Can you tell a story in six words?

The twitter feed at right follows the hashtag #kasbcon, and if you look through the tweets you’ll read a story about the 2014 KASB Annual Conference. All those different perspectives create quite a story about an event! Of course this twitter feed only captures the tweets that used the special hashtag. There were undoubtedly others!

What story are you telling about yourself? About your organization? You can search and find every tweet you’ve ever tweeted, so what is the story being told? (Just Google “find my tweets” and you’ll find several different ways to do this.) KASB’s annual conference in December keynote speaker Jim Spellos @jspellos challenged us to tweet our digital story in six words. That might seem impossible, but take a look at the twitter feed to see a few great examples! Social media is about the conversation, so use twitter to tell your story.

Be mindful of what you are tweeting and why. Think about the top three or four impressions you would want everyone to have about you or your organization, then match your messages to those themes. Make sure to include original tweets/thoughts along with retweets that reinforce those messages.

There is no shortage of tips and suggestions on how to get started. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Create a twitter account and start by following a few people and organizations. Click on their “Followers” and “Following” tab to get ideas, then follow a few more.
2. Start tweeting and retweeting. Just jump in! 
3. Tweet links or thoughts from a website or blog you find interesting. Almost all now have the twitter link embedded in their webpage so it makes it pretty easy to share.
4. Learn how to use a url-shortening service like bitly.com. It’s easy and will save you precious characters since you are limited to 140! 
5. Follow back anyone who follows you. 
6. Watch a Youtube tutorial or read through a couple of online tipsheets to learn how to use hashtags. (Youtube:  Basic or more Advanced)
7. Proofread your tweets before you post. 
8. Twitter’s 140 character limit forces brevity. Yes, you can abbrev. 2 gt 2 140. A perfectly acceptable practice. Watch others to learn a few of the most common abbreviations.
9. Check twitter at least twice a day and retweet or add something new to the conversation.
10. As you begin to gain skill, subscribe to a twitter analytic site such as Tweriod to learn the best times to tweet based on when your followers are most likely to be active on twitter.

So, time to jump in! 

Training

Leveraging the Power of Social Media Workshop
Feb. 3, 2014 Kansas Association of School Boards
Lead by Kevin Case @inmansuperc, Inman USD 448 Superintendent and author of #TwirtyDays-Opening Doors, Creating Possibilities and Realizing Potential.

Useful Resources

Kristen Magette, Eudora USD 491 Director of Communications
Blog: kristinmagette.com
@kmagette
Author of Embracing Social Media: A Practical Guide to Manage Risk and Leverage Opportunity

Socialmediatoday.com
@socialmedia2day

Thenextweb.com
@TheNextWeb

www.bulldogreporter.com
@BulldogReporter