Quick Tips to Manage Twitter
By Matt Scott
Communicator
July 2015, Volume 38, Issue 11
Watching the Twitter feed roll by with everything else you are following can be mind-boggling. But according to social media mavens Dan Butler and Theresa Stager, with the right tools, you can efficiently use Twitter to connect with other professionals and provide yourself with free professional development. Butler and Stager recently presented on this issue at NAESP’s Best Practices for Better Schools Annual Conference in Long Beach, California. They explained that to strengthen your personal learning network (PLN) through Twitter, you must filter the information you are viewing.
1. Use an Online Tool
To help organize your Twitter feed, Butler and Stager recommended using an online tool. They use TweetDeck, which helps users track and organize incoming tweets and, also helps you to engage with your PLN.
2. Follow Branded Hashtags
Hashtags group Twitter posts by topic. Viewing Twitter posts according to hashtags allows you to view only the information you want, at any given time. In TweetDeck, for example, you can personalize the view by creating multiple columns, which allows you to view multiple hashtag at the same time.
Butler and Stager provided these examples of branded hashtags:
Top Resource:
Dan Butler’s TweetDeck Tutorial Explains how to use the tool, create columns, and use it to follow chats.
- #NAESP15 – NAESP’s Best Practices for Better Schools Annual Conference
- #principalpln – National Principal Personal Learning Network chat
- #IAedchat – Iowa Ed Chat
As a school principal, I want to continue to grow as a professional. I can already see the benefits of using Tweetdeck to help me organize my world of Twitter.
Matt Scott is principal at Creekside Elementary in Harvest, Alabama.
Visit NAESP’s Conference News Archives to see more highlights from this year’s conference.
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