Twitter and the year abroad
Love or Hate Twitter?
by pr-media-blog
This article was written by Global Graduates, published on 29th January 2011 and has been read 12865 times.
Whether you love it or you hate it, Twitter can make a huge difference to year abroad students and staff alike. It might seem a bit of a minefield at first but in mere moments you'll be getting top tips about your study abroad destination, language-learning tips, up-to-date travel advice, breaking news, foreign 'words of the day', you'll be passing on advice and, best of all, you will ask questions and actually get answers!
How can Twitter help me?
1. If you have any quick questions or worries about your year abroad, you can message us @thirdyearabroad and we'll reply asap!2. If you're documenting your year abroad, you can use your Twitter account to promote your latest blog posts, photos or videos and gain followers.
3. Keep in touch with what's going on at your home university and international office - find out their Twitter account details below.
4. Follow your favourite shops and restaurants at home and abroad to hear about the latest offers, discounts and fun events.
5. Share tips with students going to or back from the same year abroad destination as you - just search for 'year abroad' or 'study abroad' and get chatting!
Where do I start?
1. Create an account. First things first: you need to set up a Twitter account with an original username. Just follow the simple instructions on the page and make sure you include a short bio and a photo.2. Follow some people. Go to search.twitter.com and search for events you're attending, celebrities you like and things you're interested in. If you hover your mouse over a username then you can click "follow" to add them to your network.
3. Tweet! At the top of your profile page (twitter.com/username) you can write 140-character messages about whatever you like! Jokes, fascinating facts, favourite websites, recommended restaurants... anything really. Let us know @thirdyearabroad if you have any recommendations for other year abroaders!
4. See who replies. The easiest way to do this is to download Tweetdeck onto your desktop (it's free!). There is a column to see who has mentioned you and one for your private direct messages, so you can easily keep on top of things.
5. Tweet from your phone. Check out the smartphone apps available in the App Store so you can Tweet en route!
What are trending topics, RTs, and @s?
1. You can find the hot topic of the moment by checking out the 'trending topics' on the right of your profile. This is simply what's being most discussed in the twitterverse!2. RTs are retweets - if you like what someone's written then retweet their message and add a comment.
3. Hash tags (#) help you search for a keyword or phrase. You can click any hash tag to see the most recent tweets on that subject.
4. The @ sign is used to reply to or mention a particular user, so you can have an open conversation that other people can get involved in.
5. If you type D [username] you can send a private direct message - it's like free text messaging if you use Twitter on your smartphone!
Who should I follow?
1. Follow @thirdyearabroad! We'll give you updates about new features on the site, answer your questions and tell you about cool new things for year abroad students.2. Learn over 20 languages with the help of Transparent Languages on Twitter - get words of the day and language-learning tips.
3. Look out for people tweeting about TT (Travel Tuesday) and FF (Follow Friday) to discover their favourite Tweeters.
4. Do a Twitter search for the town you live in and you'll find never-ending offers and discounts, blog posts and informative bits and pieces.
5. Your university's International Office might be tweeting! Check here...
UK University Twitter Account Birmingham University
Study Abroad Office
Bournemouth University
Study Abroad Office @yearabroadbham
@BUstudyworkabro University of Bristol
International Office @UoBristol_Intl Brunel University Department for International Students @Brunel_Int Durham University
International Office
Exeter University
Modern Languages Department @durhamIO
@ExeterModLangs University of Kent
International Office
King's College London
Study Abroad @KentStudyAbroad
@breakfastabroad University of Manchester
Study Abroad Unit @UoM_StudyAbroad Manchester Met University
Department of Languages @MMU_Languages Newcastle University
International Office @NUInternational University of Nottingham
International Office @UoNIntOffice Queen's University Belfast
International Office
University of Southampton
Modern Languages Department @queensandtheusa
@ModernLangs University of Reading
International Office @UniRdg_IntOff University of Warwick
International Office @Warwickhelp
If you're a university Study Abroad officer, it might be interesting to follow the whole list - and don't miss our list of 100 UK Universities on Twitter.
Please do let us know if you have any questions or wish to find out more about how Twitter can help you with the year abroad, we're a mere 140-characters away!
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