According to the Global Language Monitor, the most popular word of 2009 was "twitter." We are not talking about a small succession of tremulous bird sounds here folks! We are talking real-time, worldwide, game changing mass communication in the form of microblogging.
Note: This Thing is extensive. You may not have time to explore everything in detail. Please spend half of the time (1/2 hour) reading and exploring links, and the other half (1/2 hour) working on the assignments and blogging about what you have learned.
Microblogging is a form of blogging that allows users to send short text updates to a website that aggregates them for viewing by a specified group or by the public. These updates can be submitted using text messages, mobile websites, audio, the microblog host site, or other compatible sites.
Twitter is one of the most popular microblogging sites. According to RJMetrics, Twitter had just over 75 million user accounts at the end of 2009. A large percentage of the accounts are inactive, but the heavy users (usually people who stay with the service longer than one week) are loyal and highly engaged "tweeters."
In the beginning, Twitter emerged as a tool for communication with friends and family. Many considered it a time-waster because updates were of a personal nature. A year later, in 2007, the true potential of Twitter emerged as people started using it for a current awareness and information tool. Since then, Twitter has gained traction and become a power tool for business, government, education, news media, politics, public relations, health care and almost every other field you can imagine. Here are some examples of how businesses have used Twitter to increase sales and connect with customers.
Twitter Basics
It's really quite simple. Twitter users submit updates, or 'tweets,' which are 140 characters or less in length. Users can also 'follow' other users' updates. Twitter is not tied to any one computer, so users can post and read tweets from any web-enabled computer or mobile device. Twitter is free.
This video from Commoncraft explains Twitter in plain English.
Even though we just learned how simple Twitter is, things are going to get technical for a moment. As an "aggressively open company" Twitter encourages developers to create applications with its API (Application Programming Interface). By manipulating the data stream (gazillions of tweets), programmers have created more than 50,000 third party internet and mobile applications! This flexibility is what makes Twitter such a powerful service. Here are some examples of the creative ways developers have been making the data in Twitter more useful and more accessible. "Apps" galore!
Why would I use Twitter?
The reasons are endless, but here a few practical uses.
1. Deals, coupons and contests (this tweet is from Sun Country Airlines)
1. Deals, coupons and contests (this tweet is from Sun Country Airlines)
4. Snow emergencies (this tweet is from MinneapolisSnow)
5. News of any kind: (this tweet is from MinnesotaTwins)
As you can see, Twitter is a valuable tool even if you don't tweet!
How is Twitter being used in health care?
One of the first and most publicized uses of Twitter in health care was educational "tweeting during surgery." Henry Ford Hospital and Aurora Health Care tweeted along with live broadcasts of a knee replacement and a robotic partial nephrectomy. Students watched the surgery online, followed the tweets from the surgeons and tweeted in with questions. You can watch the news coverage of the Aurora surgery here.
Hundreds of hospitals are now using Twitter for marketing, recruiting, events, news, and sharing of health information. This is one of the largest uses of Twitter in health care for the time being. Considering the flexibility of the Twitter platform, and the goal of patient-centered care, more practical uses will certainly emerge in the near future, along with solutions to work around the unique challenges that health care creates (i.e. patient confidentiality).
Ideas for Twitter in health care that are already in use:
1. Gathering medical information (this link is a social network list for health care professionals)
2. Quitter: A tool to help people quit smoking
3. Tweet What You Eat: A tool to track what you eat and how much you weigh
4. Sugar Stats: An online diabetes management service that integrates with Twitter
5. A Missouri hospital uses highway billboards to promote its Twitter feed which provides constant updates on ER wait times
6. Health organizations such as the Red Cross and CDC use Twitter for up to the minute emergency or disaster information
7. Patients can find clinical trials by tweeting their profile to TrialX
8. Conference updates are tweeted and archived
Here are a few other tidbits you need to know about:
1. Usernames always have a '@' before them. Ours is @RegionsLibrary.
2. Retweeting (RT for short) means that you repost another user's tweet and give them credit.
3. You can send someone a public message or respond directly to their tweet by using @Username in your tweet (this is known as a 'reply')
4. Hashtags are used to categorize posts around a certain topic (i.e. '#haiti' is embedded in tweets about Haiti)
5. Tools such as bit.ly, tinyURL, is.gd or tr.im can be used to shorten URL links to content that you want to include in your tweet.
