Universities, Canals and Twitter

My recent post on getting likes and ultimate love for your photographs on social media attracted a great deal of interest.  My first article was on Flickr and its algorithms and now I will turn my attention to posting on Twitter.  Once again, the same rules apply, post regularly and engage with the users and Twitter will love you back.  My tip for Twitter is you must get to know your audience.  To me, it is a big room of people shouting and demanding your attention for their views.  I enjoy Twitter for news and looking at people’s comments about TV shows or politicians. Many of these can be amusing others not so.  Being careful in your choice of viewing is key. My scientific colleagues use it to post details of their academic content, but it can be very cliquey. I wonder if you are just talking to the same people and not breaking out to the greater diversity of the population. Engaging with Twitter is tricky but if you know the rules, then it is definitely rewarding.  If you take lots of photographs develop a theme, then align it to an audience that will appreciate them, then you can be very successful.  Here are a couple of examples that I use of how I post to Twitter. 

The campus at the University of Birmingham is photogenic and well loved by students past and present.  Staff may argue and criticise but there is one topic that unites them all, the campus is a winner.  Everyone who works at the Uni loves the place.  Therefore I try to get onto campus on a regular basis and take a set of photographs. It has not been easy during the Lockdowns but then again it has made people long more for pictures of the campus.  A quick edit and these will be posted as a foursome on Twitter. Now I sit back to wait for the results.  Before I forget, I tag them with @unibirmingham @oldjoe and @birminghamalum.  This catches several interested parties including present and past students plus a very savvy clock with its own social media account.  My last outing onto Twitter with Spring views of campus racked up the views, likes and comments.   But I realise that I am trading on the University’s name and also relying on my photographs to interest them as well.  Still it is good feeling to see people appreciate your photographs.

Another way to use Twitter successfully is to post photographs of the West Midland Canal network.  This is not difficult as it is also photogenic and appealing.  Everyone loves to see the colourful narrow boats and the intriguing manner that they move up and down through locks.  Take a set of pictures of the canals especially around the golden hours will captivate peoples’ interest.  Personally, there are a few particular picture hotspots of the canals and these include Gas street Basin and Brindley place in Birmingham City Centre, the Kingswood junction at Lapworth and Hatton Locks.  I have only mentioned these as they are my personal favourites and the ones I frequently visit.  There are so many more.  When I post pictures of the canal network  then I always tag the Canal and River Trust.  I used to tag nationally but local tagging is much more effective, and I use @CRTwestmidlands and @CRTboating.  There is always local interest and the social media  people who are good at promoting the CRT organisation.  Eventually the parent organisation @canalrivertrust becomes aware of the tweets and will feature the photograph. 

Tagging is useful but not as much in my opinion as Instagram which will be a future blog post.  I tend to directly go for the organisations in the two examples I have mentioned

There are a few other ones that I like including #stormhour and #photohour but I will mention these in yes you guessed it another blog post!

Now you are here and want some more information
University of Birmingham – A leading global university – The social media handles for Twitter are @unibirmingham @oldjoeclock and @birminghamalum. Considering the amount of Twitter activity, there is no directory of Twitter handles and you need to manually find them yourself.
Canal & River Trust | Wellbeing for everyone The twitter address is @canalrivertrust and they use the hashtag #lifeisbetterbywater In my area I use @CRTWestMidlands and I also find @CRTboating will rally the narrowboat dwellers
Here are a few previous blog posts as well on the University and the canal network
Autumnal days on the University of Birmingham Campus
Walking along the North Stratford Canal