Twitter and Social Media at Occupy Wall Street

Presented by: Abigail Collazo, Project Manager

The Purpose of Twitter

What is Happening?

NOT

What Am I Doing?

Occupy Wall Street on Twitter• First mention was in an Adbusters blog post July 13

• Small network of tweeters for the first few weeks

• Expanded use attributed to hyper-local tweeters – those who cover activities and news block by block.

• September 16, night before occupation of lower Zuccotti Park, hashtag starts to pick up volume

• Within 24 hours, 1 of every 500 hashtags was about Occupy

Why Did It Spread?• Timely hashtag. Covering a specific event where there

was reason to use Twitter. Live streaming, real action –

» “what’s happening?”

• Tapping into emotion. People are expressing themselves and taking action.

• News hook. CEO bonuses, lack of Wall Street regulation, unemployment, etc.

Occupy Movement Twitter InfoTwitter HandlesOccupy Wall Street  Twitter handle: @OccupyWallSt https://twitter.com/#!/OCCUPYWALLST

The women’s Wall Street occupy twitter handle is @WomenOWS https://twitter.com/#!/WomenOWS

The NY Feminist General Assembly twitter handle is @Wowsnychttps://twitter.com/#!/wowsnyc

To FollowLiza Sabater: @blogdiva https://twitter.com/#!/blogdiva  

Other Hashtags#woccupy  #ows #occupy #mayday #SleepOnWallSt #SleepOWS #Anonymous #OccupyWallStreet #ChicagoSpring, #OccupyChicago, #occupynyc 

Women, Space, and Occupy• http://www.the-beheld.com/2011/10/occupied-slutwalk-wall-street-and-whos.html

• http://www.thenation.com/article/164197/where-are-women-occupy-wall-street-everywhere-and-theyre-not-going-away

• http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/11/occupy-wall-street-fears-eviction-notice/44561/

• http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2009/12/06/i-got-yer-rape-prevention-email-forward-right-here/

• http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2011/11/03/playing-the-damsels-in-distress-card/

• http://www.peopleofcolororganize.com/activism/organizing/justified-rage-unsafe-space-reflection-occupy-wall-street/

Handle: A username, indicated by the @ symbol before it.

Retweet (RT) – A tweet that someone else wrote that you are sharing with your followers. To retweet, copy and paste the tweet and add RT @username before the tweet.

Direct Message (DM) - A private message to another Twitter user.

Follow - Opting in to receive someone's tweets in your Twitter feed.

MT - A "modified tweet," meaning the retweet has been slightly edited for length or content.

Trends - A list of popular hashtags that appears on Twitter's front page.

Twitter Glossary

Twitter Glossary (cont’d)Pictures: To upload photos on twitter, traditionally you would use a third party site such as:• Twitpic.com• Tweetphoto.com• Pikchur.com• Yfrog.com

Now, you can also upload photos directly from Twitter, the same way you can on Facebook.

URL Shorteners – These services allow you to create a shortened web address. Bit.ly and is.gd are examples. Shorteners are also useful for tracking click-thrus. Note: Twitter will convert any shortener to its own format using “t.co.” This just prevents spam and won’t affect the address.

This photo, uploaded to Twitter via Twitpic.com, was the first news of the

plane crash into the Hudson River in 2009.

Twitter ListsTwo things to note:

A) You don’t need to be “following” someone on Twitter in order to add them to a list, and

B) You can make your own lists either public or private. If they are public, anybody can see them and can also choose to follow that entire list as well.

C) Best way to find relevant lists are to find a few key users and see what lists they’re following or they are on. Then you can follow those same lists/users.

Lists You Are On

On your profile page, you can see how many lists other people have placed you on.

- The @ sign is also used as a way to identify, mention or reply to other users on Twitter.

- If you want a specific person to see your message, you’ll want to include their @handle in the message. Even if they follow you, they may miss it otherwise.

