First things first
If you don’t even know what Twitter is, don’t worry! We’re providing a handy, plain English guide below to explain how you can get the best out of IUPAC 2009 with the RSC and Twitter. Apologies that this guide is so long; we’ve tried to give a clear, complete view of how and why Twitter works.
If you’re not interested in the what and why of Twitter, skip to the Signing Up section.
If you’re already a Twitter user
Follow @IUPAC2009 for updates – it’s a real person, not a feed, so interact as much as possible! Also use the hashtag #iupac2009 to get your tweets on the big IUPAC tweet display in the main hall.
What is Twitter?
It’s a way to get thoughts and ideas out into the public; it’s a way to pose and answer questions, to gauge public opinion and to communicate with a large number of people – all in real time.
From their website:
“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”
It’s been termed a “micro-blogging” service, where you write about something, ask a question, or perhaps answer someone else’s question – just like a normal blog. The caveat is that Twitter posts (or “tweets”) are limited to just 140 characters (including spaces and punctuation!)
So what’s it actually for?
Right now Twitter is being used by millions of people to tell the world they’re getting married, or getting a book published, or they’re just hungry or bored. It’s being used to discuss topics as serious as European elections and as superficial as best pizza toppings.
When a Continental Airlines jet conducted an emergency landing in the Hudson Bay, the first picture of the scene wasn’t from a major news organisation or photo agency – it was from someone on a ferry with an iPhone and a Twitter account. Within minutes their friends knew, and then their friends’ friends, and after that journalists on Twitter started to follow the international story through more conventional channels.
More recently the elections in Iran were surrounded by controversy, with allegations of vote-rigging and violence at protests. A huge clamp-down on media in the country meant getting information that hadn’t been filtered by the state was near impossible. However, the people of Iran found Twitter was a fantastic way to communicate with the world, circumventing the state media control – and the rest of the world lent their support by promoting the cause.
People are exclaiming and explaining observations and arguments they would normally just tell the person next to them, in the spur of the moment – with Twitter they tell the world.
What has Twitter got to do with IUPAC?
At the conference the RSC wants to make sure each delegate gets to see the speakers, seminars and posters they want to see, discuss the topics they want to discuss, and generally have a great experience at the largest chemistry conference in the world.
In the middle of the conference you might have forgotten where the talk on nanomedicine is. Which direction is the Huntley Suite in? Where can I get that desperately-needed cup of coffee?
You could seek out an RSC representative, but there are only so many of us around the conference. Why not just tweet us? You’ll get a response almost immediately.
Say you just saw the most inspirational speaker in the conference. You think everyone should know how great it was. Just tweet it! The public tweets about IUPAC will be displayed on a large screen in the conference hall.
The RSC will also be putting out helpful information as tweets of its own, from the specially-created IUPAC2009 Twitter account. You can “follow” this account to see all of its updates, whether they’re for information, mini polls and competitions, or general responses to feedback from other tweeting delegates.
Signing up
A Twitter account couldn’t be simpler to set up, and it’s totally free to use. You just need an email address that you can access while you’re at the conference.
Go to http://twitter.com/ and sign up by clicking on the big green button in the middle of the screen. You’ll need to specify your name and a unique username and password, and an email address. You’ll also need to type in a couple of short words displayed in a skewed font – this is to determine you are a real person and not a spam computer.
Next Twitter will give you the opportunity to “follow” some popular tweeters; this means when they send a tweet, it will show up on your home page. Some are simple news feeds like the New York Times, some are eminent celebrity tweeters, and some are just widely considered to be interesting. For the purposes of following IUPAC2009 on Twitter you may wish to keep the number of people you “follow” to a minimum.
When you’ve created your account, you can update a few personal settings such as location, an “avatar” (a small square picture representing you, normally a headshot) and a short biography. These are optional, however.
Following IUPAC2009 on Twitter
To see updates from the IUPAC2009 Twitter account, and to be able to send direct messages (more on those later), you must follow us.
While logged in to your own account, go to http://twitter.com/IUPAC2009. You’ll be greeted with a page showing all the IUPAC2009 updates. Under the avatar next to the large IUPAC2009 heading, there is a button marked “Follow”. Click this to start following IUPAC2009’s tweets.
Sending your first tweet
One of the easiest ways is logging in at http://twitter.com and simply sending your tweet from there – just type up to 140 characters and press “update”. Some special cases you might want to know:
- Whenever someone tweets and includes your username with an @ symbol in front of it (e.g. @IUPAC2009) this is known as a mention. If they begin the tweet with @ and your username, this is known as a reply. In both instances the tweet which refers to you will show up in the Replies section, accessible by clicking the @[YourUsername] link in the sidebar on the right.You can reply to tweets that others have made by beginning your tweet with @ and that person’s username.For example: “Am really getting useful, speedy advice from @IUPAC2009”
IUPAC2009 Twitter account might respond: “@YourUsername thanks very much!”Replies and mentions are public – they will show up on your Twitter home page.
- To send a message that no-one but the intended recipient can see, start a tweet with the letter d, and then the username of the person you want to tweet. These are known as direct messages (DMs).For example: “d iupac2009 I’m sending you a direct message!”This would send the message to IUPAC2009 only as a private message, and will not show up on your or their home pages. By default, the recipient of a DM is also emailed the content of the message.
- The final thing you need to know about sending tweets is using hashtags. When you put the hash symbol (#) in front of a word, it signifies this is a topic that your tweet refers to. Others can very easily search for these hashtags to identify tweets about a particular topic.For example: Don’t miss the whiskey tasting on the mezzanine! #iupac2009
or: Harry Kroto’s Café Scientifique session at #iupac2009 was excellent!
Twitter on internet-enabled mobile devices
If you have an iPhone, Blackberry, or other internet-enabled mobile phone, or a PDA with an internet connection, there are many dedicated Twitter applications (or “clients”) available for download. Many are free (most free clients show the occasional advert) and can be downloaded and used very easily. Recommendations are given below:
iPhone (any model), available from the App Store: Twitterfon (free), Tweetie (£1.79)
Blackberry (most new models): TwitterBerry (free)
Get TwitterBerry by visiting the following link on your Blackberry’s browser:
http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/
Alternatively, if you do not want to download an application specifically for Twitter, visiting http://m.twitter.com on your mobile browser will show a mobile-friendly version of the site.
Twitter via SMS
A large part of Twitter’s popularity (especially in the US) is that you can tweet, and receive tweets, by SMS. This service is available in the UK to a limited extent, but the RSC does not recommend using it! Only those on the Vodafone and O2 networks can receive updates from Twitter, and even this is limited. It is far easier and cheaper to use a computer or an internet-enabled phone, such as an iPhone or Blackberry.