Quite a lot of people laugh at me for tweeting. My wife thinks its a bit silly, and most of my team don't see the point. The one member of my team who has joined hasn't tweeted since June 9th 2009, and that was only his 4th tweet. I want to share how I got started on twitter, and why I think it is a good thing. I realise it is probably preaching to the converted, but if I can point people here when they ask about it, then maybe they might be convinced...
Almost by chance, if I'm honest. I'm a big fan of Radio 4's friday night comedy, and usually download it to listen to at the gym. One week on The Now Show Mitch Benn sang one of his songs about wanting to be king of twitter, and beat Coldplay and Stephen Fry. I'm usually all for jumping on a bandwagon, so signed up and followed him - that was March 21st 2009, according to http://www.whendidyoujointwitter.com/!
I soon got bored of following celeb types, although the news feeds have stayed. I soon found my brother, with whom I communicate more through twitter than sms or phone calls, and then next 'fad' was twatching. It started with Britains Got Talent, and the tag #bgt. It feels more like watching at a giant pub, but from the luxury of your own sofa. Torchwood Children of Earth (#coe) was next, and of course more recently #xfactor. #theapprentice should also be in there somewhere. Tweetdeck makes this all too easy!
I know many people have more than one account - one for 'work' stuff, and one for 'fun'. I'm reluctant, as I see twitter as a big staffroom. I will talk to work friends about what I saw on TV, but need to remember not to get to carried away (thanks to tweeps who reined in my excessive #jedward slating).
Somewhere along the line I started following and interacting with maths teacher types, and then other teachers, and it has snowballed from there. That's the trick, I think, to have the patience to get to the stage where it does snowball, and you find the right people to not just follow, but interact with. Having been involved with #movemeon has made me feel useful - that I have something to add to the discussion, and eventually I hope to be putting as much in as I take out, but I'm not there yet. The number of ideas I've shared with colleagues, and classes that I would not otherwise have known about, from Interactive Volcanoes to WallWisher and MathsMaps, and all of the 'Interesting Ways'.
Targets for 2010 -
Convert at least 1 colleague.
Add more take less.
I know the second one isn't a smart target, but then this is for me, not a performance management interview...
Happy New Year.
Almost by chance, if I'm honest. I'm a big fan of Radio 4's friday night comedy, and usually download it to listen to at the gym. One week on The Now Show Mitch Benn sang one of his songs about wanting to be king of twitter, and beat Coldplay and Stephen Fry. I'm usually all for jumping on a bandwagon, so signed up and followed him - that was March 21st 2009, according to http://www.whendidyoujointwitter.com/!
I soon got bored of following celeb types, although the news feeds have stayed. I soon found my brother, with whom I communicate more through twitter than sms or phone calls, and then next 'fad' was twatching. It started with Britains Got Talent, and the tag #bgt. It feels more like watching at a giant pub, but from the luxury of your own sofa. Torchwood Children of Earth (#coe) was next, and of course more recently #xfactor. #theapprentice should also be in there somewhere. Tweetdeck makes this all too easy!
I know many people have more than one account - one for 'work' stuff, and one for 'fun'. I'm reluctant, as I see twitter as a big staffroom. I will talk to work friends about what I saw on TV, but need to remember not to get to carried away (thanks to tweeps who reined in my excessive #jedward slating).
Somewhere along the line I started following and interacting with maths teacher types, and then other teachers, and it has snowballed from there. That's the trick, I think, to have the patience to get to the stage where it does snowball, and you find the right people to not just follow, but interact with. Having been involved with #movemeon has made me feel useful - that I have something to add to the discussion, and eventually I hope to be putting as much in as I take out, but I'm not there yet. The number of ideas I've shared with colleagues, and classes that I would not otherwise have known about, from Interactive Volcanoes to WallWisher and MathsMaps, and all of the 'Interesting Ways'.
Targets for 2010 -
Convert at least 1 colleague.
Add more take less.
I know the second one isn't a smart target, but then this is for me, not a performance management interview...
Happy New Year.
I think Twitter is very difficult to get started with. I have two accounts - with an increasing ammount of overlap - but when I first signed up I didn't know what to do next. I think this is what most people experience.
ReplyDeleteI really got started when someone whose blog I read followed me, I found more people that I 'knew' online in his followers list and suddenley I had a network. Then I started to 'meet' people on Twitter, something that wouldn't have occured to me when I got started.
It's finding the right network that is the difficult thing, but that's not an easy thing to get started with, so I can see why so many people give up after a couple of tweets.
I have only persuaded one colleague onto Twitter - and she hasn't ever done more than sign up and tweet acouple of times. My colleagues are more than happy to receive the assorted links and ideas that I pick up and pass on though.