Archive December | Interactive Design Lab

Archive for December, 2009

Twitter Best Practices

Obvious points

It’s a new-media class on writing. So we should be writing for new media.
Twitter is a new medium and, um, popular.
Therefore, we should be learning Twitter writing.

In class on Tuesday, we talked about all kinds of social media and how they conform to the basic principles of writing for all channels: ie, that the writing must be clear, coherent, and suited to a specific audience. Then the students broke into groups (a painful process but I had Scotch tape handy) to work on a brief project.

Project

Capilano University’s Interactive Design program has engaged all 26 of you to come up with a social-networking media strategy. Steer the client toward Twitter as a channel for disseminating info on the program, come up with four categories of Tweets, and write five sample Tweets in your category. The attached photo sums up the four. Sample Tweets follow. I was impressed by how quickly they generated Tweets that were not only interesting and Retweetable, but that complemented each other in providing all different ways for our imaginary prospective student to get a feel for life in the Interactive Design program. Well done, all!

Sample Tweets

The 2011 class just finished their 3-page website mockups. Check it out, it’s awesome! [LINK]
Running around interviewing people on the street. Hear the funny things they have to say [LINK]
Coding stuff in #Javascript & #Actionscript like the true nerds do.
<head>for the brain</head> <body>for everything else</body>
Arrive at school early for free street parking.
Go to Starbucks before class or bring VIA.
Hide all food consumption while in class.
Don’t buy text books; use Google Books. http://books.google.com/books
Aim to arrive early when taking the bus.
Make good friends with Cathy.
Finish assignments early or you’ll be sorry.
Insure your laptop & software.
John Burns’ class is da bomb.
I’m having a super sick time at #capu #orientation day. Free food, prizes and games! Who knew school could be so fun!
learned about Twitter today….and what NOT to say on here
One day, I hope to work in an office that is this awesome: http://bit.ly/afB7j #vimeo
Great example of how designing experiences can change behaviour: http://bit.ly/eQdkq
School is stressful, kittens are not: http://bit.ly/7u6L5t
About to start twittering for a class assignment. It’s a brave new world.