150 TWITTER TIPS FOR EDUCATORS

A few years ago Billy Krakower, Scott Rocco, and I wrote 140 Twitter Tips for Educators. At the time, it was a much needed guide for those who were looking to enhance their effectiveness as an educator or brand their classroom, school or district. Fast forward to the present, Twitter is still one of the go-to platforms for educators that are to share best practices or tell their stories. Thousands of copies of 140 Twitter Tips have been sold worldwide to educators from all walks of life. Recently, a group educators from South Carolina purchased 140 Twitter Tips for Educators in bulk and immediately put into place key strategies that not only elevated their own effectiveness but ultimately promoted the success of students.

Social media has impacted the educational world in so many wonderful ways over the past several years. Arguably, much has stayed the same, but there are some new twists that both veterans and new comers alike should take note of as it relates to staying connected and sharing on a platform like Twitter. Below you will find 10 new tips that we have added to the long list of 140. Feel free to leave other tips in the comment section of this blog post that you find useful and could potentially benefit our readers.

Tip #141 - Stay current with those that you follow and those that follow you. It’s important to know that a few bad apples do exist and are poor reflection of the educational community as a whole. Do your homework and don’t be afraid to unfollow, block, or disengage.

Tip #142 - Users now have 280 characters to get their points across, up from the 140 characters from a few years ago. People love brevity, so continue to keep your points short and to the point.

Tip #143 - Got something more to say? You can add a tweet to your original tweet by simply clicking the plus sign in the lower right hand corner of the compose box on the Twitter iPhone app.

Tip #144 - At this point in time, Twitter has put a pause on verifying (blue check mark) high profile accounts. Just be aware that there have been a number of instances where people were being verified and they probably should not of been in the first place. In fact, there are still some folks out there that are verified and for whatever ridiculous reason have not had the status revoked. Twitter could definitely do a better job of checking the verification status of some of its users.

​Tip #145 - Share live video with great ease. When we first wrote this book apps like Periscope were the only way to blast out live footage from your Twitter account. Now for example, if you are on the iPhone app you can simply tap the compose button and then tap the camera icon. From there simply tap on “live” on the lower part of the screen and tap “ready to go live” to actually go live.

​Tip #146 - Add Emojis to your Twitter profile through the Twitter app. Have a little fun and show your true colors. Simply tap on edit profile and tap on where you want to add the emoji.

Tip #147 - When presenting at a faculty meeting, district inservice, or at a conference make sure to include your Twitter handle and corresponding hashtag on the slides. Best practice would be to have these items located at the bottom of most slides so people can engage with you during or after the presentation.

Tip #148 - A cool little hack or app smash you can try out is to create a slide on the Google Slide app that contains an inspirational image and/or quote. Then take a screen shot, crop image and save to your camera roll. Then tweet out to your followers.

Tip #149 - Gone are the days where there are only a few educational Twitter hashtags or chats. There are literally thousands now, which is a good thing and a not so good thing. Use the search box on Twitter to find content specific to your interests. #Satchat is still alive and strong after all these years. Come join us each Saturday morning from 7:30 - 8:30 AM EST and share your thoughts on the given topic of the day.

Tip #150 - Start a digital storytelling club or as an extension of yearbook club have students take pictures and tweet out from the club’s Twitter handle. I got this tip from Black River Middle School’s wonderful art teacher Sarah Smith. Students use a club issued iPhone that has the Buffer app downloaded so that they can compose tweet with accompanying picture but not actually tweet out. The next step has Mrs. Smith check over the tweet in the Buffer feed. Finally, once approved, the tweet is scheduled to be sent out. Definitely a neat way to students involved in the process of telling their school’s story.