Okay please can someone explain to me, in really simple terms (using sock puppets if necessary):-
What is Twitter?
What are the advantages and how can I use it effectively to promote the Sqn & ATC?.
We currently use a closed facebook to communicate to our cadets and a public facebook page for the wider community. However not all our cadets use facebook and ideally we would want an extra medium to communicate to parents. A lot of the cadets appear to have twitter but I need to try and get my head around it first before we can make better use of it and nobody understands it.
Twitter is a āmicro bloggingā service. That is, the premise is that you tell the world what you are doing in 140 characters or less and can attach photos etc.
It is an excellent medium to use to give live updates and photos of ongoing cadet activities, as well as share news stories etc.
I like it to , the old ticker tape that rolls along the screen with headlines etc, we also have our tweets automatically shown on our web page for the non twitter savvyā¦
[quote=āChief Techā post=11610]Okay please can someone explain to me, in really simple terms (using sock puppets if necessary):-
What is Twitter?
What are the advantages and how can I use it effectively to promote the Sqn & ATC?.
We currently use a closed facebook to communicate to our cadets and a public facebook page for the wider community. However not all our cadets use facebook and ideally we would want an extra medium to communicate to parents. A lot of the cadets appear to have twitter but I need to try and get my head around it first before we can make better use of it and nobody understands it.
Any help gratefully received. :?[/quote]
Hi,
Think of twitter as sending a text message. Over time, you build up followers who have an interest in what youāre saying.
The advantages are simple: you have potential to promote your squadron to a wide range of people, including potential cadets/staff and the Commandant. It allows you to reach out to other squadrons/wings and providing an insight into the squadron, their achievements and news.
Think of twitter and ātweetingā like writing a very short message on a post-it note and sticking it in the window of an empty shop on a busy city street.
ā¦billions of people the world over wonāt even know itās there; thousands may be aware of it but wonāt bother to read it; a few might have a look and decide to watch the window for future, pointless, post-it note messages. Some will tell their friends to look out for the window.
Iāve fallen out of love with my personal account, but the Sqn account is really useful.
Itās short, to the point, can add photos and you can talk directly to some high up people - the Cmdt AC interacts directly with you which is a nice touch.
Lots of other military units there and afiliated things. Really quick to respond to stuff and is great for live tweeting
Yes, the Commandant was following the account for one of our expeditions.
Iāve got a twitter account myself but Iāve only posted about 6 tweets. I only signed up so that I could retweet a photo which actor Ralph Brown took of a group of us when I met him.
Thank you to everyone - its made things a little clearer. Basically Twitter is for informal media between Sqn Events (I think), for events as they happen. ( a sort of instant reporting) Iāve been practicing a bit but still seam to be getting slow info but Iāll keep playing.
What is the best way to utilise #tags? I know that there is #kenthour & #sussexhour - is it worth joining onto these to promote Sqn activities or are they best avoided?
I also thought about getting the cadets to retweet from their private accounts or have a group of Sqn Official Tweeters - is this worth doing or it a waste of time?
Sorry for all the questions - grappling with 21st Century Technology and figuring out how to get the best out of it (also is it worth creating lists or not really?)
#tags group things together. The ACO uses #Whatwedo so that people can search for it and see everything the ACO has to offer, but theyāre mostly used to classify tweets. You could be live tweeting from a range and use #shooting, which might get the attention of shootist not currently in the ACO for example.
If you set up an account, cadets will RT what they want to anyway. Donāt force them to, but make it relevant to them and theyāll share it. Sometimes it is worth getting one of them to tweet from the Sqn account (with supervision!) to get a different perspective on the activities.
I donāt bother with lists - but it could be useful so that you can easily see updates from Sqns in one list, the RAf teams in another for example.
