Can You Hear Me Now?

1. Can You Hear Me Now? Communicating with Gen Y Mandy Reinig - Penn State - Altoona Jeramy Johnson - Academic Programs International (API)

2. Twitter Basics Originally a way to send text messages to a group of people Question to answer: "What are you doing?" Not a means of telling every move you make Keeping up with your field; broadcasting updates about your office Available to anyone; no experience necessary! Embrace the brevity It is a "social" medium Lists

3. Who is on Twitter Anyway? Some studies suggest that young people are not YET as engaged with Twitter.     Penny Schouten, quoting study from PMN suggesting only 1 in 5 “young people” are using Twitter Others disagree with these statistics     Geoff Cook, Tech Crunch; Others defined “teens” as anyone ages 2-24     Steven Johnson “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live” - not just another fad Bill Tancer, author of "Click: What Millions do Online and Why it Matters" noted that as late as 2008, the largest age group on Twitter was 35-44; however, according to a recent Pew Internet and American Life project, 37% of internet users 18-24 use Twitter, up from in 19% December 2008! Craig Watkins, a University of Texas professor and author of the book "The Young and the Digital" describes trend as"...a kind of closing of that generational gap as it relates to technology." In other words, young and old alike are joining the same networks and socializing in the same spaces. - Sarah Perez - ReadWriteWeb

5. Twitter Terminology Profile Tweet Retweet (RT) Hashtags (e.g. #NAFSA09VIII, PGCPGH4, etc.) Follow Direct Message (DM) @ symbol Locked Profile Lists - NEW!

6. More Twitter Terminology Twit - a person who uses Twitter Twitterverse - the Twitter service and the people using it Twitterazzi - Twitter paparazzi Twittionary - Twitter dictionary Tweetup - meeting (in person) of people you tweet with

8. Best Practices- Twitter Be conversational - limited space necessitates degree of informality Easier to have one-on-one conversations on Twitter Accepted practice to start a conversation with a stranger Don’t send a million tweets a day or all at once URL shortening a must Direct to external sites (homepage, blogs, news articles, applications) Monitoring software: Tweetdeck/Monitter/Twetizen/Ping

9. Best Practices- Twitter Put authenticity before marketing. Don’t use Twitter for RSS... too impersonal and “markety” It’s okay to have multiple Twitter accounts (Zappos, JetBlue, IFSA Butler, Asia/Euro/Austra-learn, API staff), but be careful of weakening your message with too many channels, and be sure all on same page Be nice, be thankful, list, and retweet -- Twitter karma :) From the article “10 Twitter Tips for Higher Education” - Heather Mansfield, University Business

10. Sample Twitter Conversation - Advising

11. Sample Twitter Conversation - Advising

14. Twitter Monitoring It’s okay to respond to general inquiries Use your account to post updates Avoid ‘barging in’ on conversations Can create special groups to monitor topics or issues Can monitor who is following you (spam, porn, get rich,etc) and block them! Follow more people than follow you Strategic following... keep on top of those in the field!

16. Advice... Expect growth to be slow, incremental (not “If you build it they will come...”). - but you must participate to have any growth Try not to spread yourself too thin (identify where your audience is and be there). Join the conversation, and speak the(ir) language. Once you have a Twitter presence, USE IT (Gen Y won’t wait forever!). Don’t overuse it (people may tune you out). Promote your sites (email signature, business cards, catalog/brochures, website, how did you hear about us, etc). “You must participate in the conversations - sometimes it is program promotion and sometimes it is sharing information or resources, but those who are honest in their communications or are transparent will be the most successful.” - Penny Schouten

17. Instant Messaging Making Advising Easier

18. Terms IM - Instant Message Status Buddy Screen Name Blocking Accounts

19. Practical Considerations What are the best ways to promote my accounts? What should my screen name be? How often should I be available? Should I set up multiple accounts? i.e. AOL, MSN, etc. Should I use an IM collection site? ex. Meebo

20. Example IM Conversation - Advising

21. Best Practices - IM Set up multiple accounts Use a IM collection site (ex. meebo) Reply back (seems simple but not everyone does) Be available Don't be afraid to send links Post a link to your IM on your website/e-mail

22. Twitter/IM These tools don't replace traditional advising - rather, they supplement it Great example by Mandy of sending a tweet that she was out of the office for the day but still available to advise electronically... Saves time Can direct students as they look at information Can send/point to links, pictures, forms, videos Can answer simple questions quickly Can be used to work with colleagues across the campus or country

23. What’s Next? iPhone apps Geocaching Interactive orientations Podcasts Texting Something else...

24. Helpful Resources "As Facebook Ages, Gen Y Turns to Twitter" - Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/as_facebook_ages_gen_y_turns_to_twitter.php “10 Twitter Tips for Higher Education” - Heather Mansfield, University Business - www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1285 “Facebook Driving Mobile Net Usage” - BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8149652.stm “Generation (WH)Y” - Kim Karalekas, from The Project 100 http://theproject100.wordpress.com/ “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live” - Steven Johnson, Time Magazine (7.5.09) - http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html International Higher Education Consulting Blog - David Comp - http://ihec-djc.blogspot.com “Managing an Online Reputation” - Kermit Pattison, The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/business/smallbusiness/30reputation.html?scp=3&sq=Kermit%20Pattison&st=cse

25. Helpful Resources “Social Networks Around the World” - Doug Coleman, ReadWriteWeb - www.readwriteweb.com/archives/post_2.php “Study Abroad in a Transparent World” - Presented by Penny Schouten and Sarah McNitt at the 2009 NAFSA Conference in Los Angeles, CA http://blog.academic-solutions.com “TXT Message - Behavior” - SETI.org podcast series “Are We Alone” quoting BJ Fogg, Ph.D. of Stanford Univeristy’s Persuasive Technology Lab. Wikipedia - for definitions on social networking “Why Don’t Teens Tweet? We asked over 10,000 of Them.” - Geoff Cook, Tech Crunch - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/30/why-dont-teens-tweet-we-asked-over-10000-of-them 8 Why Email No Longer Rules… …And what that means for the way we communicate” - Jessica Vascellaro - The Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970203803904574431151489408372.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter "Instant Connections" - Mandy Reinig and Penny Schouten - International Educator -http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/novdec09_edabroad.pdf Special thanks to Melissa Cech (Australearn), Michael Bova (API), Kim Karalekas (API), David Comp, Penny Schouten....

26. Questions

27. Mandy Reinig Education Abroad Advisor Penn State Altoona arr14@psu.edu Twitter-psuaaabroad AIM-psuaabroad Facebook- Penn State Altoona Education Abroad Jeramy Johnson Director of Programming & Communications Academic Programs International (API) jeramyj@academicintl.com Twitter-APIstudyabroad Facebook-APIstudyabroad Thank you!