Twitter Guide

Twitter is one of the most social of all the social media
sites and it provides a great platform to engage with
your audience and increase reach for your message.
Below is a guide to help you get started and help
you maximize the impact of your Twitter Account. Happy Tweeting!

	Twitter Lingo Tweet: A 140-character message Retweet: Take a twitter message from someone else and rebroadcasts that same message to your followers. Gives credit to original posters and helps generate an engaged following. Direct Message (DM) – a direct messaging service within Twitter allows you to send those that you follow personal messages that are 140-characters. Feed: The stream of tweets you see on your homepage. It includes updates from users you follow. Handle: Your username Hashtag: A way to denote a topic of conversation or participate in a larger linked discussion (ex: #PaceU). A hashtag helps others to discover your Tweets and aggregates all Tweets that include that hashtag.
	Background: Use a simple background graphic. Do not use Pace University logos or department logos for the background because parts of it will get cut off. Images tend to work best. Here is a great resource for designing your background.
	Twitter Tips: Develop a tone/voice: Give your account a personality! Make it fun, engaging, and relevant to your audience. Please remember that you are tweeting on behalf of Pace University. Twitter can be a two-way conversation tool: You can take its functionality beyond simply sending out messages. It gives you the ability to respond to others or Retweet their messages. Do not spam: Determine a reasonable number of Tweets per day. Too many messages can become an annoyance and people will stop following your page.
	Twitter Naming Convention: Twitter limits usernames to 13 characters. Create a name that will be easily searchable. Search engines such as Google and Twitter’s own search engine pull accounts based on key word relevance. It is best to pick something obvious and relevant. This will ultimately help you gain followers.
	Getting Started on Twitter - Advertise your account to your audience through email, your website, other social networks, print pieces, etc. - Follow other relevant Twitter accounts so that others can start following your account. - Respond to and engage with your followers. - Check your “@ replies” and Direct Messages so that you can respond to those that Tweet you. - Images: You can Tweet images directly through Twitter. - Sharing URLs/Links: Use a URL shortening service such as http://goo.gl/ or http://bitly.com/ These services also provide analytical tracking.
	Handling Negative Posts on Twitter Twitter is the most public of the social media sites. All posts can be seen by the public and they cannot be deleted. For this reason it is important to manage negative posts. - Address negative posts in a proactive manner. Do not ignore them in hopes that they will stop because potentially the negative Tweets may multiply. You want to prevent this from happening and provide assistance to the person. - Managing negative posts on Twitter can be a little more challenging than on Facebook. The nature of Twitter makes it sometimes difficult to see the true personal identity of an account. This means that it may be difficult to simply send the person who tweeted an email. We suggest when you receive a negative post send that person a Direct Message. In that Direct Message ask them to provide you with an email address where you can further communicate with them and assist them.