THE VIRTUAL WORLD: CHAPTER 7 – HOW TO USE TWITTER?

The Virtual World is a series of recurring articles, in 10 Chapters from District 73 Toastmasters' Public Relations Manager. The series aims to inform and educate readers about the power of social media.

In Chapter 7 of this column, we will explore the world of Twitter.

Twitter is a micro-blogging social media site, where short-format content or tweets are created and shared. When Twitter launched in 2006, a tweet’s maximum length could not be more that 140 characters (not words, just saying). Of course, there were ways to tweet a message longer than 140 characters.

In 2018, Twitter doubled its tweet length to 280 characters. The company noted at the time how a longer character count allowed users to express more of their thoughts without running out of room to tweet. To help you understand, 280 characters translate to 55 words.

According to German database firm, Statista, Twitter is particularly popular in the United States, where it had a reach of 69.3 million users, as of January 2021. Japan and India were ranked second and third with 50.9 and 17.5 million users, respectively.

As of the third quarter of 2020, Twitter had 187 million daily active users worldwide. The most followed Twitter accounts include celebrities such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and former U.S. president Barack Obama. 

Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter is often where breaking news is shared by individual users, rather than notable businesses. Users take to their personal accounts and tweet about their experiences, like when a 5.9 earthquake struck Virginia in 2011. It was first reported by individuals on Twitter who sent out 40,000 tweets related to the incident, all in less than a minute, says HubSpot, a US-based marketing platform.

Twitter is also renowned for being the home of countless viral memes.

Considering that Twitter has significant power in influencing trends and generating engagement, some brands have taken to the platform as a means of social media marketing.

If you are not already on Twitter, but are interested in exploring this site, here’s what you need to know to begin with. 

Know The Twitter Language 

Hashtags: Hashtags, depicted with this symbol # followed by a word or phrase, are keywords on Twitter that are used to incite discussion. For instance, #toastmasters. All tweets that use this hashtag are aggregated together.

Users around the world put hashtags in their tweets (and posts on other social media platforms) to add their opinions into discussions and engage with topics that they care about. Hashtags generate exposure and can go viral. Tweets with hashtags are known to get more engagement than other tweets.

According to social media management platform, HootSuite, #COVID19 was the most-used hashtag of 2020, followed by #BlackLives Matter.

Handle: It is the same as your Twitter username. It appears at the end of your account URL and is unique to your account. For example, District 73 Toastmasters’ Twitter handle is @d73tm.

Your handle is not to be confused with your profile name, which is the name of your Twitter account. For example, District 73 Toastmasters’ Twitter account name is District 73 Toastmasters.

Your profile name may or may not be the same as your handle, especially in case of personal accounts. The reason being Twitter handles must be unique while you could - have many namesakes and so finding you on Twitter can be difficult. 

A few tips here -

? Choose a username that is short as it’s easy to remember.

? As a rule, your username must be fewer than 15 characters in length and cannot contain ‘admin’ or ‘Twitter’, to avoid brand confusion.

? Twitter provides a few suggestions when you sign up, but you can choose your own username.

? You can change your username in your account settings at any time, as long as the new username is not already taken. 

Retweets: Retweet, commonly written as RT, is how people share content on Twitter. If someone tweets something you like, you click the retweet button (see below) to share the Tweet onto your own Twitter feed. The content you RT is visible to your followers and displayed on your profile. 

Retweets can also be ‘quote tweets’ or QTs, where you add a comment or your views to the original tweet.

The QT option appears when you click on the retweet button.

Mentions: When someone tags you in a Tweet it is called a mention. People typically mention users when creating their tweets or when replying to Tweet threads or when retweeting. 

You get a notification every time someone mentions you, and is displayed in the notifications tab on the left-hand side of your home page or timeline on the website or under the bell icon on the mobile app.

The notification tab on the website.

Like hashtags, mentions make it easier to find and interact with followers and helps generate engagement.

How To Create A Twitter Account? 

STEP 1: Go to twitter.com/signup and enter your email address, choose a username and password, and agree to the terms of service. You will also have to punch in your full name so other people can look you up on Twitter.

STEP 2: Verify your email address by clicking on the link sent to the address you shared while creating your account. Once done, you may begin customizing your profile, that is, by adding more details about yourself to your profile.

Here are a few steps to customise your profile -

1. On the left-hand side of your timeline (on web), click on the ‘profile’ button (see the earlier pic).

2. Next, click on ‘edit profile’, right next to your display or profile name, on the right side.

3. Now, edit your display photo, header photo, name, bio, location, website, date of birth and so on.

4. To upload or change a profile or header photo, click the camera icon to upload a photo or on the ‘X’ icon next to the camera icon to remove it.

5. Finally, click on ‘save’.

When you sign up for Twitter, your Tweets are public by default. Should you choose to protect your Tweets, you can do so by going to the account settings. If you protect your Tweets, you’ll receive a request when new people want to follow you, which you can approve or deny. Accounts that began following you before you protected your Tweets will still be able to view and interact with your protected Tweets unless you block them.

I have a Twitter account. What next? 

Start following accounts, topics and hashtags that interest you. This way you customize the experience for yourself. When you follow an account, you will see their Tweets on your Twitter timeline.

For instance, you could start by following Twitter’s official account, @TwitterSupport by clicking on the ‘follow’ button. This will help you know about their latest products, how-to posts, and announcements.

How To Find People On Twitter?

Finding people by name:

Type the person's name or username into the search box

? At the top of your Twitter timeline

? Or tap the Explore tab through your Twitter for iOS or Android app

Your results will be filtered by Trending, News, Sports, Fun, Entertainment, and more.

