Twitter for educators

If you looked at my resume three years ago, you would think I spent all day on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and in the deep, dark back rooms of various social media websites.  You'd be compelled to ask, "Exactly what does a social media manager do?"

Give me a dollar for every time someone told me, "I really don't get Twitter," or "Do people really pay attention to those social media details?" and I would roll in the digital dough.  There are innumerable resources out there detailing the tutorials necessary for getting started on social media networks, but many in education are still left in the dark as to what they all mean.  Consider this your glossary:

For the first installment of my social media advice series, let's focus on the most confusing of all social media outlets: Twitter. What is it? Why use it? How to use it.

What is it? Micro-blogging, zinger-perfecting, short and documented conversing for easy idea-sharing.

Why use it? Use Twitter to share AND consume ideas, information, news, and to foster relationships with others in your professions or interest groups.  You have interests and you have goals for joining Twitter: narrow down what they are.

How to use it? Ask yourself what is important in your general life and try to stay within those bounds in your first months on Twitter. No one is rushing you to have a thousand followers or to be the expert on sixteen industries at once. Making the mistake to cover too much ground will lead you to over-tweet and to become an undesirable person to follow.  Additionally, don't be selfish.  When you tweet and tweet and tweet and never converse with anyone, you send the message that you are gracing us with your presence in the Twitter world.  Social media has the capacity to mimic real-life situation, at least to the extent that we can draw analogies. Don't tweet like these characters:

• The broadcaster: like the loud guy at the office holiday party who has story after story to tell, leaving zero room for contribution on the airwaves.  Avoid having this Twitter personality by reaching out to people who follow you, retweeting with others have shared, and spending the time to genuinely read and comment on what others have shared.  It's not a real-life conversation, but it can mimic one.
• The pleader: follows 500 people per day, gives them 24 hours to follow back, and then unfollows them when they do not, moving on to the next batch of consumers.  High numbers of followers matter nil if you have little to share or collaborate.  These people tend to add "Please RT" or "please retweet" to their tweets, which bothers me.  If your content is compelling, your followers will retweet it.
• The fair-weather tweeter: I'm entirely guilty of this right now.  This person gets excited and engaged in the first few days, petering off shortly thereafter.  They come back to Twitter world when they remember they set up that account X moons ago. Or they return when they have something they really need to share, so they pop in, tweet out, and go back into hiding.  Is anyone reading that random tweet that shows up next to the unfamiliar profile picture on your home feed? No. Is anyone going to remember to loop you into the conversation when they need your opinion about a topic of interest to you? No.  The bottom line is that you should be as consistent as you can be with your social media accounts.  Set a goal for how often you will tweet and read and comment on others' tweets.  

Example uses for those in education:

Schools can use Twitter to blast out important information. They should, however, also use it to loop in the community surrounding the school. It should not be exclusively a place for parents to see if there is a snow closing or for reminders about parent-teacher conference day. Twitter offers schools a chance to create a face and a personality in the community.  Tweet out "overheard at X school" quotes throughout the day. Post pictures of student work (without names or faces).  If there is a cool cloud forming outside your front office, snap a photo! You'll be surprised to learn how many things you can find to draw people into the fold.  These "human interest" tweets may be easily cross-posted on Facebook or Instagram, as well.  Consistency is key.  Even when no one is responding to your posts, keep them coming.  You develop credibility over time, slowly, like the tortoise.

Principals can follow similar protocols as schools, but have the flexibility to inject more of their own personality into the mix.  You provide a place where parents may feel that they have a personal connection with their child's principal, though it should be noted that Twitter is not a replacement for real-life connections.  Twitter is your portal for public relations and where you can nestle into your niche.  Pick a few key topics on which you want to focus: PBL, technology in the classroom, arts in the school.  Make a goal to post at least once a day and retweet others at least three times a week.

Teachers should determine if they want their Twitter accounts to be private, so parents feel more comfortable getting specific news about their child's classroom from a private account, or public so they can help schools and principals grow their social media presence.  When you make your account private, only those whose permission you grant may see what you post.  They cannot retweet your posts, either, so your content will remain safe.  This option, however, prevents you from supporting your principal and school in the greater Twitter world. Anything of theirs that you retweet will only go out to those previously approved followers, who are likely already following the school and principal.