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Twitter and Its Value To Librarians - The Rise Of The Microblogging Service Phil Bradley LIS 2009

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<ul><li>Twitter is a microblogging resource with a character limit of 140 characters per message, or 'tweet' as they are generally referred to. </li></ul><ul><li>In answer to the question 'What are you doing?' users are free to type in anything that they choose; silly, serious, inane, important etc </li></ul>

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<ul><li>People will 'follow' other people, and will be 'followed' in turn. This means that you can see their 'tweets' and they can see yours. </li></ul><ul><li>It's also possible to import links to blog posts, images, sound files into your 'twitter stream' or to export tweets to your website/weblog </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Users can 'Re-Tweet' posts, which is to say copy and paste a tweet from someone they follow to their followers to propagate a message </li></ul><ul><li>The use of self/group defined #hashtags makes it much easier to search for, and follow tweets about a specific subject or conference </li></ul>

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How can librarians use Twitter? <ul><li>Allows you to keep in contact with colleagues, to see what they're doing, what their interests are, read their opinions/thoughts/ideas </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Keep informed about developments from publishers; both in terms of what they're publishing, but also events they're running </li></ul>

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<ul><li>You can promote what your library service is doing. Attract new users, offer gifts or incentives, increase awareness and have fun! </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Provide instant answers and point people in the right direction </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Follow links to events, keep briefed on current affairs </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Use Twitter as an RSS reader to keep up to date with blog entries </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Share photographs quickly and easily, especially if using a smartphone </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Ask questions using polls, Re-Tweet for maximum results </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Keep involved with conferences even if you can’t attend them with 3 rd party sites </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Add short (3 minute) audio posts using Audioboo and add in a photograph as well! </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Broaden your knowledge of a subject by following the right people/organizations </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Ask questions! Answer questions! </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Find new people to follow using Twitter search or 3 rd party sites like WeFollow </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Communicate more effectively </li></ul><ul><li>Discuss events as they happen </li></ul><ul><li>Send people Direct Messages </li></ul>

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Follow authors

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Follow dead people

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And more... <ul><li>Networking, both professional, friend to friend </li></ul><ul><li>News: new books, closing early, new staff </li></ul><ul><li>Marketing tool </li></ul><ul><li>Broadcasting content </li></ul><ul><li>Updating a website via Twitter </li></ul>

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Advantages <ul><li>Free </li></ul><ul><li>Fast </li></ul><ul><li>Simple </li></ul><ul><li>Effective </li></ul><ul><li>Brevity </li></ul><ul><li>‘ Always on’ </li></ul><ul><li>Instant information </li></ul>

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Disadvantages <ul><li>Media hype </li></ul><ul><li>‘ Fail Whale’ </li></ul><ul><li>Brevity (what can you say in 140 characters?) </li></ul><ul><li>Small number of users </li></ul><ul><li>Spam </li></ul><ul><li>3 rd party applications </li></ul><ul><li>Viruses </li></ul>

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6 things when getting started...

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Directories to find people <ul><li>http://wefollow.com </li></ul><ul><li>http://mrtweet.net </li></ul><ul><li>http://www.twibes.com/ </li></ul><ul><li>http://justtweetit.com/ </li></ul><ul><li>http://www.twellow.com/ </li></ul>

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Not forgetting... <ul><li>http://www.twitter.com/philbradley </li></ul><ul><li>Thank you! </li></ul>

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Thanks to: <ul><li>http://www.flickr.com/photos/hansdorsch/1807996676/ for the Twitter/iPhone image </li></ul>