Twitter’s suggestions for who to follow:

When you log in to your account, ‘who to follow’ suggestions will appear in the right-hand side in the following places -

? Your home page

? The Notifications tab

? Your Profile

? Search results pages

District 73’s Twitter timeline

How To Follow People On Twitter?

Follow From A Tweet -

METHOD 1:

1. Find a Tweet from the account you’d like to follow.

2. Hover your mouse over their name.

3. Click the Follow button.

METHOD 2:

1. Navigate to a Tweet from the account you’d like to follow.

2. Tap the drop-down menu icon located at the top of the Tweet.

3. Tap Follow from the selection menu.

Follow From An Account’s Profile Page -

1. Go to the profile page of the account you'd like to follow.

2. Click the Follow button.

You can unfollow any account at any time if you don’t enjoy their content. 

The unfollow button appears when you hover your mouse on the ‘following’ button.

How To Create A Post On Twitter?

Twitter allows you to create 4 types of tweets –

1. Text tweets

2. Video tweets

3. Photos and GIFs tweets

4. Fleets

Irrespective of the type of tweet, you can include links and hashtags in your tweets.

Text Tweets

On the web, when posting a text tweet, you will need to write the tweet (up to 280 characters) on the ‘what’s happening’ space right on top of your timeline and then click on the box that says ‘Tweet’. (see the image below). Tweets longer than 280 characters are called Twitter threads. Refer to this link to know how to create threads.

On the mobile app, the ‘write’ button is on the bottom right of the screen shown as a feather sign within the blue circle. Rest of the steps are the same as mentioned for the web version.

Create a tweet on web 

Create a tweet on the app

Video Tweets

HootSuite reports that video views on Twitter increased 62% from 2019 to 2020. Here are the 3 ways to post videos on Twitter –

1. Upload videos from your mobile

You will start the same way you started to create a text tweet. Once the Tweet window is open, the app will display a carousel of the most recent photos on your device under the ‘what’s happening’ space.

If the video is there, you can select it, add your text, and click Tweet. If the video is not there, you can click the camera icon and browse through your photo gallery to select the right video.

Upload videos from your mobile

2. Upload videos from your Desktop

Open the tweet composer to write a text tweet and select the image button. In the image below, the image button is the first one under the ‘what’s happening’ space. Click on it, select the desired video from your computer files and click Tweet.

A video file on Twitter cannot be larger than 512MB, and the maximum video length is 2 minutes 20 seconds.

3. Go live on Twitter app

Going live on Twitter is a great way to engage with your audience. The live function is only supported by the mobile application. Begin like you would when you have to upload a video through mobile, then select the camera icon. The camera function will open, where you select the Live option. Once you go Live, users who follow you will see your live stream within their feed. 

Select ‘live’ option when the camera function opens.

Photos and GIFs Tweets

According to marketing platform, HubSpot, tweets that include GIFs receive 55% more engagement than those that don’t.

To post a photo on Twitter, follow the first step to posting a tweet on Twitter. Click on the camera icon and select an image or GIF from your photo library. You can also click the GIF button and choose a GIF from the Twitter GIF library.

You can select up to 4 photos to tweet at once, but only one GIF is allowed per tweet, and they can’t be included in photosets. The same steps should be followed to post GIFs on Twitter via mobile app.

Fleets

These are the Twitter equivalent of Instagram or Facebook Stories that exist for only 24 hours. Fleets are accessible and visible only through the mobile app. They appear as circles right on top of your timeline on the app. (see the image below)

At the time of launching this feature, Twitter had said that Fleets are for sharing momentary or fleeting thoughts.

You can Fleet text, reactions to tweets, photos or videos and customize your Fleets with various background and text options.

To share a Tweet in a Fleet, click on the tweet, tap the ‘share’ or upload icon at the bottom of the Tweet and then tap, ‘share in Fleet’. Next, add some text or emoji, if you want, and click on ‘Fleet’ on the top of your screen.

To upload a fresh Fleet, click on the ‘+’ icon on your profile picture, on the top left corner. Here’s what all you can do –

1. Choose the text option and type out the text Fleet

2. Or, choose the ‘camera roll’ and select a photo from your phone gallery to share

3. Or, opt for the ‘capture’ option and click a photo to share

4. Or, lastly, go for the ‘video’ option, record a video and share it 

Should My Club Have A Twitter Account?

In my opinion, social media platforms must be a part of every club’s promotion strategy, at least the popular ones (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram). The simple reason for this is that social media is the easiest and cheapest way to promote Toastmasters, reach out and interact with potential members. 

However, if your club aims to only engage with existing members, then check with them and opt for the most of them are present on. It is most likely to be Facebook. (To know more refer to The Virtual World Chapter 3) 

In my experience with the District’s Twitter account, I have come to know that Twitter has a thriving Toastmasters community. I have had the opportunity to interact with members from all over US, UK, India, New Zealand and beyond. Each of us share each other’s content and support the community in ways we can.

Simply put, start a club account if you want to have a strong social media presence and your club has someone who can spare enough time to look after that account. Having a social media account but being inactive would not be of any good. Also, Twitter is more exciting if you want to be a part of the community, read some interesting content, engage and get content ideas, know what’s happening at other districts and divisions and support each other.

If you do decide to create a Twitter account for your club, follow the steps mentioned under ‘how to create a Twitter account’ earlier in this article. Or you can always contact me, and I will be happy to help.

Until next time!

This article first appeared in the March 2021 edition of Toastmasters District 73's Southern Cross newsletter. Here's the link - https://bit.ly/3scxBJ9