About the Assignment

“#Hashtag” with Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake

Blogging is when people publish their ideas for a (mostly) unknown audience in posts of any length. Twittering (or micro-blogging) is when people publish their ideas in a much shorter format to a (mostly) known audience. The Twitter tweet (the name of each post) is 140 characters long. Just as with blogging, one cannot fully grasp the mode of communication without engaging with it. So, we are going to engage it over the course of the semester by using it in several ways.

But Twitter is hard—at first. There is no set community (other than the one we have in class), as there is with Facebook. You have to go out and find it. We’ll discuss ways to do that. But, as with all things ultimately amazingly beneficial, the onus for success is on the individual user. The more time you put into seeking out people and engaging with them, the more amazing your experience will be.

There are several goals the social media assignment, including:

• telling (in part) your semester Story of Learning
• engaging our work inside and outside of class
• collaborating with classmates
• sharing information about your investigations
• building an online community related to your investigation area

If you have not used Twitter in a professional setting before, please read:

Silver, D. (2009, February 25). The difference between thin and think tweets. Silver in SF.

Getting Started

• If you do not yet have one, create a Twitter account and install the Twitter app on your phone. The account should have a professional feel.
• If you do not have one, create an Instagram account and install the app on your phone. The account should have a professional feel.
• Create a professional bio that locates you as a student at Saint Joseph’s University, identifies your area(s) of study, and lists a few personal interests
• Make your accounts open for anyone to follow; having a locked account essentially tells your audience that you would rather not know who they are and results in them not requesting the your follow approval (if you are concerned about spam and/or who is following, in the Settings enable the option to get an email whenever you have a new follower; this will allow you to see when someone follows and to Block them if necessary)
• Add links to your web site
• In the Twitter Settings
  • under the Mobile tab, set your phone number and when you’d like text message alerts (I have it set for DMs because they are rare, and not after 11pm)
  • under Security and Privacy, I recommend UNCHECKING Tweet location, Personalization, and Promoted Content
• add a photo of yourself or something that you feel represents you in some way
• On Twitter, follow @billwolff, @saintjosephs, @sjucomm, and if you would like, other Communications faculty (@aesthetically @rachaelsullivan @patchbaydoor @academicdave @jmikelyons) and everyone in #digs16:
  • Twitter: @banomikey, @marykbutlerr, @danidach_, @kaylalane_sju, @amac1715, @jane_sju, @nikkirooo, @jus__rus, @jricciardi18, @matt_tamarin, @tylarweber, @d_zabz, @gracceeco, @kaeleighlife, @philthyjam
• Any tweet or Instagram that is about class in any way should include the #digs16 hashtag.
• I encourage you to experiment with one of the many Twitter desktop and mobile apps (such as Tweetdeck), which are overwhelmingly useful for organizing and posting Tweets (as with my mobile, I use Tweetbot).

Part 1: Live tweeting your work and work process

I’d also like you to start live-tweeting as you are doing the work for the course. That is tweet about what you are reading about. These can be quotes that intrigue you or just thoughts about the texts. Be sure to use the #digs16 hashtag. Try to limit tweets like, “This article is boring. #yawn,” as such tweets will make to look foolish and show little thought about the text itself. You should @reply to other class members frequently so that we can begin discussions about the work outside of the classroom and then continue those discussions when we meet in the classroom.

These tweets will provide important material for your semester-long Story of Learning. The more you tweet, the more material you will have to show that you have been engaging with and learning from the material.

You should also feel free to live-tweet the class discussion. When live-tweeting, you can tweet:

• quotes that people (including @billwolff) said
• thoughts or comments about what has been said (funny snark is okay; mean snark isn’t)
• links to things associated with topics being discussed (such as videos, photos, articles, etc)
• @mention the authors who we are discussing to let them know we’re discussing them and what is being said
• other fun stuff

There is no required number of tweets to tweet about your readings, work, or in-class discussions, but it is expected that each should garner many tweets per week (many = more than 5 per week). The more you tweet the more engaged the class can and will become in a dialogue outside the class. Do, however, be sure to make it clear what you’re reading, working on, or discussing. This can be done in the content of the tweet or by using a hashtag for an author’s name —you can even search to find the author’s Twitter username and add it to your tweet. This is important because we want to be sure we know which text you’re tweeting about.

Live-tweeting works most effectively when students begin discussing the texts online. And, as one student recently wrote in a reflection on their work:

From a student: “Live tweeting while reading … is helping me to read better. I think of the reading more as a conversation now.” Yay!

— Bill Wolff (@billwolff) February 27, 2014

You should consider referencing the authors in your tweets. Search for our authors to see if they are on Twitter and if so, mention them. You never know what will happen. They could fav a tweet or reply and engage you in conversation, such as:

Part 2: Leveraging Twitter to Build Community

to be added