@EddeQuincey Page 1 2013

Introduction to twitter by @EddeQuincey (https://twitter.com/EddeQuincey)

During your time at university, and in your future career, it is important to keep up to date with
current developments and people in your field. One of the key advances in this area has been the
invention and adoption of social media websites. A popular example of a social media website is
twitter, described as a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information
about what you find interesting (twitter, 2011)
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. Twitter allows you to post short messages called
tweets, that other users can view and in turn you can view and reply to other users tweets. The
following resources give a good overview of twitter and what you can use it for:
Twitter basics (article)
o https://support.twitter.com/groups/50-welcome-to-twitter/topics/204-the-
basics/articles/215585-twitter-101-getting-started-with-twitter
Twitter basics (video)
o http://online.cofa.unsw.edu.au/learning-to-teach-online/ltto-
episodes?view=video&video=257
The twitter tutorial (presentation)
o http://www.slideshare.net/Griner/the-twitter-tutorial
The ultimate guide for everything twitter (article)
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o http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/the-ultimate-guide-for-everything-
twitter/
Stage 1 Signing up for an account (if you already use twitter go to Stage 3)
Go to the twitter website at http://www.twitter.com and sign up for an account by entering your
name, an email address and a password. You will then be asked to specify a username before
creating your account. Make sure that you choose something that is not only memorable, but also
relates to the purpose you intend to use twitter for. The majority of people who use twitter to reflect
their professional activities, choose a username that relates to their actual name e.g.
@EddeQuincey, @ProfBrianCox, @bengoldacre
3
.

During the sign up process you will be shown lists of suggested users to follow and be given the
option to search for users (try searching for University of Greenwich). Following a user means
that you will see their tweets in your timeline when you login to twitter. This is similar to
subscribing to their posts and is the main way that you can keep up to date with what people are
doing and posting. You can also find other users via your interests and see if any of your current
contacts are using twitter. You can skip the various stages by clicking on the Skip >> link at the
bottom of the box on the left hand side.


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http://twitter.com/about#about
2
From 2009 so the screenshots refer to a previous version but mostly still relevant.
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twitter usernames are often preceded by the @ symbol when referred to online.

@EddeQuincey Page 2 2013
Once you have chosen other users to follow you are shown your timeline where you can see tweets
that the users you have followed have posted. On the left you can compose your first tweet, view
your profile and see what topics are currently trending. You can edit your profile at any time via the
settings icon (next to the search bar at the top).
Stage 2 Using twitter
The best way to use twitter is to start posting tweets and finding other people to follow but twitter
also provides a good set of support documents and tutorials which you should take time to explore
at https://support.twitter.com/groups/50-welcome-to-twitter/topics/204-the-basics/articles/215585-
twitter-101-getting-started-with-twitter

To get you started, a list of relevant users to follow has been created related to web design and
development:

https://twitter.com/eddequincey/lists/web-design-development

By clicking the Subscribe button on the left hand side you can immediately follow 25 accounts
that have been curated by @EddeQuincey.
Stage 3 Using twitter with this course
We are intending to use twitter with this course in 3 ways:
1. As an alternative method for posting useful course specific information to students e.g. links
to articles, emergency changes to lecture times etc.
2. Enable students to ask questions about courses e.g. clarifying something from a lecture,
asking about coursework specifications etc.
3. Encourage students to help one another and create communities of practice
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.
!"# %&'&()(*+ ',-./& (*0,.123(,*
To receive updates about the course there are 2 methods that you can employ. You can either follow
the course lecturer by going to:

https://twitter.com/EddeQuincey

and select Follow (once logged in to twitter). This will mean that you see any tweets posted by this
lecturer. However, some of these may not be relevant to your course, so another option is to search
for a hashtag: People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet to
categorize those Tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search (twitter, 2011)
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. In the case of this
course, simply do a search for the hashtag #COMP1678 either via the twitter site:

http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23COMP1678

or using software such as tweetdeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/) which lets you setup searches for
specific hashtags/words
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. The course lecturer will make sure that any tweet that relates to the course
will contain this hashtag i.e. #COMP1678 and will therefore appear in any searches for that
hashtag. Be aware though that searches may contain tweets from other users who have used that
hashtag (see 3.3 though for why this is useful).

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice
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http://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-what-are-hashtags-symbols
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http://www.tweetdeck.com/support/desktop/

@EddeQuincey Page 3 2013
!"4 5/6(*+ 7-&/3(,*/ 28,-3 ',-./&/
To ask a question about a course there are again 2 methods. You can message your course tutor by
writing a tweet that mentions or @Replies them:

http://support.twitter.com/entries/14023-what-are-replies-and-mentions

In the case of this course, simply post a tweet that starts with the lecturers username
@EddeQuincey. The other method is to post a tweet that contains the course hashtag #COMP1678.
The lecturer will be monitoring all tweets that contain the course hashtag and so if you post a tweet
containing it, they will see it and reply. To be more specific, you could also use a combination of
hashtags such as #COMP1678 #Lec1 if you are asking about something in the first lecture,
#COMP1678 #Lab1 for the first lab session, #COMP1678 #CW for information about the
coursework and so on. Just make sure that the hashtag #COMP1678 is included.
!"! 9&:;(*+ ,*& 2*,3<&.
When you are posting information that relates to the course e.g. useful links, it would be a good
idea to share that information with other students. To do this, simply add the course hashtag
#COMP1678 to the end of your tweets. Then, other students who have set up a search for the course
hashtag (see 3.1) will be able to see them. You could also use this to answer questions that other
students have tweeted, or see the answer to questions that the lecturer or other students may have
posted. One final method is to simply find out the twitter usernames of other users and follow them.