached to tweets that link to your content, which will drive traffic
to your website.
 Summary Card: Title, description, and thumbnail.
 Summary Card with Large Image: Summary Card plus a
prominently-featured image.
 App Card: Card with direct download to a mobile app.
 Player Card: Card that can display video/audio/media.

21. Twitter Cards take about 15
minutes to create. For more
details, you can look through
the Getting Started Guide.

22. What is a
Twitter Chat?
A Twitter Chat is a Q&A discussion conducted
via Twitter. The host will ask questions related to
a certain topic or will throw out a topic and ask
people for their questions on the subject, and a
discussion grows out of the replies.

23. How do
you make a
Twitter Chat?
 Choose a topic and engaging questions
 Choose a hashtag to utilize during the chat and
during promotion of the chat
 PROMOTE THE CHAT—tell people the date, time,
topic, and appropriate hashtags
 Get help from a guest to tweet and/or help
monitor the hashtag
 Continue monitoring the hashtag afterward

24. Tools &
Options
Twitter Lists
Live (Periscope)
Twitter Polls
Voice Tweets
TweetDeck

25. Best Practices

26. Tips to
Think
About
 Tweet frequently and consistently
and be professional but casual
 ENGAGEMENT IS KEY for Twitter success—
focus on interaction even more than
original content posts.
 Tell a story with your content. Tweet a
blurb or review, the book's tagline, etc.
instead of just an announcement

27. Best
Practices
Don't automate!
Utilize both unique and
trending hashtags
Employ a visual,
multimedia approach
Use link shorteners like bit.ly

28. Cross-Platform
Promotion?
Yes!
Automation?
…
Don't do it.

29. Statistics

30.  Top Tweet & Top Mention
 Followers (new & top)
 Engagements & Engagement Rate
 Impressions
 Link Clicks & Conversions
 Cost per Result (ads)
Valuable Metrics

31.  Twitter Analytics (native)
 Media Creator (native)
 Social Rank (third-party with free starter
plan to analyze follower metrics)
 Social Mention (free third-party site that
shows what people are saying about your
organization)
 Union Metrics (third-party with free Twitter
snapshot report)
Analytics

32. Contact Information
Kayla Martin-Gant
Continuing Education Coordinator
Mississippi Library Commission
kmartin-gant@mlc.lib.ms.us
601.432.4057