Tweet! Tweet! Meet! Meet!
You can follow Family Summits on Twitter to learn about the 2011 Summit, find links to environmental articles, and more.
You can also join the Summit 'Meetup' to share your excitement and introduce new Summiters to our wonderful community.
Tweeting about Family Nature Summits: A How-To Guide
by Carla Brown, volunteer board member, August 29, 2009
The latest fad in social networking is Twitter and some Summiteers have asked how they can help promote Family Nature Summits when they tweet. It's very easy.
How To Tweet
Visit Twitter and make an account. Immediately you will then be faced with the box where you enter your tweets, which looks something like this:
Write your message or "tweet." You can use up to 140 characters. Most people write what they are doing now, or they share info about something cool they saw on the web.
If you mention Family Nature Summits in your tweets, that's great! But you can also take your tweeting to the next level by using "hash tags."
Using Hash Tags: Joining Your Tweet with Other Summiteers
A "hash tag" is any combination of characters preceded by a number sign. You don't have to register your hash tag to use it. You just start using it and then encourage other people to join you. Tonight I started tweeting with the hash tag #familysummit - so I hope you will too! Be sure to use those exact characters. If you add an "S" at the end for example, it won't connect with mine.
Ideally a hash tag is short, so it doesn't use up too many of your precious 140 characters. But it's also helpful if it is descriptive, which is why I didn't use #fns.
If you put a hash tag in your tweet, every tweet with the hash tag forms a group.
To view all the tweets with a specific hash tag, you enter the hash tag in the search box on Twitter. You can also embed a box on your website like the one here that will collect the tweets in one place.
Why Do People Tweet?
At first I didn't get the point of Twitter. Then one day, I was in a conference where lots of people were tweeting about that conference. Someone tweeted that there was no food left in the back of the hall. Immediately the conference organizers tweeted they would go get more. Talk about feeling the heart beat (or perhaps the stomach growls) of the room!
You can really get the feeling for a group, a cause, a discussion, an event or a person by tracking them on Twitter - and hash tags allow you to find what interest you.
Get Started Today!
You can spread the word about the Family Nature Summits on Twitter. Every time you do something related to Summit, write a short note about it. For example, tonight I wrote:
"I'm preparing the Family Nature Summits e-newsletter - writing an article on how to use hash tags - so here goes - #familysummit"
And instantly, my tweet formed the first one in our #familysummit Twitter group. Add your tweets today!
More About Twitter
If you are interested in Twitter in general, check out these nifty visualizations by Information is Beautiful about the average Twitter user.
