Twitter has become a very popular outlet for teachers across the country, and there are plenty of tactics educators can take to expand their social outreach.

So says former educator Steven W. Anderson, who recently led a session at TCEA 2015 "orienting educators new to Twitter on how the social media channel can be a powerful learning tool," according to an article on EdTechMagazine.com.

Writer D. Frank Smith pulled away seven Twitter tips teachers can use in their classroom. The first tip is to "dive in to #hashtags."

"Hashtags help people carry on a topics-based conversation," Smith wrote. "Anderson is co-creator of the #EdChat hashtag, with which educators regularly share thoughts on the issues of modern pedagogy. During the session, he shared a website, created by fellow education speaker Jerry Blumengarten, that is filled with dozens of education-based hashtags."

Another tip Anderson had was to "have others curate your best tweets."

"Imagine a marriage between a newspaper and a Twitter feed: The best and most important content of the day would go at the top of the page, and the less relevant pieces would be placed a little lower," Smith wrote. "Services like Tweeted Times and Paper.li offer that kind of sorting and prioritization, giving form to Twitter’s otherwise chaotic arrangement of tweets. Fresh content is published every 24 hours, based on that day’s Twitter activity."

The last tip Smith shared was to "make social media a page-turning experience."

"If the idea of a Twitter newspaper doesn’t sound appealing, Flipboard offers more of a long-form approach," Smith wrote. "The app creates personalized magazines based on social media and news feeds. Anderson says it takes time to “train” the app to respond to your reading habits and interests, but it can become a powerful tool when properly groomed."

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Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor