Potluck #56: To Tweet or Not To Tweet...Twitter

I learned about Twitter as part of the committee for the original iHCPL. Together with a couple of other folks, I captured some of the more quotable quotes from iHCPL participants in a Twitter feed on the blog. For this exercise, I logged in and added a few new ones. It's amazing how time flies. The last time I did an entry was 202 days ago!!

Exercise 1) Browse a couple of different Twitter profiles.

I looked at a few of the celebrity profiles and could find none that I cared to follow. TMI.

I think I will stick to reading the status updates of people I know in Facebook, rather than opening a personal Twitter account.

Exercise 2) Use the search feature to find tweets about a topic.

I searched for the "Barbara Bush Library" and found this tweet:
"Sadly my TV watching is on pause while I visit the infamous Barbara Bush Library (right down the street) for tax help."

Also found a tweet that one of the staff must have entered:
"Knowledge Exchange @ Barbara Bush Library 2day @ 2:30p. Call 281-376-4610 for info. BYO project or conversation!"

These verify what the Forbes article said: "Most important, Twitter can be an effective way to build a customer-centric organization that not only communicates authentically but also listens to customers and learns from that interaction."

I used Twellow to find some Tweets on raw foods, organic foods, and vegetarianism. I think tweets are better thought of as a path to information, rather than as a place for the information itself.


Exercise 3) Post your thoughts about Twitter to your blog.

The Twitter site boasts that it is "a modern antidote to information overload." I think I agree more with Entertainment Weekly that described it as "a time-stamped list resembling a short-attention-span blog."

I think that Twitter is just a passing fad, even though I currently hear EVERYONE talking about it. It was mentioned in an article I read this morning in the "Conde Nast Portfolio", and as I am writing this post, Meghan McCain is on the Larry King Show talking about how Twitter is her favorite thing. I heard Stephen Colbert talking about it last night, and it was a topic on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" this morning. I think Twitter will be around for a while, but will lose its glamor and probably will be usurped by other sites (e.g. the status updates of Facebook)and become less important as a stand-alone network.

Pot Luck: #55 Getting the Most Out of Facebook

I have had a Facebook account since the Social Networks section of the original iHCPL 23 Things (Thing 18). I currently have 51 friends and 14 applications. As a result of this exercise, I just added a Friends Wheel and some pieces of flair.

Facebook is fascinating, and as a result, an incredible sink hole for time. I never fail to learn something new about my friends, and am often tempted by new apps. I suppose if you had a business or service to promote it could be a productive use of time. As it is for me, it seems more like interactive TV -- sometimes educational, but more often just lost hours.

I appreciated the 10 suggestions about protecting privacy, and implemented one of them right away. I intend to work more with creating groups, to try to make the flow of information more manageable.

I like following Friend Suggestions, Are You Related?, reading comments on the wall, and birthday reminders. Its hard to believe there are 26 million users every month!