I have
had a Twitter account since 3rd Feb
2009 but never used it much. However, 19 out of my 122 tweets have
been sent since I signed up for 23 things on 10th May,
so already having a positive effect on my tweeting. I can see this
becoming addictive. I’ve looked over all my old tweets, and while
at the time I agonised over sending them, I can see know that they're
fine, so maybe I don't need to be so worried about it.
I've
also been checking up on Twitter a lot more often which means that I
can follow conversations rather than just dip into random tweets.
I've also edited the people I'm following and need to remember to do
this regularly. I've found some more people to follow, and have come
across some interesting tweets and links to blogs and other websites.
My main issue with Twitter is information overload and the more you follow the worse it gets. It's a bit like walking past the tv and hearing a random quote (this morning it was "Charlene - the last surviving woman ...."), only with Twitter, you have around 30 channels going at once and it can be very difficult at times to make sense of it.
When I tweeted a request for information, I got no replies at all. I suspect that this is the problem with Twitter – people don't, in fact can't, follow all the tweets, so much of what is on there goes unnoticed. When I put a request for information on the lis-link mailing list, I got around 6 responses so if I compare the 2, the mailing list wins hands-down for gathering information. However Twitter is better for following trends and keeping up-to-date with conversations.
My main issue with Twitter is information overload and the more you follow the worse it gets. It's a bit like walking past the tv and hearing a random quote (this morning it was "Charlene - the last surviving woman ...."), only with Twitter, you have around 30 channels going at once and it can be very difficult at times to make sense of it.
When I tweeted a request for information, I got no replies at all. I suspect that this is the problem with Twitter – people don't, in fact can't, follow all the tweets, so much of what is on there goes unnoticed. When I put a request for information on the lis-link mailing list, I got around 6 responses so if I compare the 2, the mailing list wins hands-down for gathering information. However Twitter is better for following trends and keeping up-to-date with conversations.
One
thing I want to do is find out how to manage Twitter better. I have
used TweetDeck in the past but need to go back and explore this and
other tools.
I've
been using RSS feeds in Google Reader for some time, and am pretty
happy with how this works. I've updated the feeds and like another
participant, would like to explore other RSS feed handlers apart from
Google Reader. This is probably the most valuable way, for me, of
keeping up-to-date. I keep intending to set up feeds from various
journals, but haven't been able to do thiss yet.
Storify
– this wascompletely new to me. I didn't get on at all well with it
to begin with, and at the moment can't see when I would use it.
So,
a big thumbs up to Twitter and RSS feeds, and I'll keep subscribing
to mailing lists as well.
One time I requested info on Twitter I was lucky enough to get my request re-tweeted by one of the big library tweeters - got good responses that time but other times, as you say, not so good....
ReplyDeleteHi Nia, I've asked questions on Twitter too. Sometimes got answers, sometimes I didn't. I think it partly reveals that to use Twitter well some people only skim it at certain times of day. That's how I use it, in order to manage the information overload. So if I wasn't looking at it at the point your tweeted, I will have probably missed your tweet. It's not advisable to scroll through the whole day's tweets.... Also, to some extent, people may reply if they know you/have seen tweets from you. I'm not one of the twitterarti - I'm not on there 24/7 and don't do a whole lot of interacting with replies etc. The more of that you do, the more people may respond to a question. Possibly!
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