Thing #13: Twitter

All right, I've made it to the dreaded Thing #13: What are you doing?

One of the reasons I signed on to Nebraska Learns 2.0 was to force myself to explore certain social technologies that I have been deliberately avoiding. Twitter is one of those things.

I've known about Twitter for a while. I understand it, but it just never appealed to me. I definitely see the value of Twitter for libraries and businesses. Libraries can send out Tweets like, "Closed on Monday for the holiday," or "We now have Kindles available for checkout!" Businesses can send out, "Big sale on Tuesday. 20% off all linens," or "Nintendo Wii back in stock!" That totally makes sense to me.

For personal use, though, I have never seen the appeal. My life simply isn't that interesting. I don't see why anyone would care what I'm doing. Big things, I can post on my blog. But come on, look at the average length of posts in both of my blogs. Do you think I'm capable of saying anything to my satisfaction in 140 characters or less? Ha! Also, I like my privacy. I don't necessarily want people to know what I'm doing all the time. Thirdly, if I actually AM doing something interesting, the last thing I want to do is stop, go to a computer or get out my cell phone, and type a sentence or two.

I found myself nodding in agreement with most of what Kathy Sierra said in the Creating Passionate Users post "Is Twitter TOO good?" (which I heard about from Learning As I Go). Especially noteworthy is the Twitter Curve graph.

When I searched Twitter for things of potential interest, I found unomaha and decided to follow their Tweets so I can keep up with campus events. Otherwise, I saw a few interesting events happening around Omaha, mixed in with a series of Tweets that told a tale of a jilted lover worthy of a soap opera. I also found that a lot of other people are playing the same video game I am. (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, if you must know.)

So, to answer the three questions about Thing #13:

1. Did you like micro-blogging?

So far, no. But I'm willing to give it some time to see if I catch the bug.

2. How could libraries use Twitter?

It can be another venue for news and announcements, supplementing rather than replacing existing venues. Really, it's good to send out announcements in as many formats as possible, so patrons can receive them however they prefer. Twitter could also be good for notification of interesting new books, media, and collections; receiving and responding to reference questions; and promoting new services and events.

3. How could you use Twitter?

The 140 character limit might be good for me, as it forces me to carefully consider every word that goes into a sentence. Given my natural tendency toward prolixity, some practice in succinct wordsmithing could be helpful.

I'll keep Tweeting for a few days and report back if my opinions change. My Twitter user name is LunaMurphy, if you want to look in on me.