Social media guide : Twitter for higher/further education colleges

Social media guide for higher education
colleges & training providers on how to use
twitter effectively.

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a 'micro blogging' platform which allows users
to post short text messages (up to 140 characters in
length) a bit like a text message. Twitter is a useful
communication tool that allows you to interact with
people around the world. Sign up for an account at https://twitter.com/signup
You can…

• Send a short message to a group of people publicly
• Send a short message to a specific person publicly
• Send a short message to a specific person privately

How can higher education colleges & training providers
use twitter?
Colleges can benefit greatly by using social media to market services, strengthen
brand awareness and attract new students and employers. Twitter is a relationship
building tool. The obvious business use of Twitter is to meet potential customers
and leads the same way you would at a networking event. Twitter is a platform
where information sharing and conversations happen in real-time. You can use it to:

• Promote your college, interact with your students, parents, employers
• Track what people are saying about your college through twitter search http://
search.twitter.com/
• Create buzz around upcoming college events & open days
• Help employees and students act as ambassador’s to the public
• Promote other content you’ve created, including videos, blog posts or
podcasts
• Develop direct relationships with bloggers and journalists for public relations &
link building to your website

Benefits Things to consider

• Quick easy way to promote campaigns • Risk of spamming
• Builds traffic to your website • May be re-tweeted by people
• Network with others you don’t want to be linked to
• Communicate easily with audiences • Need to respond quickly

web : www.webyogi.co.uk | call : 07412 139341 | email : info@webyogi.co.uk

How are Colleges & Training Providers using twitter?

Twitter pioneers include Deeside College, Havering College, Regents College,
Sunderland College and Cornwall College. Check out their profiles below….

• http://twitter.com/CornwallCollege
• http://twitter.com/deesidecollege
• http://twitter.com/haveringcollege
• http://twitter.com/regentscollege

What are hash tags?
Hash tags are a way for Twitter users to categorise tweets associated with a specific
topic of interest. The hashtag allows users to sort topics into useful categories to visit
later. They are a “#” symbol on tweets. Create a Hashtag by prefixing a word with a
hash symbol: e.g. #hashtag. Popular education #hashtags include: #edapp,
#colleges #edtech, #education, #elearning, #lrnchat, #mlearning, #teachers. Find
more at http://hashtags.org/

What’s Follow Friday? #ff is short for #followfriday where twitter users recommend
people to follow. Use http://tagdef.com/ to find more tag definitions.

What’s the best time to tweet?
There are lots of tools to find out the best time to tweet and lots of conflicting advice!
4pm is generally considered a good time but it depends on time zones & followers.
See expert advice on the topic at the social media guide and Hubspot - The science
of timing or try http://www.tweriod.com/.

Twitter directories & lists
Add yourself to twitter directories and lists. Here’s a few to get you started…

• We follow – Follow influential FE tweeters at
http://wefollow.com/twitter/furthereducation
• Twellow – twitter directory
• Listorious is a user-powered directory containing the best and most popular
Twitter lists.
• Twitter’s list feature allows anyone to create a list on a topic and put people
into that list.


Monitoring & Measurement
Evaluate your twitter impact using twitter tools.

• Use tools like hoot suite or tweet deck to manage, syndicate and track
multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Ping.fm accounts in one interface
• Track web analytics from URLs in our tweets (using a url shortener like bitly or
http://ow.ly/url) – to track referrals from Twitter to web pages
• Surveys – do regular ‘straw poll’ surveys on Twitter to ask for feedback
• Use Twitter data – the follower/following data presented in your Twitter
account.
• Use Third party tools – analytics tools including measures based on re-
tweeting Mention map - map of mentions, trend mapping Trendsmap, Retweet
Radar, thearchivist, retweetist, Online reputation (Monitter, Twitter Grader);
Unfollowers (Qwitter)
• Alert services – tweetbeep.com and other methods for tracking mentions
• Real time observation – twitterfall and similar tools
• Analysis of followers using tweepler and similar tools
• Twitter Counter – twitter stats

Frequency
Aim to tweet a minimum 2 and maximum 10 tweets per working day, with a minimum
gap of 30 minutes between tweets to avoid flooding ‘followers’ Twitter streams. (Not
counting @replies to other Twitter users, or live coverage of a crisis/event). Tweets
should as much as possible be scheduled and spread out throughout the day,
morning, midday and evening e.g.