Additional Resources:
1. The Twitter Guidebook. Pretty much everything you need to know about Twitter. Brought to you by Mashable.Com.
2. Twitter 101 for Business. A guide for businesses who are using, or thinking about using Twitter. Brought to you by...Twitter.
3. 140 Healthcare Uses for Twitter. This blog post from Phil Baumann is now over a year old, but his creative ideas will help you start thinking about new ways Twitter could be used.
4. The Twitter Experiment This 5 minute video shows how Twitter is used in a college history class to involve more students in class discussions.
5. Darren Rowse's Twitter Tips for Beginners This video is 40 minutes, but full of good information.
6. Lee Aase's Social Media University Global (SMUG) This is an online class from the Social Media Manager at Mayo Clinic.
Assignment
1. Visit Twitter and type a search term into the box labeled "See what people are saying about..." or click on one of the "popular topics" in the bottom portion of the screen. Browse through the most recent tweets and pay attention to how quickly more tweets are added as people all over the world tweet about your topic. Sometimes Twitter is the fastest way to get information about an event that just occurred. Last summer when a tornado hit the Twin Cities, Twitter was the fastest way to determine its current location and the damage it had caused. Read this short article about citizen media reporting using microblogging after the Hudson plane landing.
2. Sign up for a free Twitter account. If you would like more information about how to set up your account and start using it, here is a helpful video from Howcast. Be sure to fill out your profile information. Your name and username will always be visible to Twitter users, but you may choose whether to keep your updates (tweets) private or public. If you decide to keep your tweets private, they can only be seen by your approved friends. Play around with the design of your page and add a profile photo if you have one on hand.
3. Write a few tweets. Try retweeting an interesting article from the web.
4. Find some people or organizations to follow. You can use Twitter's search feature ("Find People"), check out Just Tweet It for some ideas, or invite your friends via email and follow them. If you don't know where begin, you can start by following Regions Hospital Medical Library and Regions Hospital...and then follow the people they follow...and then follow the people they follow, etc.
5. Find a fellow 8 Things participant's Twitter stream and reply to one of their tweets.
3. 140 Healthcare Uses for Twitter. This blog post from Phil Baumann is now over a year old, but his creative ideas will help you start thinking about new ways Twitter could be used.
4. The Twitter Experiment This 5 minute video shows how Twitter is used in a college history class to involve more students in class discussions.
5. Darren Rowse's Twitter Tips for Beginners This video is 40 minutes, but full of good information.
6. Lee Aase's Social Media University Global (SMUG) This is an online class from the Social Media Manager at Mayo Clinic.
Assignment
1. Visit Twitter and type a search term into the box labeled "See what people are saying about..." or click on one of the "popular topics" in the bottom portion of the screen. Browse through the most recent tweets and pay attention to how quickly more tweets are added as people all over the world tweet about your topic. Sometimes Twitter is the fastest way to get information about an event that just occurred. Last summer when a tornado hit the Twin Cities, Twitter was the fastest way to determine its current location and the damage it had caused. Read this short article about citizen media reporting using microblogging after the Hudson plane landing.
2. Sign up for a free Twitter account. If you would like more information about how to set up your account and start using it, here is a helpful video from Howcast. Be sure to fill out your profile information. Your name and username will always be visible to Twitter users, but you may choose whether to keep your updates (tweets) private or public. If you decide to keep your tweets private, they can only be seen by your approved friends. Play around with the design of your page and add a profile photo if you have one on hand.
3. Write a few tweets. Try retweeting an interesting article from the web.
4. Find some people or organizations to follow. You can use Twitter's search feature ("Find People"), check out Just Tweet It for some ideas, or invite your friends via email and follow them. If you don't know where begin, you can start by following Regions Hospital Medical Library and Regions Hospital...and then follow the people they follow...and then follow the people they follow, etc.
5. Find a fellow 8 Things participant's Twitter stream and reply to one of their tweets.
Address the following in your blog
Include your Twitter name in your blog entry so other class participants and the librarians can follow your tweets.
What topics were popular when you were searching Twitter?
How was your experience of setting up a Twitter account?
Have your impressions of Twitter changed since learning more about it? How?
What do you think about microblogging in general? Love it? Hate it? Explain.
Why did you choose this thing?
How much time did it take you to complete this thing?
**Extra Challenge**
1. Make a Twitter badge and add it to your blog.
2. If you have a smart phone, try adding a Twitter application so you can tweet on the go.
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