There are quite a few PAs on Twitter, and last year in San Diego we had PAs from all over contributing to "the backchannel".
Here's a little info for you about how to tweet at IMPACT 2010:
First Step - Sign up for a Twitter account. When choosing a handle/username think about if this is something that you want to use for personal or professional use. That will help you choose how you want to represent yourself.
Second Step - Find people to follow. That means you want to receive/read their tweets. Twitter allows you to find users by email, username or full name (Tip: you can even have Twitter pull your Gmail contacts), but if you're having problems finding people to follow, try either of these:
- Go to http://search.twitter.com and search for the IMPACT 2010 hashtag, which is #aapa10
- Visit a list that I've compiled of PAs & PA Students on Twitter. Pick out a few that look like they might be interesting to follow, you might even find a few PAs you already know! (Tip: Click "Following" to see a list of just the individuals, minus their tweets)
Third Step - Tweet with the special code (aka "hashtag"). Once you've found some people to follow & feel comfortable with tweeting, include the #aapa10 hashtag in your tweets that are related to conference. Not sure what to say? How about the thing you're most excited for about Atlanta, or what you're looking forward to experiencing at this year's conference?
That's it! Now whatever you tweet that includes #aapa10 will show up in what is called "the backchannel" - the conversation that happens on twitter between attendees. It can be about the education, fun places to visit or anything else that might be conference related.
A Review of Twitter Terms:
Just in case I lost you a little bit during the course of this post & some other useful information...
@ Reply - To "@" someone means to send a message at an individual. For example of you wanted to send a message to AAPALynn (that's me), then you would structure you message like this: "@AAPALynn I'm so excited for #aapa10! 6 months is too long to wait!" (At least I hope that's something you'd be saying!)
Following - To follow someone means that you would like to read their tweets. The whole trick to keeping Twitter interesting is to follow people who you find interesting or informative.
Hashtag - A special code that is included in tweets, usually representing an event or happening of some sort. This special code allows other users to easily find your tweets by searching for the hashtag at http://search.twitter.com.
Tweet - A message on Twitter. Tweets are limited to only 140 characters.
Now if you have any other questions about tweeting at conference, please feel free to
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or tweet me! (@AAPALynn, use the @ reply mentioned above so I'll see it)
For those more used to Twitter, have any tips for new Twitter users?
