Assignment 15: Twitter
Thursday March 10, 2011
When I started using Twitter I thought it might just be the dumbest, well one of the dumbest, things I'd seen. I followed some advice to stick with it and keep searching and following people with like interests. After a few weeks of chipping away at it, things started to take off. I've discovered a great group of people who post valuable, thought provoking material. I'd say at this point that it's proven to be one of the best learning resources in my life so far. Here's how I did it:
1. Sign up for an account at Twitter.com
2. Follow some of these people to get you started:
@willrich45
@chrislehmann
@andycinek
@edutopia
@budtheteacher
@shannonmmiller
@garystager
@teachpaperless
@courosa
@jutecht
Take a look at what these folks are posting. They provide links to loads of material on education (which will fit into some projects we'll do later on here).
Then try following @guykawasaki
Guy Kawasaki posts... a heap of stuff. He uses it as a personal marketing tool and actually hires some folks to do posting for him. Collectively, they dig up a lot of cool material.
3. Then try searching for some words on your Twitter page in the search box related to your project. It might take some time to find the right words but try to make it work.
Some examples:
music
greentech
photoshop
By searching for different terms you'll find people with like interests. If you find someone interesting, visit their Twitter page and see what they post on a regular basis. If it looks good, then click 'Follow' and you'll see what they post on your page (like your Facebook wall).
Bit like hiring research assistants... for free.
4. Next, we'll move on to one of the more powerful options in Twitter called Hashtags.
You may notice in some posts you see that there is a word with a # in front of it. Welcome to hashtags! Hashtags are used to categorize your posts, to make them easy to find. Once you find what people with like interests are using for hashtags things really start to take off.
Example: Check out some of my posts... (@batman44) and see that I've added #education and #edchat to some posts. Currently about 200 people follow me on Twitter. When I post something it just reaches those 200 folks. If I post something and include a hashtag like #edchat... my post will reach everyone who scans Twitter for that hashtag. Suddenly, my post may reach, who knows, 30,000, 50,000, 100,000 people, who knows how many people... worldwide.
A recent conference I went to, Educon, used the #educon hashtag. Everyone who attended (in person and virtually on the web) the conference posted thoughts, resources, and questions on Twitter about Educon using that #educon hashtag. It produced a great buzz around the conference, a slew of great ideas brewing that otherwise would not have been heard.
5. This #edchat hashtag is one I found that people routinely use when they discuss education. Try a search for #edchat yourself on your Twitter page. You'll see a load of results, resources, ideas... powerful learning mojo. Using hashtags, it becomes easy to see how Twitter can expand your learning network.
6. Give it a shot... and keep at it. Try searching for terms within your project and some try finding hashtags related to your project and see what it conjures up for you personally. Follow people you think are interesting, unfollow those who you don't like.
Your blog searches in assignment 14 might reveal the Twitter IDs of some people too.
The trick:
It's easy to use Twitter simply for entertainment, to dismiss it as trivial or something that you are just not interested in. Challenge yourself to build your knowledge with it, to start building a network of people who enrich your thinking. Never know what might turn up.
It takes time, patience and some diligence. Have fun with it and collaborate with the folks around you about how it's going. Engage.
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