I want to start things off by letting you know that I am not a tech-guy or anything close to it. I own and operate Cornell Gallery, a custom framing gallery in Pleasantville, NY, and my areas of interest include photography, skiing, sailing, family and friends. Recently, I was introduced to Twitter, and it soon became evident to me just how useful this micro-blogging platform could be.
Before I overwhelm you with a long list of reasons why Twitter will change your world, make you rich, teach you to speak foreign languages, or anything else — let me give you two basic facts that should at least open your mind to this concept known as Twitter:
Twitter is free. (That’s right. It costs nothing.)
Twitter doesn’t have to take much time. It takes only two or three minutes to sign up for Twitter, and after that, you can use it as much or as little as you see fit.
Keeping those two basic facts in mind, consider the following 4 benefits. Twitter allows you to:
1) Find out about Breaking News - Either by following the general timeline or searching a specific term, you can use Twitter to learn what’s happening now. Some of the more sensational stories have made headlines (like the Australian wildfires or the Hudson River plane landing), but Twitter can be useful for finding information on current news at any level, be it international or local. Try experimenting with Twitter search to see what it can do for you.
2) Learn Interesting Things about Other People or Organizations - By following others, you can learn what’s important to them and what’s going on in their lives. Twitter allows you search and/or subscribe to feeds of information from people or organizations based on a countless list of criterion. Twitter allows you to search people or organizations geographically, by area of interest or expertise, or just about any other way you can imagine. (Keep in mind that you only provide Twitter with information about yourself that you want to share).
3) Promote Yourself or Your Organization – Twitter is a great forum in which to promote that which is important to you or your organization. The 140-character limit for updates on Twitter can be constraining, but you can always provide links for your followers. You can link to your own website or blog, or to another URL of your choice. Just remember that Twitter is a two-way street. Make sure you spend some of your time listening to others, and contributing something useful to the conversation.
4) Document your life (or a part of it, depending on how you’re using your account) If you make a habit of updating your account regularly, your update list becomes a journal of sorts, filled with entries you thought were important enough for others to see. My Cornell Gallery account has become a list of links to useful websites, pictures of jobs we’ve done, and comments about what was going on at particular point in time. I like going back over the list every few weeks to see what’s transpired.
You may find that as you refine your use of Twitter, you start to engage in conversations, get feedback, gain knowledge or even see things from a different perspective. The potential is unlimited, and as the number of people using Twitter increases, the benefits will also increase.
Please feel free to comment below. I will read every comment, and will attempt to answer questions quickly, or even engage in debate, if the situation arises.
Twitter Professor is not affiliated with Twitter. Chris S. Cornell is not actually a professor, but he is interested in helping build local Twitter communities. Feel free to add constructive comments, questions or criticisms in the comments section. If you are building your own local Twitter community, or know of a particularly good one, include the Twitter address in your post.
