If I Taught Twitter 101

In the last couple days several universities have said they will begin offering a Twitter class for communication students. (Like at DePaul.)Is this a 3 credit course?

That got me thinking… what have I learned from Twitter that I would teach in a class of eager-to-learn students?

• Sign-up. If you are dragging your feet, stop it.
• Post a pic.
• Customize your background. Don’t know how? Google it.
• Include your website/blog/LinkedIn profile on the Web portion of your profile.
• Make your bio short and witty.
• Include your e-mail in the bio.
  
• Consider your name a brand – market it.
• Don’t waste your first tweets on the mundane ‘I don’t know what to say’ tweets.
• Tweet useful/interesting things.
• If you want your followers to grow tweet key words.
• It’s not all about the number of followers you have, but rather their quality.
• Be selective in who you follow, more is not always better. Follow those who you can learn from, who you find interesting.
• Begin building relationships through replies.
• Use hash tags to make it easier for others to find your tweets on a particular topic.
• Join the various #chat groups. And participate.
• Tweet interesting articles by offering a link.
• Shorten links using Bit.ly or tinyurl.
• Add your twitter name to your automatic e-mail signature, your LinkedIn profile too.
• Glance at trending topics from time to time to know what the day’s topics of interest are, this could help you catch breaking stories.
• Keep at it.