Example: @womenwotw1: Thanks to @PixelProject for this posting "16 Female Role Models: Transforming Personal Pain into Positive Action" post.ly/2XyhM

Example: @melonabt: @prsarahevans hey! just found out abt your journchat event—super curious to see how that works!

Mentions, or @ symbol

Mentions versus Hashtags

@UserA: When you want a response or are specifically looking for user to know you are discussing him/her

#UserA: When you are talking with a number of other people about the topic of this person.

Main question to ask yourself: who else do you want seeing it? Are you directing to the company/person, or are you crowd-sourcing for info/support?

A Hashtag is simply a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic. It’s also where Twitter Communities “meet” to discuss certain issues or current events.

Understanding Hashtags

Example: @womenwotw1: Thanks to @PixelProject for this posting "16 Female Role Models: Transforming Personal Pain into Positive Action” post.ly/2XyhM #vaw

#vaw stands for Violence Against

Women

Events: Egypt (#Jan25)Communities: Fem2 (#Fem2)Topics: Debt Ceiling Negotiations (#debtceiling)Recommendations: Follow Friday (#FF)

Note that #OccupyWallStreet and #OWS fit into several of these categories at once, making them more flexible and unwieldy, but also more viral and spreadable.

Effective Use of Hashtags

Fem2 is the hashtag used by the progressive feminist

community.

Hashtags are used for four primary functions:

Dissecting The Tweet

Hey @turnrstrategies, loved this week’s blog post. Here’s our take on the

#debtceilingcrisis (http://t.co.5WRHNq).

By mentioning @turnrstrategies, that user will know your tweet is directed at them.

Putting a # before “debtceilingcrisis” allows anyone following that hashtag to see your tweet.

This link was shortened using a URL shortener. Once it was uploaded though, Twitter changed it to say “t.co”. The address underlying it is still the same though. Using a URL shortener will save characters in your tweet.

Sites for Looking Up Hashtags

www.Tagdef.comwww.Hashtags.org

www.Whatthetrend.com

Best Practices for Using Hashtags

• Keep it short – give others room to retweet and add comments

• Don’t overuse them - your tweets become too messy and abbreviated. It’s tempting sometimes to put a # sign before every key word in your tweet, but try to avoid that urge as it will dilute your message.

• Use different hashtags to connect to different communities. Are you looking to engage a new audience, or to move your supporters up the engagement ladder?

Gaining Influence

• Important to remember that the universe of people on Twitter (and online) is infinite.

• You want to gain influence in a specific sector, or about a specific topic. Don’t try to tap into every conversation and every community – you’ll spread your message too thinly.

Listen to Your Followers

Key for you to both drive the conversation, but also pay attention to what your fan base is like what their

interests are.

• Claire McCaskill – very active on Twitter, does all of her own tweeting

• Lessons from Troy Davis, September 21, 2011

Followers

Engage with Followers

Getting Mentioned by Influentials

• Think about what they want to tweet about, or what their interest is.

• Find a time when they are likely to be heavily engaged in Twitter. During a tweetchat, while live tweeting an event, etc.

Coordinated Plan to Flood White House Tweetchat

From the National Council of Women’s Organizations:Dear Friends,

Tomorrow, Thursday, January 26th, Vice President Biden will answer questions submitted by people from across the country in his first Twitter interview. So far, many constituencies have coordinated tweets to flood these chats with their questions. We want the women’s community to do the very same thing by flooding these two specific Tweet chats with messages about fair pay.

At 1:30 p.m. EST tomorrow, tune into the interview with Vice President Biden (his Twitter handle is @VP) using the hashtags #SOTU and #WHchat. Tweet the above messages about fair pay, again using the correct hashtags and handles so that it gets to the right audience.

What Happened?

If you remember nothing else…

Twitter is a conversation. Always remember to not just inform, but also engage your

audience.

Questions? Contact Us!

Abigail Collazo, abigail@turnerstrategies.com Twitter: @abigailcollazo

TURNER Strategies1001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 710

Washington, DC 20036 

Phone: (202) 466-9633Fax: (202) 466-2170

www.turnerstrategies.com 

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