Twitter

Twitter is a social media site that lets you send short messages of 140 characters, known as tweets. Tweets generally contain text, and they can also include links to websites or other online media like pictures or video. Twitter is a very useful tool for professional learning and is a great way to contribute to the Learning Lunch Boxes events. Here's how to get started and how to share your tweets about the Learning Lunch Boxes.

Setting up an account

You can sign up for a Twitter account here.

You will be asked to enter your full name (this will be displayed in your profile) and also choose a username. Your username is unique and is how other users will be able to identify you. It’s best to try and keep your username as short as possible, so try different combinations of words and numbers if your name isn’t available.  

Try to keep your username as short as possible

You might also like to fill in your profile and upload a picture for your avatar so people know who you are.  

Twitter accounts are set to be public by default, so all of your tweets will be visible to anyone who looks at your profile. There is an option to make your account private, but the real power of Twitter is connecting with other people, so it is best to avoid this. Just remember that anything you tweet will be visible to anyone.

Sending a tweet

You can send a tweet by clicking Compose new tweet and typing your message. A counter will show you how many characters you have left. When you are ready to send the tweet click Tweet.

You can also include links in your tweet by pasting in any URL. You'll notice that the remaining character count will be reduced by 22, even if the URL is much longer than that. Twitter automatically shortens the length of any link.

To add a picture to your tweet click the Camera icon and then choose a picture to upload. Pictures are included as a link so this will also reduce the character count by 22 characters.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a way for people who don’t follow each other to have a conversation about a topic. When you include a hashtag in your tweet then anyone who searches that hashtag on Twitter will see your message, even if they don’t follow you. In this way hashtags are an excellent way for people to have a conversation about an event or topic.  

The Learning Lunch Boxes events use the #learninglunchbox hashtag. Anyone who wants to tweet about the event can use that hashtag, and it also means that even if you can’t come along you can follow the conversation online.

To see how the hashtag works, do a search in Twitter for #learninglunchbox in the search bar at the top of the page. You’ll see any tweets that include the hashtag. Click Top to display the most popular tweets or click All to display the most recent.

To include a hashtag in your tweet just type it anywhere in your message. Make sure that you leave a space before the hash symbol, and also leave one after the hashtag if you are going to type anything else.

A few more points on hashtags:

• Hashtags can only be made up of letters and numbers. No special characters or punctuation can be used.
• Anyone can choose a hashtag to use. If you do want to make up a hashtag for an event or topic try to keep it as short as possible- aim for a hashtag no more that 20 characters long. Also do a search of your chosen hashtag to make sure it’s not being used by another event or topic already.
• Remember that even if you choose a hashtag, it doesn’t mean that you own it or can moderate tweets using that tag. If hashtags become popular they can also attract spam, so be careful clicking on any links that are posted to that hashtag. Have a look at the profile of the person posting and don't click on the link if the account looks suspicious.

Mentions

Accounts on Twitter are identified by a username, which is also referred to as a handle. Handles begin with the @ symbol. For example, the handle for the Monash Better Learning & teaching account is @monashblt 

If you want to mention someone in a tweet you do it by including their handle. Just make sure that you leave a space before the @ symbol, and another space at the end of the handle. The handle itself shouldn't contain any spaces. Then they will be notified that you mentioned them. It also makes it easier for people who see the tweet to find and follow that person on Twitter.

Following

If you find someone interesting on Twitter then you'll want to follow them. This means that you will be updated with all of the tweets they send. These tweets will appear in reverse chronological order in your timeline.
There are a few different ways to find people on Twitter: 

• You can search for their name or username in the search box and then select their account
• you can click on their handle if it appears in a tweet
• you can click on their profile picture that appears next to their tweets

When you do this you will be taken to the account's profile page. You'll see the last few tweets they've sent, the number of followers they have and a brief profile (if they've filled one in). If you want to follow them, click Follow. The button will change to Following. You can click it again to stop following the account.

That's covered all of the basics of Twitter. Feel free to tweet your thoughts about the Learning Lunch Boxes and keep an eye on the #learningluchbox hashtag for all of the updates.