Friends, readers, listeners, viewers… I’ve just joined the team over at At Length, a really lovely venue for ambitious, in-depth (read: long) works of writing, music, photography and art. I’m terrifically excited to be AL’s community manager and help promote the magazine as well as its content. Using social media to promote good words, thought-provoking images and meaningful music? Well, that’s just rad.
The magazine publishes several times a month – and the line-up for 2010 is looking phenomenal. You can find me tweeting for At Length here. Find us on Facebook here. We’ll also be sending a monthly email to keep in touch and make note of recent content – sign up for the emails here.
Hooray!
One of the reasons I enjoy Twitter (and microblogging on sites like Facebook) so much is that it captures small moments in time, records compelling pieces of insight, and provides an efficient opportunity to share a wide variety of things I consider important (for personal, professional and political reasons). I find it immensely satisfying to read these tweets, posts and updates as meandering narratives of our days.
But it’s also insightful to reflect on the patterns of our microblogging, and to see what (if anything) is illuminated by them. So at the end of this long and mostly unplugged holiday weekend, I generated a Tweetcloud based on language analysis of my Twitter posts for this past year. As a reflection of what I hope I’m contributing to the social universe, it’s both cheerful and motivating.
Hooray!
Here’s the link.
In my previous posts, I’ve blogged about why Twitter is important for businesses and what individuals can gain from the service, so today I’d like to focus on how you can make the most of your tweets. First impressions count in the real world, and they’re even more important in the Twitterverse. Whether you are tweeting for an organization or just for yourself, you want to make your 140 characters count!
ok
My last post on Twitter focused on how organizations can use micro-blogging to develop customer relationships and build communities, but what about individuals? What can people possibly get out of a social network limited to 140 characters? And why bother with it if you’ve already got a Facebook account?
The distinction between Twitter and Facebook is a useful one. On Facebook, your objective is to find your friends and share with them. On Twitter, you find people to “follow” and you cultivate “followers.” Facebook is primarily a social tool that focuses on reaching out to people you already know. Twitter, on the other hand, is a tool for finding and communicating with people well beyond your circle of friends. Because of that, Twitter is a very powerful tool for social networking, talking with people who share your professional or personal interests, and getting real-time news and resources.
ok
[I'm doing a three-part series of posts on Twitter for the Design Rangers Camp Blog over the next three weeks. I'm cross-posting them here, too. Enjoy!]
As media buzz builds about Twitter, more and more businesses and organizations are starting to realize that the micro-blogging site is not just a teen textfest or an outlet for discussing your breakfast cereal of choice. In fact, Twitter has evolved into a thriving professional network, a real-time news feed, and an effective way to share information and resources online. So what can your organization do with 140 characters? A lot. ok
