TWITTER

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Once you’ve followed a group of people that you find interesting, spend some time reading what they’re saying and get a sense of what you like, what you don’t like and how to talk to people.

Twitter allows a maximum of 140 characters per post, and within posts there are a number of different things you can include. A recent twitter update means that photos, gifs, videos, polls and quote tweets will now not count in the 140 characters.

Twitter handles (@) – to post a public message that you want someone specific to see, or to talk to someone publicly and directly, you need to include their Twitter handle, such as @JohnDoe. This will then be flagged up as a ‘mention’ to the user you’re talking to.

Hashtags (#) – hashtags are ways to tap into trends and conversations on Twitter. By using, for example, the Hockey World League hashtag (E.g. #HWL2017) in your Tweets, this will group your Tweets with every other Tweet using that hashtag. People can see all of the Tweets that contain this hashtag by clicking on the hashtag itself. When a certain number of Tweets are posted containing a hashtag, Twitter registers this keyword as a trend, so it’s important to be consistent and always use the same hashtag.

ReTweets (RT) – ReTweets are direct re-posts of other people’s Tweets. If you see someone talking about something you and your community may find interesting, such as what another player at the competition is doing, you should ReTweet their message. The other person will be notified and they will then be more likely to follow and ReTweet your content to their own community, increasing awareness of your profile in the process. You can also add your own personal message to the ReTweet, this is called a quote tweet.

Direct messages (DM) – direct messages are private messages between you and another person that cannot be seen by anyone else. This is a good way to talk to people privately and have conversations through Twitter but without the rest of the world having access to them.

Links (URLs) – whenever Tweeting about an article, video, photo, or anything else that has a presence on the internet, it’s helpful for people if URLs are included. This allows them to view the content for themselves, and leads to more interactions and ReTweets of your content. Because URLs can be long and take up too much of your 140 character tweet, try shortening the links using a free URL shortening website like http://bit.ly or http://www.shorturl.com and copy and paste the shortened link into your tweet.

Images – A great way to make tweeting more interactive and exciting is to add images to your tweets. Add these directly to make it easier for you followers. Added from Instagram only gives a link to your photo and will get less engagement from your followers.

When talking on Twitter, apply the same rules as you apply to real life – if you wouldn’t say it to people in person, don’t say it on Twitter!

If you will be tweeting about a specific event, we recommend you send FIH a message (@FIH_Hockey) to tell us. Send something like:

@FIH_Hockey I’m signed up to Twitter – going to be Tweeting during the Hockey World League!

 Then we can let everyone know that you are tweeting about hockey and about specific competitions.

It’s up to you how much you talk and what you talk about – some prominent athletes use it as a commentary for their lives, telling people where they are, what they are doing, how they are feeling, almost everything they do. Some others just use it talk to fans about games and practices. Fans love to know more about the life of an international athlete, so this is certainly a good starting point.

Check out our content guidelines later in this document for more general guidance. Finally, as with Facebook, followers love photos and videos!

For more help on tweeting photos and videos check out Twitter support: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20172128

A GIF is a moving image made out of a few stills, and can be added much like an image can to a tweet. Twitter provides a library of a few popular ones for you to start with. Click on GIF icon in your compose tweet box.

Polls: You can also tweet a poll question to your followers, though these are usually more popular with large companies or personalities who have many thousands of followers. Simply click on ‘poll’, type your question and then a minimum of two or maximum of four answers. You can set the poll to run for any length from five minutes to a week.