Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Why I succumbed to Twitter....
I avoided it for a long time – who needs another obsession? – but after the NLab Social Networks Conference, I decided I had to have a part of this, and yes it’s become a regular practice. I follow and am followed by various other people interested in social networks and online communities and I’m already seeing some interesting insights, being pointed to useful resources elsewhere on the Web and being caught up in new discussions both on Twitter and elsewhere (e.g., on blogs and mailing lists.
After comments by Andy Roberts and others on emint, here are some suggested rules for effective use of Twitter:I can see a lot of positive uses for Twitter over and above the simple “What are you doing now application”.
- Only follow people you find interesting.
- Use the Twitter search to find people (not the “invite people” – I find that’s a red herring and not the way to find people!)
- Ask questions or throw out any problems you’re grappling with. Use it like a “garden fence” for the eliterati.
- Use additional services like following a news or sports feed - you can then get that feed to your mobile via Twitter.
- Beware of getting a large feed sent to your mobile – the thing will keep you awake!
- Distributed problem solving
- Finding out a bit more about your contacts and facilitating closer relationships
- Keeping attendees at a conference informed before and after
- A quick way to keep members of a community or network in touch
- Alerts to web content (using short URLs)
- Learning prompts and alerts for learners on a course.
Labels: blogging, internet policy, moblogging, twitter, Web 2.0, web applications
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:44 AM
