Twitter is a great way to instantaneously share news items, links, and opinions. People who wish to be area activists can attract quite a few "followers" using this social network. Here are some Twitter tips from our own Nathan Benefield, whose full guide can be found here.

What to Tweet

• Updates on your activities - Twitter is more than just the mundane every day activities. If you're attending a major event, starting a new job, or on the radio, that is worth updating.
• Breaking News - the gold standard. With Twitter, you can break a news story before anyone.
• Live Events - If you are attending an event, seminar, press conference, etc., you can "live tweet" it. Your followers who can't be there might be interested in what is going on, especially if you are one of few tweeting from the event.
  
• Links - Offer links to news stories or other interesting web content; i.e., "What I'm reading."
• Blog Posts - you can Tweet links from your own blog or website.
• Replies - Twitter is conversational, you can reply to someone else using the '@' symbol. Example: "@UserName Thanks for the link"
• ReTweets - If someone else posts a provocative thought or great link, you can share it using a "ReTweet." This can be done using Twitter's ReTweet button, or using "RT @UserName".
• Questions - Pose questions to get advice or to foster debate.
• Ask for Help - Twitter can be used for to help spread the word about an important issues, fund raising, or to promote an upcoming event.

Who should you follow?

1. People you want to read or engage with
2. People you want to reach out to and network with
3. People you hope will retweet your content
   

People you follow will frequently follow you back. Post a few Tweets before you start mass following. People won't follow you back if you haven't posted anything; they will want to know who you are and what you're up to first. Also use your bio and post a profile picture.

Twitter Lists

• Twitter lists allow you to organize folks on Twitter in groups, based on your interests. You can also follow the lists other users have already created.
• Some list for PA Twitterers to get started with: PA Lawmakers, CF Staff, PA Political Pundits, PA Media, PA News and Politics, Bloggers, and National Organizations.
• Using tools like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite you can organize your lists, and view them in multiple columns.
• Tweet Pennsylvania aggregates a list of Pennsylvania state legislators, PA media, and state political pundits on one page for anyone (even non-Twitter users) to view.

How can I get more out of Twitter?

Hashtags

• Posts on a specific topic can be collected with a hashtag code - e.g. #PABudget for anything related to the Pennsylvania state Budget
• The Twitter search feature allows you to find all posts with that tag, and also gives you an RSS feed: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=#pabudget

Put on your website/blog

• You can embed Twitter on your blog/site.
• Using Twitter Widgets, you can easily build a widget to display your Twitter posts, a search, or a Twitter List.

Sharing a conversation

• If there is a useful discussion on Twitter, and you want to share it with folks who don't use Twitter, Quote URL is a good tool. See example here: http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/policyblog/info/more-evidence-for-term-limits

For More

• American Majority has a detailed guide to using Twitter for political activism.
• The Commonwealth Foundation is on Twitter! Follow Liberty4pa and our list of legislators who use Twitter at TweetPa.