Twitter in Your PLN

Twitter seems to be the fastest growing and most powerful social media tool for your PLN. According to Digiday.com, there are 400 million tweets per day and 200 million monthly active Twitter users. That's a lot of tweets!

Tips when using Twitter:

You only have 160 characters per tweet (microblogging)!!
Keep your personal life separate from your professional life. Dedicate one account to your PLN.
Give credit where credit is due! Mention the original contributor when sharing information.
There are a lot of Twitter users out there. Many of them aren't as active, if at all. Check their profile and their tweets before deciding to follow them.
Use #hashtags to connect and share, to search for things you are interested in, and to join Twitter chats.
If you are trying to appeal to a certain crowd on Twitter, i.e. education, then be specific in your profile. People typically will read your profile first when deciding whether to follow you or not.

#Hashtags

Hashtags are the use of the # symbol with a keyword to help categorize your tweet. It also allows others to easily search for tweets of similar interest. Hashtags first became popular in Social Media through Twitter. Now, hashtags are also used in other Social Media websites such as Pinterest and Google+. Even Facebook is considering allowing the use of hashtags.

#Hashtag Resources:

15 Hashtags for Teachers: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/best-15-twitter-hashtags-for-teachers.html
Educational Hastags: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/10/a-quick-guide-to-twitter-educational.html
2012 Twitter Hastags: http://edudemic.com/2012/06/2012-twitter-hashtags/
300+ Educational Twitter Hashtags - http://edudemic.com/2012/09/twitter-hashtags-now/
Search hashtags across multiple Social Media platforms w/ Tagboard: http://tagboard.com/

Who to Follow

Remember, there are 200 million monthly active users, so I'm not going to give you a list of who to follow here. The best suggestion I can give you is to check out who I'm following on Twitter, @EdTechnocation, and follow them yourself. In my professional Twitter account, I'm already following 409 users who all have some kind of interest in education and technology. Visit my Twitter profile and click on the "Following" link. You may also want to check out who my "Followers" are.

Twitter Chats

Twitter chats utilize a hashtag and focus on a particular education related topic. There are many different Twitter chats that take place on a weekly basis. You can participate in a Twitter chat as its happening live by using it's hashtag in your tweets or you can search the hashtag at a later time to see how the chat went.

Weekly Twitter Chat Schedule (Compiled by @thomascmurray & @cevans5095 with continuous help from @cybraryman1) - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiftIdjCeWSXdDRLRzNsVktUUGJpRWJhdUlWLS1Genc#gid=0

How to Take Part in a Twitter Chat: http://cybraryman.com/howtochat.html

It is much easier to following along with a Twitter Chat if you use a Twitter Tool like TweetDeck.

Twitter Tools

There are tools that can make using Twitter a lot easier and help keep your Twitter feeds and hashtag searches more organized. Some of my favorites are TweetDeck and HootSuite.

Other Twitter Tools to check out: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/07/12-twitter-tools-every-educators-must.html

A Twitter Tool like TweetDeck makes it easier to follow along during Twitter Chats. In TweetDeck, you create a column that will only show tweets that are using a specific hashtag.

Twitter Resources

Using Twitter for Teacher's PD: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/05/using-twitter-for-teachers-professional.html
10 Ways Teachers Can Use Twitter for PD: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/10/twitter-for-professional-development.html
Top 14 EdTech Tweeters to Follow: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/08/top-14-educational-technology-tweeters.html
Twittorials for Teachers: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/03/great-twittorials-for-teachers.html

Don't forget, if you want your PLN to grow on Twitter, you can't just be a consumer. You won't gain any followers that way. Contribute and participate!

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