I’m back on twitter

Okay, we’ll give this another shot. I started on twitter in 2007, but dropped it as a time sink that didn’t have a high enough signal to noise ratio. I also figured that anyone who cared much about what I said was my friend on Facebook and would see notes there. So for the last several months, my twitter use was pretty much limited to following @kim_gandy and @cnnbrk on my phone (though it’s sometimes surprising to see what CNN thinks folks need to know RIGHT NOW.)

The Fem2.0 conference brought it back to my attention (though I still think scrolling the #fem2 tweets on the screen behind the panelists was more distracting than valuable, and the twitter based meetings were *really* low on signal to noise). Also that meeting helped put twitter on the AAUW radar, so there’s now an “official” @aauw twitter stream and a few of the staff chime in on their own. I’ve still no evidence that AAUW members in general are into twitter — I expect (as I found in 2007) that the number of AAUW twitterers compares to the number of AAUW Facebook users about the way twitter/facebook has penetrated the general population. That might be down from the 1:100 ratio to more like 1:30 — but with only on the order of 1000 folks on Facebook who identify with AAUW, I’m not convinced there’d be a big payoff for twitter. [But then, I remember crying as I was leaving the “younger members session” in Phoenix in 2007 — the panel said “use text messaging” but my note about twittering the convention was rejected as  inappropriate for the Convention Daily.]

We’ll see if I stick with it (and can control the time sink). Two new tools may help:

  • The Firefox add in Shareaholic. Almost a one-click tweet of an interesting link. Let me know if you find those annoying. I still do use del.icio.us for things of lasting value (particularly tag aauwtech).
  • Web interface tweetree.com. This is something like twitter.com on steroids —
    • gives additional info on links including showing  the media links as pix or videos,
    • has a box to do a search directly (instead of moving over to search.twitter.com),
    • shows (as best as it can figure) the original message when a friend posts an @reply,
    • supports retweet directly (without copy/paste),
    • and more.

I’m still being circumspect about following other folks – so don’t take it personally, just consider my borderline ADD and twitter @nes49 to get my attention (or, as my twitter profile still says, find me on Facebook).

2 thoughts on “I’m back on twitter

  1. Anniversary note: Not what I expected. I just returned to Twitter/Tweetdeck. Now see the value – don’t know why it eluded me before. Suddenly the ease and immediacy of interaction appeal: 2-way or group connections with others at a touch.
    It depends on connecting with others similarly installed which becomes a selection criterion. So the question is “How do I persuade others I want to interact with to make the effort?”. The prerequisites are daunting.
    That said I appreciate Nancy’s patience with me which makes things possible.

  2. Will have to talk to you about TweetDeck. Installed it last month, but it just seemed overwhelming. I follow only dozens of people, not hundreds, though. Maybe @bph can help me out when we get together in June.

    I find twitter much less useful than Facebook for targeted communications — but the ability to pick up tidbits from folks I’d never “friend” on FB and/or put my info “into the stream” for others to pick up seems helpful — but I’ve no illusions about how many people actually see those tweets.

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