Twitter and its importance in PR, crisis communication, political communication, journalism, and activism.

1. twitter
Used as a PR Tool

2. twitter: service
A free micro-blogging

3. twitter: service
A free micro-blogging
140 character
maximum

4. twitter in plain English
- the Common Craft Show

5. Another place where
conversations occur
Organization
Stakeholders Influentials
Stakeholders Influentials

6. Another place where
conversations occur
Organization
Stakeholders Influentials
Stakeholders Influentials

7. Lingo
๏ tweet
๏ hashtag
๏ tweme
๏ tweetup
๏ tweetchannel
๏ tinyURL
๏ DM

8. Lingo
๏ tweet - a message of 140 characters or less
๏ hashtag
๏ tweme
๏ tweetup
๏ tweetchannel
๏ tinyURL
๏ DM

9. Lingo
๏ tweet - a message of 140 characters or less
๏ hashtag - tweets that start with a # (tracking)
๏ tweme
๏ tweetup
๏ tweetchannel
๏ tinyURL
๏ DM

10. Lingo
๏ tweet - a message of 140 characters or less
๏ hashtag - tweets that start with a # (tracking)
๏ tweme - same as hashtag (twitter meme)
๏ tweetup
๏ tweetchannel
๏ tinyURL
๏ DM

11. Lingo
๏ tweet - a message of 140 characters or less
๏ hashtag - tweets that start with a # (tracking)
๏ tweme - same as hashtag (twitter meme)
๏ tweetup - twitter meetup
๏ tweetchannel
๏ tinyURL
๏ DM

12. Lingo
๏ tweet - a message of 140 characters or less
๏ hashtag - tweets that start with a # (tracking)
๏ tweme - same as hashtag (twitter meme)
๏ tweetup - twitter meetup
๏ tweetchannel - add #channelname at start of tweets
๏ tinyURL
๏ DM

13. Lingo
๏ tweet - a message of 140 characters or less
๏ hashtag - tweets that start with a # (tracking)
๏ tweme - same as hashtag (twitter meme)
๏ tweetup - twitter meetup
๏ tweetchannel - add #channelname at start of tweets
๏ tinyURL - for URLs longer than 30 characters
๏ DM

14. Lingo
๏ tweet - a message of 140 characters or less
๏ hashtag - tweets that start with a # (tracking)
๏ tweme - same as hashtag (twitter meme)
๏ tweetup - twitter meetup
๏ tweetchannel - add #channelname at start of tweets
๏ tinyURL - for URLs longer than 30 characters
๏ DM - direct message (private)

15. twitter uses
Tracking • Monitoring • Live-reporting
Journalism • Activism • Public Relations
Political Comm. • Crisis Comm.

16. Monitoring
tracking

17. Monitoring
tracking
๏ Monitor reputation, buzz, opinions, trends
๏ Use keyword tracking (“Track keyword”)
๏ Monitor and respond to what’s being said about
your organization
๏ Comcast Example
๏ Jet Blue Example

18. Comcast’s YouTube Baggage
- Sleeping Comcast Technician Video

19. Comcast’s lesson
learned
TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington
tore into Comcast on twitter after 36
hours without Internet service.
Within 20 minutes of his first tweet a
Comcast executive called to ask how he
could help.
Photo Credit: Joi Ito

20. Comcast’s lesson
learned
TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington
tore into Comcast on twitter after 36
hours without Internet service.
Within 20 minutes of his first tweet a
Comcast executive called to ask how he
could help.
Photo Credit: Joi Ito

21. Jet Blue
Monitoring Example
Manager of Corporate Communication for Jet Blue DMs
a twitter user who tweeted about having spotted a
celebrity (William Shatner) at the Jet Blue terminal

22. Jet Blue
Monitoring Example
Manager of Corporate Communication for Jet Blue DMs
a twitter user who tweeted about having spotted a
celebrity (William Shatner) at the Jet Blue terminal
tweet #1: JetBlue terminal. William Shatner waiting in pinstripe suite and
shades to board flight to Burbank. Why’s he flying JetBlue? Free, maybe?

23. Jet Blue
Monitoring Example
Manager of Corporate Communication for Jet Blue DMs
a twitter user who tweeted about having spotted a
celebrity (William Shatner) at the Jet Blue terminal
tweet #1: JetBlue terminal. William Shatner waiting in pinstripe suite and
shades to board flight to Burbank. Why’s he flying JetBlue? Free, maybe?
tweet #2: Using JetBlue wifi to access twitter, 10 seconds later, I get a
follow request from JetBlue on twitter. Half freaked out, half awed.

24. “ We learned last February the value of a certain amount of
transparency when we posted a video of our founding
CEO on YouTube to address customers affected by the ice
storm that swept through the Northeast.
Our Twitter account is much the same thing; making
ourselves available in an environment where are
customers already live -again not focused on marketing -
but real interaction: less billboard - more information
booth.
We track Twitter mentions of our brand through various
services from the internal “track” function on Twitter to
external tools like tweetscan.com or quotably.com that
“
are freely available to all users. Many allow near immediate
notification of mentions.
- Morgan Johnston, Corporate Communications, JetBlue Airways

25. live-
reporting
๏ Similar to live-blogging
๏ Uses hashtags (i.e. “#sxsw”)
๏ Backchannel tool
๏ 08 SXSW Zuckerberg Interview

26. live-
reporting
๏ Similar to live-blogging
๏ Uses hashtags (i.e. “#sxsw”)
๏ Backchannel tool
๏ 08 SXSW Zuckerberg Interview
berg K eynote
“ Zucker aos as
cends Into Ch
Des Over”
u dience Takes - Wired
A

27. - Cartoon Credit: Bitstrips.com

28. twitter used in
journalism

29. twitter used in
journalism
๏ Media using twitter: CNN, Reuters, BBC, ITN, etc.
๏ Rick Sanchez Example (http://twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn)
๏ Started during Hurricane Gustav
๏ Almost 27,000 followers; following 18,000
๏ Allows for on-air interaction with audience
๏ Get story ideas, leads

30. Rick Sanchez using twitter on air
- CNN anchor

31. twittering for
activism
๏ James Buck Example
๏ twittering yoursef out of jail

32. twittering for
activism
๏ James Buck Example
๏ twittering yoursef out of jail
Arrested

33. twittering for
public relations

34. twittering for
public relations
๏ monitoring conversations
๏ participating in conversations
๏ starting conversations
๏ providing product or service info
๏ Whole Foods example (http://twitter.com/wholefoods)
๏ promoting stories, news through twitterfeed
๏ feeds a blog to twitter

35. twittering for
president

36. twittering for
president
๏ Obama on twitter (most followed person)
๏ Hillary on twitter
๏ British Prime Minister on twitter
๏ Twitter in political communication:
๏ Interacting with constituents
๏ Increased transparency in the political process?

38. twittering in times
of crisis

39. twittering in times
of crisis
๏ twittering during a campus lockdown
๏ twittering about disasters
๏ Red Cross: providing statistics & directions
๏ twittering about wildfires
๏ LAFD: October 2007 California wildfires

40. your turn
create an account • follow class mates
• post 5 times in next 48 hours •
post about anything
- Thanks to Kay Sweetser for the 48 hrs twitter experiment

41. Credits Dr. Corinne Weisgerber
St. Edward’s University
Blog: http://socialmediaprclass.blogspot.com
Email: corinnew@stedwards.edu