• Morning : Latest news tweet
• Afternoon : Topical post or interesting retweet from follower
• Evening: Question to elicit debate and feedback

Elements of a good Twitter marketing plan:
• Choose a username - be as accurate as possible so people can find you
• Focus on relevant content – what will your followers find interesting?
• Just like with any social network or blog, the more people who follow you, the
easier it is to grow your community.
• Retweets and following other people are two essential ways to get new
followers.
• Content is king on Twitter, so it is vital to make sure you produce quality
tweets.
• Share links to pics, video blog posts. Try twitpic people tend to click through
on pictures more


• Presentations: Include your Twitter account on the last slide of your
presentation and tell people that they can follow you on Twitter.
• Business Card: Include your Twitter handle on your business card.
• Email signature: add to your email signature, every email you send can turn
into a new follower.
• Website: Promote your Twitter address to people who will probably be
interested in following you.
• Blog homepage + posts: Put your Twitter address in one of your sidebars
and promote it discretely in posts every once in a while.
• Email newsletter: If you have an email newsletter, you can write about
Twitter and link to your profile or put it at the bottom of your template, so that
each email has a link to your account.
• Article writing / guest blog posting: Whenever you write an article for a
magazine, website or guest post on a blog, include your Twitter handle in your
byline.
• Networking on Twitter: Use the “@” symbol and either retweeting or
communicating with other people, you’ll have some of them responding to
you, which promotes your account too many of their followers.
• Promotional products: create twitter t-shirts & wear with pride at events

Twitter Glossary
• Twitter Handle: Also known as a username. This is the name you select to
represent yourself.
• To Follow: Click the “Follow” button on a person’s Twitter page, when you
follow someone, their updates will show on your Twitter page
• Follower: A person who has subscribed to receive your updates. You can see
your total number of followers on your Twitter profile page.
• To Follow Back: To subscribe to the updates of someone who has recently
started following you. When someone follows you, you receive an email alert
from Twitter. In the email, there will be a link to that person’s profile. By
clicking the link, you can check out who they are and decide to follow them
back or not. You don’t have to follow everyone back.

• Update: Also known as a tweet. They can be no longer than 140‐characters,

120 characters is better to allow space for retweets. You post your update in
the white text box under “What are you doing?”
• @Reply: A public message sent from one Twitter user to another by putting
@username at the beginning of the tweet.
• Direct Message (or DM): A private message sent from one Twitter user to
another by either clicking the “message” link on their profile or typing D
username.


• Twitter Stream: A list of a person’s real‐time updates. Every time you post an

update, it goes into your Twitter stream, which is found on your account page
also at http://twitter.com/username.

• Tweet‐up: An event specifically organized for Twitter‐users to meet up and

network, usually informal

• Hashtag (#): A tool to aggregate the conversation surrounding an event or
topic. Created by combining a # with a word, acronym or phrase (#word).
• Retweet (or RT): To repeat what someone else has already tweeted. People
do this if someone has said something especially valuable and they want their
own network to see the information too. (Example: Retweet @username:
Check this out).

Resources
Mashable Twitter guide
Twitter in plain English
Twitter 101 for business
Twitter 102 for educators
Chris Brogan’s 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
Readwriteweb – 4 ways companies are using twitter for business
Tweets that travel – How to write viral copy
Top 25 social media sites - SEOmoz

Any Questions?
Ready to improve your online marketing? Start now contact info@webyogi.co.uk.
Feel free to get in touch! We offer in-house training & consultancy for social media
projects.

www: http://www.webyogi.co.uk/
email: info@webyogi.co.uk
twitter: @webyogi
facebook: Webyogidigitalmarketing


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Social media guide : Twitter for higher/further education colleges

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