Recently, a friend of mine drew my attention to the telegram age and why he felt that Twitter, just like other social network platforms, is a metaphor for the telegram. The telegram is a long-distance transmission of strictly textual messages. While it lasted, telegraph companies charged by the number of words in a message, with a ceiling of 15 characters per word in a plain language telegram, and 10 per word in one with code. The cost varied, depending on size and destination.
As of 1965, an average 12-word to 15-word telegram cost an equivalent of $3.69. The shortest telegram in the English language is credited to the Irish writer, Oscar Wilde, when, from his Paris abode, he cabled his publisher in Britain to see how his new book was doing. The message simply read: “?” And his publisher replied: “!”
Despite the hundreds of messaging apps today, the 163-year-old telegram has managed to survive. The last official telegram was reportedly sent on July 15, 2013! However, some folks are still stuck with it in India. Twitter, is, no doubt, the closest of the new media tools to the telegram in terms of word limit. Twitter today is one social media force that cannot be ignored, given the level of connectedness it allows. There are several gigabytes of articles out there on how to use Twitter and the basis of its use. My interest lies in the several other Twitter-related applications and sites and some not-so-common information about this app that has made Homo sapiens to share tweeting characteristics with birds.
Last Monday was the International Youth Day. As expected, many government organisations, non-profits and young people globally took to the platform to raise awareness about this year’s theme — Youth migration, moving development forward.
Two prominent hash tags trended while it lasted. They are #IYDAfrica and #IYD2013. For starters, a hash tag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the ‘#’ symbol. It is a means of grouping tweets and it is searchable. The #IYDAfrica, initiated by YouthHub Africa and in which I participated, was a product of planning. We had moderators and there were panelists drawn from across many countries such as Poland, Tunisia, The Netherlands, Zambia and the United States. Organisations and individuals can deploy Twitter in this form for professional use during memorials and other events.
To achieve your goal, set an agenda for the event by telling people what would be happening and what you would have them do. Design graphics and press releases with specifics of the conference in the same way you would for a real world event. Create a buzz around it and ask friends who would be participating to also do same. On the set date, ensure that your moderators are available and have Internet service back-up and fully-charged devices. After the conference, use tweetreach.com to evaluate and know how far your tweets went. It would tell you the estimated reach, the impressions and the number of activities (tweet, retweets). It would also let you know the top contributors and the most retweeted tweets; while at the same time giving you the tweets’ timeline and the list of contributors.
There is also a tad of timing issues when it comes to the use of twitter. Professionals should know that the highest volume of retweets happens between 3pm and 7pm, with the most retweeting time of the day being 4pm. The Twitter conference for the #IYDAfrica was set at 3pm GMT (4pm Nigerian time). It, however, does not mean that with the right publicity, successful twitter deployment cannot also happen outside this period.
For the individual professional, whatever it is you are interested in or into, search possible hash tags for it and follow the people who have tweeted using such hash tags. It’s also tidy to treat your tweets as part of your curriculum vitae. Users also need to ensure they are retweetable both in terms of content and in terms of space. NJI Media research shows that 53 per cent of twitter users retweet other users, while 57 per cent of retweets include a link. It’s good to always leave about four character spaces needed for ‘RT:’ to be added to your tweet(s). In some quarters, the rule is to refuse to see twitter as a 140- character micro-blogging site, but instead that of 125 characters. This is to encourage people to add comments to the retweets and increase your exposure.
And there is that part when you also need to tweet consistently and not constantly, especially if it’s not a serious social issue of sort. You do not want people asking if you have a job! If you can’t afford to be rude in the real world, then do not be rude or overly sarcastic on twitter. If someone hits you hard, it easy, simply ‘unfollow’ the person, instead of throwing darts. You can also do a self-assessment on Twitter to know how well your tweets or retweets are faring using the Twitter grader orklout.
Research also shows that it pays to include your links in the middle of the tweets and not at the end, since it would look different and appeal to the eyes well enough to elicit action. It’s perfect to use a URL shortener like bitly.com to conserve space (it reduces the link to fewer letters without compromising the destination of the link).
Twitter serves good purposes at conferences, workshops and training. In this age, it is wrong to send pre-information to participants without sending them a hash tag with which they can start discussions around issues that will be talked about at the workshop. During the training itself, it is also good to encourage participants to continue the discussions and ask questions using the hash tag. The after and between sessions can get livelier when the backchannels and tweets are displayed on the projector. My favourite for this is www.visibletweets.com. I was introduced to it by a senior colleague and the view is amazing. Simply log on to the site and key in the hash tag being used and the site aggregates them and starts beaming same on the screen, depending on the animation you choose – letter by letter, tag cloud or rotation. Others that can serve same purpose are tweetwally and twitterfall.
PowerPoint is mostly deployed by professionals during presentation. It can also have tweets embedded the same way videos, charts and pictures are embedded in PowerPoint slides. But first, users would need to install the liveweb PowerPoint add-in plug before this can function. Thereafter, the URL is copied and pasted in the display mode of the slide from where the live tweets would be displayed and set to refresh automatically.
And to see who unfollowed you, use www.useqwitter.com; not forgetting Twuffer that allows users compose future tweets and schedule their release. It is not an exhaustive list. I tweet @SolaFagro and you can share others with me.
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Sola Fagorusi is a youth development advocate, freelance writer, accomplished debater cum coach. The Obafemi Awolowo
‘Sola Fagorusi
University graduate has about 10 years experience in social entrepreneurship which straddles leadership, good governance cum anti-corruption and adolescent reproductive health. The Leap Africa alumnus is also a trained peer educator, a DESPLAY alumnus and co-facilitator. For 2 years now, he has been a technical consultant and lead judge on the Intra-Faith Peace Youth TV Debate Project facilitated by Youngstars Foundation and the British High Commission. To read his full profile, click here
