It’s only recently that I’ve given any thought to taking out a Twitter account.
I don’t carry a cell phone, and maybe that’s part of why I’m not drawn to a platform that’s so micro, or so geared toward convenience. During the course of a day, I sometimes write much longer posts on several sites. It’s occuring to me, though, that while I may be quite happy to write macro, a lot of people prefer to read micro — or at least to see the micro/tweeted version first and decide if it’s something that they want to read. I observe how people are using their twitter accounts to draw others’ attention to longer web postings, both their own and other peoples’. And I do see how it could have some business value. Thoughts on the value of tweeting?

I only use Twitter as a community bulletin board or highway sign. I put out several small business announcements for each class to catch anothers eye. While I only try to focus on those who follow me or search for specific keywords or hashes, I assume much of the value is in getting people to see me and think of me at a later time.

I twitter a link to every article I write and I’ll twitter the classes I’m teaching.

Alan, I know you post links to some of your articles on the forum here. Do you post a link to your Twitter page anywhere?

Karen,
I don’t use my cell phone except to make (rare) phone calls. I like to read twitts as they give a glimpse at articles/new/info that I might want to read. I’m a lazy twitter, when I twitt about an article, I just use the given title.
To twitt or not to tweet ;)). If it’s on Twitter, why do we call them tweets? LOL

Hi,

My twitter id is cellphoneesl.

@Agnes, Twitter posts are called tweets. Something about Twitters mascot being a bird. I read somewhere that the idea involved birds on a telephone pole communicating to each other through …. tweets.

@Karen, I understand the frustration. That is why I use FB for a place to hang-out socially. I wonder if I would feel the same if I was using a mobile unit.

I use Twitter and Facebook all the time to promote my classes and other TEACHER’S classes also. I have a Twitter in Spanish exclusively for the Spanish teachers/classes at edufire.

@Dave: Oh I like that! Cute!

@Enrique: Have you been able to track results? Have you actually gotten people to sign up for classes from Twitter and FB?

I haven’t seen any definite draws from Twitter or FB just yet, but in the real world do businesses get any draws directly from freeway signs? I doubt it. It is getting your name out there and recognized more than once. Then later when the need starts to solidify in your customers head they will think of that sign and you.

Neither costs anything but time so try them out, but not to the detriment of money-making efforts.

This may be old news, but I think the best way to use Twitter to promote yourself is to try to create an authentic dialogue with your followers. I find that I tend to tune out if somebody solely uses their Twitter stream to blast what they want me to hear. However, if a teacher was more interactive and replied to my tweets sometimes or threw provocative, engaging questions out there, then I think I’d be more likely to listen to what they have to say as well when they’re promoting their classes. Just my two cents :)

- Lily

That is what people say. As of yet I haven’t seen it work, but you did give me a point to ponder.

I agree with a lot of what Lily said, though I’m more familiar with blogs than Twitter.

In regards to Twitter…. well, I want to bring up an organization called Write Fix as an example. I believe they are a nonprofit. Their main function is to support Nevada writing teachers, but a secondary purpose is to support writing teachers — and young writers — all over; there are many people tuned into that site because they are so good at what they do. They have recently begun to tweet the resources they put up to their site, whether it’s new sample papers from fourth graders, contest winners, or a lesson they developed at their inservice the night before.

It seems to me that if a person/site is operating a clearinghouse on anything like the level that Writing Fix is, they can just tweet about the rexources they put up, and they can be quite interesting. If they’re not…. well, they can be a signpost for various other interesting sites on the web, and that can be interesting. Of course, all this gets into the issue of how much free stuff to give away….

As for me personally, I think Twitter has limited value because 1) it’s not something i’m apt to use to connect with people I know on a personal level, and business-wise, it will have limited value if I’m unwillingly to post the address very openly…. not many folks will have it. It could turn out to have a bit of value at some point, though.

Personally, I don’t feel comfortable communicating in Twitter, but many do. It looks too short and any attempted conversations would be too choppy. I’ve seen the value in emergency situations (fire jumped 405 → leave → refugee camp in Corona 5th/mission) and times one needs to connect with uber short messages. (shopping list? → milk eggs baloney → home@1), not here.

BTW: The first conversation was taken from the 2008 triangle fire in Southern California. (It comes from my memory and I don’t remember the exact location of the refugee camp). The “hashmark” standard came from a similar situation in 2007 when people needed to track the fire front in San Diego. I also saw some Google mashups keeping track of the fires and refugee camps.

Anybody every had to block a follower — like if they have one just post up, and it’s completely inappropriate?

Yes, only allow people that are of same mind/interests.