Tech Notes: Teaching Twitter 101
I am a geek (say it loud and proud!). I am an early adopter. I like gadgets and computers. I Twitter, I Skype, I communicate via LinkedIn and Facebook. I have a cobweb covered Myspace page. Social media is a part of my everyday being. It’s just a natural part of my life – like brushing my teeth or turning the lights off when I leave the room. I don’t really think about it. I enjoy it.
I share this with you because today I did something I’ve never done before. I taught a group of about 40 business professionals from greater Cincinnati how to use Twitter. The class was part of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerece’s Tech Friday programing, a program that offers Chamber members a course on a different social media topic each month – presented in a hands on way.
Outside of teaching social media classes to small groups and clients, this was my first time teaching a class in front of a large group.
I shared a lot of information with the class – talking about the nuts and bolts of Twitter, but also the importance of building relationships, about how social media is about two-way communication. I shared with them examples of businesses using Twitter to engage with customers successfully (IMHO), and spoke of how it can strengthen relationships with customers and vendors and even how it could (would) expose their businesses to new people and opportunities. I tried to cover it all. I tried to do the space justice.
I also shared a list of my favorite Twitter applications, which I’ll share here with you. If you see anything I am missing — or that you might think I’d like, please leave it in the comments. As we all know, there are a lot of applications for Twitter out there and new applications pop up everyday.
• Twhirl / TweetDeck (Both must be downloaded)
• SnipURL & Bit.ly (Clipping URLS)
• TwitPic (Photo sharing)
• TweetBeep (Google Alerts for Twitter)
• TwitterStats (Analzing tool)
• TwitterAnalyzer (Analzing tool)
• TweetLater (Scheduled Tweets)
• Twitter Search (Find key words, people, etc)
• ChirpCity (view Tweets by City)
• Twellow (Twitter Yellow Pages)
• TwitterFeed (Feed your blog to Twitter)
• Twtpoll.com (Poll Followers)
Thank you again to the NKY Chamber for asking me.
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Great information! I am going to check some of these twitter apps out!
Screwed Up Texan´s last blog post… A Flower and a B
Awesome job, Shannan! I’m sure you knocked their socks off.
I just heard about TweetLater the other day. I have to check it out. It might be good for me, b/c just can’t keep up w/ Twitter!
tela´s last blog post… Friday Finds – May 7, 2009
I use Ubertwitter on my blackberry…it’s a public beta…but I’m already liking it MUCH better than Twitterberry because I get instant notification of new tweets and replies.
Good for you! Sounds great.
Dina @ 4 Lettre Words´s last blog post… A Thousand Words Thursday
Straight from the “You Go Girl” files! Great stuff, Shannon! Sharing one’s expertise is always a great thing. Congrats.
I really like Tweetphoto I was able to text/email photo into it and have it posted on my twitter feed unlike twitpic where you have to upload it online. (Since I don’t have the internet on my phone)
Domestic Extraordinaire´s last blog post… The Walk & a giveaway
I love when people do these posts because I learn something new! I’m also a new user of ubertwitter and saw tweetphoto b/c of someone on twitter (not that I post photos who really wants to see photos of books?!)
Andi´s last blog post… No-sew T-shirt Bag
thanks for that list – haven’t heard of a few of them and will definitely check it out.
fiona´s last blog post… Dear Mom ~ Thanks
congratulations to you on teaching the class!! sounds like it went very, very well.
I think I need to come to your class. I have a twitter account, I just don’t “get” it! I don’t know what any of those links are that you pointed out… I just don’t understand! I think I’m getting old.
Mimi´s last blog post… Menu Plan Monday
Wow… I have so much to learn.
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That’s so neat you taught a class! I need to take one!
Katie´s last blog post… Shhhh! Keep it a secret…
Thank you all for the kind words. I am glad you find the list helpful. If you have any to add I’d love to hear about them!