By Joe Dougherty, PIO
Utah Division of Emergency Management
In case you missed it, Zach Whitney’s information about how pages can use Facebook Groups is in this post.
Maximizing Your Twitter Game
Many people are not aware of the usefulness of some of Twitter’s functions. Here’s how to do it better:
Lists
Group the accounts you follow into lists so you can just watch their content when you need to filter out the noise of Twitter. You can create lists based on geography, discipline or any other grouping you desire. When you click on a list, you can view the tweets or the Twitter handles of the list members.
Example: In, addition to the examples in the image above, the Utah Division of Emergency Management (@UtahEmergency) Twitter account has lists for first responders in each county, the media in Utah, geology/earthquake gurus and more.
Pro tip 1: Don’t want to build the list yourself? You can just subscribe to another Twitter user’s list and watch the content like you own it.
Pro tip 2: You can add users to a list, even if you don’t follow them.
Bookmarks
Want to remember that Tweet that you just need to hang onto? Just click or tap the little “send” icon below any tweet, such as this one with raspberry ice cream (yum!) and select “Add Tweet to Bookmarks.”
Then, (see the image on the right) when you click on your bookmarks, you have easy access to those tweets. In my case, I am constantly referring back to a tweet thread I wrote in February. I just appreciate that Twitter makes that tweet easy to find in my bookmarks.
Media Studio
Last year, Twitter launched Media Studio. You don’t automatically get access to it. You have to request it for your government page by emailing gov@twitter.com.
Media studio allows you to have easy access to your entire library of images and video that you have shared previously on Twitter. Select the image, compose your text and either schedule or post your tweet from one window. Media studio allows you to post up to a 10-minute video instead of the 2:20 limit you have from posting within the regular app or desktop site. Here’s a short demo of the workflow:
Threads
Ever have more than one tweet you’d like to keep together, either for updates, context or because you have more information than will fit in 280 characters?
Consider writing tweets as a thread. Simply press or click the “plus” button in the tweet composer and Twitter will link your next tweet as a reply to the previous one. You then have the option to publish all tweets at once.
Twitter lets you thread up to 25 tweets to post at once. But you can expand that by simply replying to the last tweet in a thread if you need to keep that going.
Here’s an example of tweets 5, 6, and 7 in a thread I wrote following the earthquake sequence that happened in the south part of Salt Lake County in February. People wanted to know how bad would an earthquake be at their home. That requires an answer that is more complicated than “it depends.”
This information translated well into a longer Facebook post and was picked up by local media here and here.
Dark Mode
You may have noticed that all of my Twitter screen shots have a dark background. In your Twitter settings now, you have the option of the default (white) background, dim (gray) or lights out (black). I chose lights out for @UtahEmergency.
Missed Part 1 of our recap of the August quarterly meeting in Park City? A post about Zach Whitney’s information on Facebook Groups is here.
Joe Dougherty is the public information officer for the Utah Division of Emergency Management. jdougherty@utah.gov
Kenya Rene, SLC EM’s PIO, opened our meeting with these words of advice for communicators:
Our many thanks to Kathy Wilets from University of Utah Health, Chris Nelson from the University of Utah and Christi Judd from Salt Lake City Police Department for presenting on the Nurse Wubbels incident.
Utah PIO Association 