Using Twitter

Twitter is a global conversation made up of messages of 140 characters or less. While potentially daunting to newcomers, it’s easy to get to grips with, and a really fun and effective way of communicating with people about the work you’re carrying out as part of Green Impact. Don’t hesitate to contact our Communications Assistant Russell Warfield with any questions you have about Twitter.

Getting Started

Setting up a Twitter account is very simple. Just go to and you’ll find a box encouraging you to sign up towards the bottom right of the screen. Pick a suitable username (e.g. GI_BristolUniversity) and upload a picture (the new Green Impact logo would be perfect!) and you’re ready to go.

After being taken through a brief tutorial, you’ll see something like this:

This is your dashboard – the main page of your account.

Towards the top left, you’ll notice a bar inviting you to ‘Compose new Tweet’. This is where you can type a message up to 140 characters in length known as a ‘Tweet’. This can be a throwaway thought, a piece of news, a joke, an idea, an invite to an upcoming event – whatever you want!

In the bigger column down the right hand side are messages which have been Tweeted by users who you follow (for the purposes of this example, the above screenshot is following a few popstars). Think about who you might want to follow – your Students’ Union, local green blogs, local green charities and initiatives, student volunteer organisations, environmental related societies are all really good places to start. Knowing what users like this are Tweeting keeps you abreast of their activity, and affords you the opportunity to interact with them and perhaps create mutually beneficial relationships. Search for other users in the search bar at the top of the screen, slightly right of centre.

Helpful Terminology

Tweet

A Tweet is a message of 140 characters or less, which will appear in the feeds of people who follow you, but are also publically viewable to anyone who might want to seek it out.

Example: “We’re all excited for the Green Impact Awards this Friday at the Macadam Hall!”

Retweet

This is achieved by clicking a little icon akin to a recycling icon which you’ll see below Tweets. People click it if they wish to literally repeat that message, unaltered, from their own account. The original ‘Tweeter’ is credited, of course. Typically, a user would do this if they agree with the sentiment, find the Tweet funny, or something of that nature (in this respect, it is a fairly close cousin to ‘liking’ someone’s status on Facebook).

Getting retweeted is a great way of appearing on the feeds of people who don’t already follow you, and retweeting other people is a great way of both sharing interesting content with your followers (the more interesting your output, the more followers you’re likely to get) as well as getting noticed by the user you’re retweeting.

Hashtag

If you include what’s known as a hashtag in your Tweet, this helps group Tweets into global conversations. During the World Cup, for instance, a person might Tweet something like “What a goal! #worldcup”. This is a tool which allows you to become part of a global conversation around the World Cup. If you click on a hashtagged phrase in any Tweet, you’re presented with a feed comprised of all Tweets containing that hashtag. This allows you to easily see instant global reactions to certain events, or just see Tweets centred around a certain conversation topic. (The most popular hashtags at any given time are said to be ‘trending’, and a list of these can be seen on the left hand side of your dashboard.

Piggybacking off existing hashtags, or cultivating your own when appropriate, is a great way of getting involved inwider conversations. Hence, you get noticed by more new people, and are liable to gain more new followers.

Example: “We’re looking forward to the Green Impact Awards this Thursday! #GIawards2012”

Example: “Just installed our own compost bin out the back of the office kitchens! #composting”

Replies/Mentions

Next to the retweet option is an option to Reply to any given Tweet. This is, as ever, publically viewable, but is brought to the immediate attention of that user. Similarly, you can Mention users within any given Tweet, by including their username preceded by the @ symbol. (A reply will start with the user’s username preceded by the @ symbol, automatically: “@russellwarfield I totally agree!”)

Example: “Really excited to meet with @peopleandplanet later this week!”

The main objective of using Twitter in the capacity of Green Impact – aside from providing interesting and relevant communications to people already following you – is to aim to gain more and more new followers. Always think of your Tweets as being part of a conversation – ask questions, rather than just make statements (“Who’s excited for the Awards Ceremony this Friday?” rather than “Awards Ceremony this Friday!”); make sure you build relationships with other relevant users, and try to keep your Tweets self contained, informative and witty to maximise their chance of being retweeted. Before long, you’ll be swept up in all the fun that Twitter can be, as well as discovering it to be an invaluable communications tool.