Social Media

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows users to post short messages that show up in the Twitter feeds of the people who choose to follow your account. Twitter offers instantly updated information for just about anything you can imagine.

Here's the catch: Twitter allows only 140 characters per post, called a tweet, so tap into your creative side to make your message fit.

What can Twitter do for me?

Twitter is an effective tool for CUI organizations and departments that need to share frequent content about meetings, events, news, and even emergency information. Twitter is a free tool that allows for lead generation, customer relationship management, public relations, reputation management, knowledge management and engaging conversations with people all around the globe.

What about Twitter?

You can apply many of the same guidelines that apply to Facebook to Twitter. When creating a twitter account for a school or CUI unit we ask that you work with Concordia University’s I.T. department on developing a general e-mail inbox to link to the account. Examples of general e-mail inboxes are: admissions@cui.edu, mbagrad@cui.edu, adultstudies@cui.edu. These general e-mail inboxes can have multiple people in the department or CUI unit access them and therefore are longer lasting than individual e-mails. We recommend contacting the CUI Marketing Department to create a custom Twitter background and picture for your page. Name your presence with “Concordia” coming first in the title, like “ConcordiaMBA” or “ConcordiaMCAA”.

How do I use Twitter?

When creating a twitter account for a school or CUI unit we ask that you work with Concordia University’s I.T. department on developing a general e-mail inbox to link to the account. Examples of general e-mail inboxes are: admissions@cui.edu, mbagrad@cui.edu, adultstudies@cui.edu. These general e-mail inboxes can have multiple people in the department or CUI unit access them and therefore are longer lasting than individual e-mails.

Once a general e-mail inbox is created and set up in Outlook you can begin to create a Twitter account by going to: https://twitter.com/signup

Optimize your account for Twitter searches

Note that a username and a name are two separate items. For example, ConcordiaIrvine is the username and Concordia University is the name. Usernames are character-limited.

A carefully selected name is the most crucial part of being found in searches. This is because most users will not search for you by your exact username and will add spaces that do not match your username. For example, a search for "CUI Eagles" does not find the username cuieagles.

Make sure the name includes words you believe will be used when searching for the profile; CUI, Concordia University, etc.

We suggest that you name your Account with “Concordia” coming first in the title, such as “ConcordiaMBA” or “ConcordiaMCAA”. We have taken note of what the other Concordias in our system are using for their Twitter usernames to better equip you in choosing your username.

Concordia University, Irvine: ConcordiaIrvine
Concordia University, Portland: CU_Portland
Concordia College, New York: ConcordiaNY
Concordia University, St. Paul: ConcordiaStPaul
Concordia University, Wisconsin: CUWisconsin
Concordia College, Minnesota: Concordia_MN
Concordia College, Alabama: CCSelma
Concordia University, Ann Arbor: CUAA
Concordia University, Chicago: CUChicago
Concordia University, Nebraska: CUNE
Concordia University, Texas: ConcordiaTexas

Enter your e-mail address, password, and agree to Twitter’s Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

By doing so, you must not:

Impersonate others through the Twitter service
Publish or post other people’s private and confidential information
Publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others
Use the service for any unlawful purpose or for promotion of illegal activities
Create serial accounts for disruptive or abusive purposes
Engage in username squatting
Use Twitter.com's address book contact import to send repeat, mass invitations
Publish or link to malicious content intended to damage or disrupt another user's browser or computer or to compromise a user's privacy
Use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone
Use obscene or pornographic images in either your profile picture or user background

Customize your profile

Use the column on the right side of your account page to upload a profile picture, write a short bio, and set up Twitter on your mobile phone so you can post tweets from anywhere.

The one line bio will appear with the username and name in search results. Use this area to note your relationship to Concordia University if your username and name have not already made this clear. For example, only using "CUI” may create confusion since there are several universities who use the same acronym. The bio line is a great place to spell out the complete name of your Concordia department or unit. For example, if your username is “ConcordiaMAIS” then the one line bio should read “Masters of Arts in International Studies” within it.

Also, be sure to include the web address that links directly to your department or unit.

We recommend contacting the CUI Marketing Department to create a custom Twitter background and logo for your page.

Start tweeting

Stay under the 140-character restriction. Use shorthand and post links that provide more information.

Include links. Drive followers to your website from tweets. Inbound links also improve your page rankings with search engines.

Links can be long and quickly take over a tweet’s 140-character limit. Use bit.ly or TinyURL to shorten them.

Tweet regularly. Three tweets a week is a minimum requirement. Appoint more than one person to tweet if needed to continue regular content.

Understand why people follow you. If your followers want information about the group you represent, they probably don't want to know your daily activities. It’s wise to not only promote your department or unit but also promote others in your field.

Follow others. This allows communication between you and your followers and is part of Twitter etiquette.

Re-tweet! Tweet the content posted by another Twitter user.

Use hashtags. Hashtags consist of using the # symbol followed by subject words such as #irvine. They help organize information, make tweets searchable, and are conversation drivers.

Incorporate other Twitter users. An example tweet might be:"I am going to the @CUIeagles basketball game tonight @ConcordiaIrvine."

Other tips

It takes a village. Twitter itself does not have a way for multiple people to uniquely access one account other than by sharing the username and password among administrators. Hootsuite or TweetDeck allows multiple people to help manage multiple Twitter accounts and stay in synch while doing so.

Use photos in your tweets. TwitPic allows users to upload photos from the web or a mobile device and post them on Twitter in a very easy fashion. Other picture tools include yfrog and Plixi.

Terms and Conditions

If you'd like to take your CUI unit into the realm of social media, the CUI Marketing Department asks that you follow the terms of service and conditions of your chosen platform, such as Facebook, Twitter , Vimeo or YouTube.

For example, do not create a Facebook profile for your organization because those are for use by individuals. Rather you should create a page or group.

Comments Guidelines

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Twitter on Your Departments Website

Your twitter account can be integrated into your department webpage. Messages that you post on Twitter then immediately appear on your web site. This integration allows you a way to get messages out to your constituencies while you’re expressing your identity as a department. Thus type of integration does require commitment on your part to keep your account updated regularly. If you decide this is a tool you would like to implement, please send a request to webteam@cui.edu.