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Twitter

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. While the service costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)

Departments Using Twitter

One of the most widely used government applications of Twitter is for emergency notification and public safety. Police can post crime updates, fire departments can inform citizens about local fires, and state departments of transportation can announce traffic alerts. The Los Angeles Fire Department provides citizens with updates on structural fires, offering information on the number of responding firefighters as well as the number of injuries and casualties. Twitter has also been used by the public sector to establish a dialog between citizens and the government. It is most commonly used for alerts, announcements, event, new offerings, questions, and news.

Twitter is being used by several agencies, including the California Department of Food and Agriculture and Franchise Tax Board to announce press releases and news about programs and services. The California Department of Motor Vehicles is interacting with customers on Twitter, answering questions from drivers. The Governor's Office uses Twitter to engage with citizens, answer their questions, and report news. Twitter was used by the Secretary of State to push out ballot results using hashtag #caelect09.

California's official Twitter account is www.twitter.com/cagovernment. Other departments and agencies using Twitter are available on the CA.gov website http://www.ca.gov/multimedia_blogs_twitter.html. If you would like your name added to the listing, please contact us mailto:info@eservices.ca.gov.

Getting Started With Twitter

  1. Signup for a free Twitter account at https://twitter.com/. Your username will be your profile name. For example, our user name is cagovernment, and our profile is @cagovernment or www.twitter.com/cagovernment.
  2. Choose a strong password with numbers, letters, and symbols. Make your password difficult to reduce the chances of being hacked. Change your password occasionally and don't use the same password for everything.
  3. Complete your profile at http://twitter.com/account/settings, including your bio, website address, and profile picture. Filling in your profile information will help people find you on Twitter. Make sure you provide a link to your Twitter account from your agency website -- this helps confirm to people that your Twitter site is official.
  4. Change the design at http://twitter.com/account/profile_settings. If you do not have a custom background for your department, please use this one provided by the Governor's Office (instead of using one of Twitter's default backgrounds).

    5. Twitter Background Template: download

    To use this background, go to the "Design" tab in your account "Settings."

    Change background image >> upload attached image (leave “tile background” unchecked)

    Change design colors >> Click on colors and replace old image number with new number for each color area (background, text, links, sidebar, sidebar border).

    background: 495E7B
    text: 333333
    links: CC0000
    sidebar: CDBE96
    sidebar border: 85723F

  5. Your Twitter profile is public by default. If you are still working on your design, bio, etc., you can protect your profile until you are ready to go live. Remember to unprotect it later so your updates can get into search.
  6. Find people to follow. You can search by name, or visit www.twitter.com/cagovernment to see who we are following.
  7. Start tweeting. In general, stick to your area of expertise. Know your audience and keep your content consistent. Try to post meaningfully and respectfully – in other words, do not spam and do not make remarks that are off-topic or offensive. Always pause and think before posting. Don’t use Twitter to blast off press releases; think conversation. Here are some things you could tweet about:

    - Share links and resources.
    - Share information about your agency.
    - Reach out to people who use your services.
    - Talk about upcoming events.
    - Ask questions

  8. Let the eServices Office know what your profile is. We want to make sure we link to all of the State Twitter accounts from the main account: www.twitter.com/cagovernment.

Twitter Term

Here are a few Twitter terms to help you get started.

  • @replies (also known as "mentions") - Use an @ sign in front of a Twitter username to reply to someone, refer to them, or direct a new message to someone. You can see all the tweets directed to you (i.e., mentioning you) by clicking on the @username link when you are signed on to Twitter. @replies are not private. (Example: @cagovernment)

  • Direct Message (DM) - Use a DM in front of a username if you would like to send private messages. @DM replies are private.

  • Retweeting (RT) - Retweeting means you are sharing someone else's tweet with your followers. To retweet something, you would type an RT in front of the username of the person you are retweeeting. (Example: RT @cagovernment)

  • Hashtags (#) - Hashtags are an easy way to follow conversations about different topics. You can follow them via Twitter search. For example, "What is your idea for good government? #myidea4ca" would be grouped in searches with other tweets using that #myidea4ca hashtag. To create a hashtag, use the number sign (#) in front of your keyword.

  • #followfriday - Every Friday, Twitter users recommend others they should follow by including their username and #followfriday or #FF in a tweet. On Friday's you may see a tweet full of usernames, which is good way to find new people or organizations to follow. Recommending tweeters you enjoy will also help you get more followers.

  • Following someone means receiving their Twitter updates. When you follow someone, their updates will appear on your homepage (when you login).

  • Followers are people who are receiving your updates. Your updates will appear on their homepage when they are logged in. Followers can read your updates, as well as anyone else who comes across your homepage.

Tips

  • URL Shorteners - Because of the 140 character limit of each tweet, it can be difficult to include full URLs in a message. There are many free services that allow you to convert a long URL into a shorter one. For example: Bit.ly and tinyurl.

  • Frequency: Most recommend a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 10 tweets per working days, with a gap between tweets to avoid flooding your followers' Twitter streams. Not counting @replies or live coverage of a crisis or event.

  • Retweetable: Even though tweets can be as long as 140, try to restrict your tweets to less than that to allow other sufficient space for others to share (or RT) your tweets.

  • Following/Follow-Back: Some agencies choose to follow everyone who follows them, and others choose to follow only governmental, non-profit organizations, or other relevant organizations.

Resources