Assignment: 48 Hours of Twitter

Our 48 Hours of Twitter assignment begins 5:00 on Wednesday, September 10, just after class, and will end at 5:00 on Friday afternoon. Your blog post about this experience is due before class on September 17.

Setting Up Your Follower List

1. Go to the Twitter Accounts subject in our Making Connections group in Facebook.
2. Click on the Twitter URL for each person in our class. For example, my Twitter URL is
   http://twitter.com/barbaranixon.
3. When the Twitter page loads, click the Follow button.
4. Repeat this process for each person in the class. (Note: Some people in class did not put “http://” before their Twitter URLS, so you will need to copy and paste the address in your browser rather than click on a hyperlink.)

Using Twitter

1. Over the course of the next 48 hours, send at least six tweets (Twitter messages of 140 characters or less). Your tweets could concern something you’re doing or perhaps point others to something interesting or funny you read online. Maybe you could even pose a question that you’d like others to answer.
2. Also, respond to at least two of your classmates’ tweets. To respond, click on the arrow after a tweet. Or you can type the @ symbol followed immediately by a username (such as @barbaranixon).

 

Additional Information

1. Review my tips on how college students can use Twitter to their advantage.
2. After the 48 hours is over, add a 250-word (minimum) post to your blog about the experience and what you got out of it. Be sure to include at least one way you might find value in continuing your account in Twitter. This blog post is due before class on September 17.
3. There’s no requirement to maintain your Twitter account after this experiment is done; it will not affect your grade if you discontinue it. However, you might want to keep trying it for a while longer. I found it took me about a week to feel comfortable with it and really begin to learn its value.
4. You can have your Twitter tweets automatically update your Facebook status, if you want. (This is not required.)

Questions? Just send me a DM (direct message) or an @ (reply) in Twitter!

NOTE: Many thanks to Kaye Sweetser and Karen Russell for their ideas prompting this assignment.

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