Twitter Basics

Christopher Collins, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine

Georgetown University Medical School

Program Director, Division of Rheumatology

MedStar Washington Hospital Center

@RheumPearls

Disclosures

• None (I’m not that important)

A Brief Historyof Twitter

• Created in 2006

• Rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 1 billion registered users as of 2014 (284 million monthly active, 220 million from outside USA)

• 500 million Tweets are sent per day

• 46% of Twitter users Tweet at least once in a day

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-statistics-2012_b18914

“Twitter is a big cocktail party that you are dropping in on from time to time to listen to what people are saying and join in.”

- Vineet Arora (@FutureDocs)Top Twitter Myths & Tips, FutureDocs Blog

http://futuredocsblog.com/top-twitter-myths-tips/

Twitter in a nutshell

Twitter Terminology

Twitter terminologyTwitter isn't exactly a foreign language, but it may seem that way to newcomers. Here's some basic terminology you'll need to know:

Username: Everyone on the service has a unique username. In order to talk to someone on Twitter, you have to address them by their username, preceded by an @ symbol. ex. @RheumPearls

Twitter Terminology

Tweet: A public message posted on Twitter. Your message can be just text or include links, videos, or photos. ex. "She tweeted about an interesting abstract she saw at the ACR.“

Retweet: When you repost a message from someone else, you're retweeting it. Usually these messages are preceded by RT.

Twitter Terminology

Reply: If you want to reply to someone who has posted an update on Twitter, just start your message with @username to direct it at them. Remember, though: this isn't a private conversation!

Direct Message: In addition to the public tweets, you can also send private direct messages to anyone who follows you (though they won't be able to message you back unless you also follow them).

Twitter Terminology

Hashtag: Words after a # symbol are hashtags, which can be used to track conversations or topics on Twitter. You can easily search for hashtags to find information or see which hashtags are trending.

Follow: You follow people on Twitter to see their updates (similar to friending someone on Facebook), but in this case you don't need their permission unless their Twitter account is set to private.

Step 1: go to Twitter

http://www.twitter.com

Step 2: choose a name (@something)

But what name?

• For the narcissist in us all• Hope no one of the other billion users

has the same name as you

Do you chose yourown name?

• How about something that reflects what you do are who you are professionally?

…or a cool moniker?

• Sell that brand!

Representing an organization or brand?

• What I say matters, dammit!

…or do you providea service?

Some suggestions

As of today, these usernames are still “up for grabs”

@rheumdoctor@rheum_doctor@drrheum@drarthritis@doctorrheum@doctor_rheum@doc_rheum@lupus_doc@lupusdoctor@lupus_doctor

@vasculitis_md@vasculitismd@vasculitisdoc@vasculitis_doc@sclerodermadoc@scleroderma_doc@rheumproject@iheartrheum@iheartfibro@iheartlupus

@itreatRA@rheumalert@rheum_educator@rheumweb@arthritis_md@arthritisfixer@arthritis_fixer@lupusfixer@rheumfixer@rheum_fixer

@rheum_info@rheumknow@rheumknowledge@rheum_knowledge@rheumteacher@rheum_teacher@joint_doc@joint_md@joint_fixer

Please no cybersquatting

Actually hard to do…• Only one name per

email account allowed

The “tweet box”

Composing a tweet

Composing a tweet

Remember, you only have 140 characters!

Characters remaining

Hashtags!

Composing a tweet

Twitter automatically shortens any url (web-link) to 22 characters. This will reflected in the remaining character count.

Composing a tweet

Click here and you’re done!

Composing a tweet

Re-tweeting

If it bears repeating…

Favorite

So you can find it later…

Also serves as a “like” button…

The conversation

Start a dialogue

The conversation

Follow your interests

Create lists

• Organize your Twitter followers• Organize followers based on any grouping method you want.

For example, rheum educators, rheum movers and shakers, etc.

• Never miss a tweet• Your Twitter feed can sometimes seem like an endless pit of

updates, because quite frankly, it is.

• Gain potential new followers• Whenever you add someone new to a public list, they will

get a notification letting them know you have done so.

Twitter clients

• Many, many, many to choose from• Tweetbot• Tweetdeck• Hootsuite• Buffer

How to attract followers

Be famous!

59 million followers 16 million followers 49 million followers

Follow lots and lots of people

(Some of them are bound to follow you back)

How to attract followers

Be the world’s most INTERESTING

rheumatologist!

• Join a chat• Post a link• Spout an opinion• Tag it with a hashtag!

How to attract followers

Class dismissed