About Twitter

URL

Portland State University's official Twitter profiles is

http://twitter.com/Portland_State

Description

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called "tweets" of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile or your blog or sent to your followers and are searchable on Twitter Search.

Directions

1) Log on to www.twitter.com and click on "Sign In"

2) Enter username and password

3) Type in message or "tweet" of 140 characters or fewer inside the box.

4) For advanced users, you can directly reference someone on Twitter by typing "@username" in your tweet. Portland State's Twitter handle is @Portland_State.

Metrics

• To increase followers
• To generate a minimum of 7 Twitter updates per week (this does not include RT's)
• To generate Re-Tweets among followers
• To initiate quality and interactive discussions among followers through interesting and engaging posts
• To identify top keywords tweeted

Instructions for PSU Departments and Groups

Review the Social Media Checklist and create your own Twitter feed. Please let Christian Aniciete (503-725-2318 orcaniciet@pdx.edu) know about your Twitter account. He'll help you connect with the official account.

You're also welcome to provide content to PSU’s official Twitter feed. Connect with Christian to share your ideas.

Twitter Tips

• Given the wealth of information your followers access on the Internet everyday, don't tweet just for the sake of tweeting. Share content that will resonate with your audience. Followers will stop paying attention if you overload them with information.
• Make sure your tweet messages, as well as your profile's design, align with your specific goals. Keep your profile and posts professional as you are an official representative of the university.
• Understand who your audience is by asking the following questions: who is following you? What do they tweet about? What are their interests? Follow individuals or organizations that suit you and that you may have mutual interests with.
• Take the time to reply to those who mention you in a tweet. A simple "thanks for your RT" goes a long way inbuilding solid online relationships. Keep conversations going and don't hesitate in putting a question out to your followers.
• Unless you are live tweeting at an event, try not to saturate your Twitter feed. Balance out your posts if you plan to post more than four or five tweets a day.
• Use hashtags and keywords to make yourself searchable. For example, someone looking for events in Portland could search #pdxevents to bring tagged results to the top of the list.
• To share content on Twitter, people use terms like "RT" or "Retweet." Doing just this helps give credit to the original poster, disperses quality information, and helps place on the original poster's radar.