A beginners guide to a ‘tweet’

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For those who are new to Twitter (and those not) a ‘tweet’ can be a confusing thing. So, reproduced from EdTEchSandyK‘s website is the ‘anatomy of a tweet’:

Anatomy of a Tweet
EdTechSandyK: How to Decode a Tweet

Does that explain it? No, then how about this?

  • When you say something on Twitter … that’s a Tweet.
  • You have 140 characters for your tweet, and that includes spaces, hyphens, quote marks, links, etc.
  • Your tweet is seen by everyone on Twitter and on the Internet … but only if they know you or search for something you said.
  • You can follow people, and they can follow you. By following someone their tweets will appear in your timeline.
  • If someone says something you like, you can re-tweet (RT) it to your followers.
  • If someone likes something you said, they can RT it their followers.
  • If someone follows you, you are now a member of their network – their personal learning network (PLN). If you follow someone else, they are now part of your PLN.
  • Use a hashtag – this acts like a canned search term and your tweet will appear in anyone’s timeline who is searching that hashtag term. Hashtags are often used for the backchannel at events, activities, classes, etc.
  • Twitter is a conversation, not just a broadcast – engage with others, follow them, re-tweet them, share, and be shared.

Please see some of my previous posts on Twitter, and how it can (or can’t) help you as a teacher / educator: