When I joined the group for 23 things, I was so pleased to see Twitter was included, because I love it! I've used it for (I think) a couple of years now, and much prefer it to other networking tools, like Facebook, simply because I can dip in and out of the stream of 'tweets' whenever I choose to. It's also not that prone to spam (unlike email unfortunately), and easy to block and report spammers, which is something I really appreciate.
I think Twitter is difficult to explain to someone but when you start using it, it does make sense. I am fortunate enough to have a smartphone, which enables Twitter to be something 'there' in the background of my daily life, and not something I have to log into - which I prefer. I also think it's really important to follow people and participate with 'tweets' yourself rather than just reading other people's, as that is when the idea of a 'network' starts to make sense - and I find it's great to use to send people links to things they would might find interesting - and if they don't, it's quickly lost in the Twitterstream anyway.
Twitter is also useful - for example I follow a number of art galleries, and tweets from them about the times/dates of their exhibitions often reminds me to visit far more effectively than an email would do. A lot of campaigns gather pace quickly using Twitter, such as the current #savelibraries , which is fighting against the proposed cuts to public libraries, and helps to spread the word about events and developments concerning this issue.
One thing I would suggest to anyone using Twitter for the first time is to use a client such as Tweetdeck, which shows at a glance the tweets in your Twitterstream, and enable you to reply and follow people easily - using this you can also set up an alert, so you get a pop up which appears on your computer when you receive a tweet (This is not annoying as it sounds, as it automatically disappears after a few seconds!). I've also found a TwitterGadget for iGoogle, which displays a small list of Tweets of your followers and also enable you to tweet whilst your on the iGoogle page.
Anyway, for the purpose of 23 things I have started a new Twitter id @suzanne_atkins and have started to follow other people doing 23 things. I look forward to tweeting with everyone in the near future!
Image credit: Twitter Logo Map 09 by thenextweb.com
No comments:
Post a Comment