What is Twitter?
Not sure what Twitter is all about?
Commons on Twitter
CUNY on Twitter
Twitter Resources
Online resources that provide in-depth information about Twitter, best practices, software and other useful tools.
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Tweets by CUNYAcademicCommons (@cunycommons)
The following tweets are from the official CUNY Commons Twitter account. To view or follow us on Twitter click here, if you have any other comments or concerns contact us.
Tweets by cunycommonsTweets from the @cunycommons/Official CUNY Tweets list
The following tweets are from senior and community colleges, graduate and professional schools and are pulled from a list of know Twitter accounts. To view the list click here. If you are not on the list and would like to be added, or if you have any other comments, contact us.
A Twitter List by cunycommonsTweets from the @cunycommons/CUNY list
The following tweets are from Commons members pulled from a list of know Twitter accounts. To view the list click here. If you are not on the list and would like to be added, or if you have any other comments, contact us.
A Twitter List by cunycommonsTweets from the @cunycommons/CUNY Libraries list
The following tweets are from CUNY Libraries pulled from a list of know Twitter accounts. To view the list click here. If you are not on the list and would like to be added, or if you have any other comments, contact us.
A Twitter List by cunycommonsTweets from the @cunycommons/CUNY Academic Programs list
The following tweets are from different academic programs throughout CUNY pulled from a list of know Twitter accounts. To view the list click here. If you are not on the list and would like to be added, or if you have any other comments, contact us.
A Twitter List by cunycommonsWhat is Twitter?
Twitter is a free micro-blogging platform that describes itself as, ‘a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?’ Though users can still answer this prompt, tweets have evolved to more than everyday experiences, taking the shape of shared links to interesting content on the web, conversations around hot topics (using hashtags), photos, videos, music, and, most importantly, real-time accounts from people. All messages or ‘tweets’ are 140 characters or less.
How do I sign up?
Visit twitter.com with a valid email address, select a username and password, accept the terms and conditions, and boom – you’re in! After you upload a photo and write your one line bio you’re ready to start tweeting and following other users.
The Basics:
Tweets
Twitter posts can be about anything and include links to web pages, videos, photos, or other resources. If your profile is set to public, your tweets will be available for anyone to see. All tweets are limited to 140-characters.
If you are posting a URL, consider using a shortening service to condense long URLs into a smaller format. This will allow you to minimize the character count used by the link. For more information on how to shorten a URL, click here.
Retweeting (RT)
Retweeting is when you share interesting tweets and relevant content from other Twitter user. To give credit to the original person, you put ‘RT’ plus the originator’s username at the beginning of the tweet. Your tweets are more likely to be retweeted if you leave enough characters to include “RT @yourusername.”
Just as you would cite a source, retweeting gives credit where credit is due.
Reply
Using the ‘reply’ button will allow you to respond or direct a tweet to another user. Similar to the ‘mention’ feature on the Commons, placing the @ symbol in front of a username will create a link to the user’s profile and notify them of your tweet.
Follow
The public nature of Twitter encourages users to follow each other. When you follow someone, their status updates appear in the Twitter stream on your homepage. You can follow friends, colleagues, family, or anyone who has a Twitter profile. If a user protect their tweets, your follow request must be approved by the user.
Use search.twitter.com to find others to follow on twitter. You can search by interest, name, and location. You can also explore who other users are following to build your Twitter network.
We encourage you to find and connect with other CUNY Twitterers on The Commons by exploring the @cunycommons/cunycommons list.
Lists
Twitter users can use lists to organize other users into groups. Users can also search through lists for new users to follow. You can create a list of people you want to recommend to others, family, co-workers, experts of a particular subject, and so forth. For example, the @cunycommons/cunycommons list includes over 250 Twitterers on The Commons.
For more information about how to create or follow a twitter list, please see the following article on Mashable.
Hashtags
Just as entering search terms in a search engine can yield results via the World Wide Web; hashtags ( also referred to as “tags”) allow Twitterers to access real-time tweets around a particular person, place, or thing. Hashtags are used to categorize a topic or keyword with a hash symbol (‘#’) at the start. Using the # symbol creates a hyperlink that, when selected, displays all public tweets that include the tag, helping organize it.
Twitter hashtags #followfriday help spread information on Twitter. The hashtag is a favorite tool of conferences, events, and organizations (i.e.- #cuny). The top five hashtags of the @cunycommons are: #cunyevents, #cunyit, #helpwanted, #cfp, and #cunydhi.
While hashtags allow you connect and share information quickly and easily, a little can go a long way. In other words, use hashtags sparingly.