BBSLG Members' Forum – Twitter demo
How not to use Twitter
As I mentioned in my previous post, I did a quick demo of Twitter during the Members' Forum at the BBSLG conference last week - the few slides I used can be found on Slideshare.
At the beginning of the session a show of hands indicated that around 20 (approximately half of the group) people already had Twitter accounts. Of those about 10 tweeted once a week and only 2 or 3 tweeted once a day or more. This had been my suspicion and so I angled my talk to focus on why you should give Twitter another try.
The session seemed to go down well - it's always encouraging to see lots of nods from the audience. And I'm pleased to see at the last count 6 new BBSLG followers - hopefully they'll be more to come.
As ever immediately after I sat down I though of a million and one other things I could have said to help people get started. So, inspired by Jo Alcock's presentation at the New Professionals' conference, here are my top tips for anyone about to get started on Twitter:
- Upload a picture - show us you're human. It doesn't have to be a photo of you, although it is nice, but just something that shows a bit of your personality.
- Write a bio - for the same reason as before really. Prospective followers will want to learn a bit about you first.
- Follow, follow, follow - to get the most out of Twitter right from the word go you need to find people to follow and lots of them. As I mentioned in my talk find a few at first and then use their follower lists to find more like minded people.
- Share - this not only goes for what you're doing but what you're reading, viewing, thinking. Vary your tweets. Link to blog posts and articles you've found interesting and tell your followers why.
- Engage - it's easy to be passive but you'll get more out of Twitter if you get involved. If someone asks a question answer it. If someone posts something of interest to you retweet it. Make yourself visible and get involved. It goes back to that old saying you get out what you put in.
Thoughts on CILIP, Twitter, Library School and Web2.0
Today, like a lot of other UK based librarians I participated in the CILIP Council Open Session on the use of Web2.0 via Twitter (tag #cilip2). The live session included presentations from Phil Bradley and Brian Kelly and a Q&A/discussion. It was also live blogged on the Library & Information Update blog.
My initial intention had been to just monitor the event just to keep up with what was happening. The experience however drew me in and at one point this morning (before the event started) I was up in the top 10 list of tweeters. If this event does nothing else it will have brought together a group of librarians professionally and geographically diverse.
I have high hopes however that something more will come out of it. I am not a member of CILIP and haven't been since I graduated from library school. My personal feeling is that CILIP doesn't engage me enough to warrant my membership fee. Depending on the outcome of today I may change my mind.
Anyway, what I really wanted to write about in this post were some thoughts I had on my cycle ride home as I was digesting the comments from the event. It's one thing to ask how CILIP are using web 2.0 tools and what their role is in leading the profession in their use but I also wonder how these tools are being used in teaching future professionals and whether they are being taught how these tools can be used in libraries and by librarians.
I graduated from library school nearly 3 years ago. We did a module called Hypermedia in which we had to create a website but there was no mention of the new technologies that were creeping on to the scene. My cohort were just beginning to use Facebook socially but there was no thought that it might have a place professionally. We used or perhaps it's better to say were forced to use Blackboard to communicate with the group and participate in group assignments. I wonder if today this is still the case or are people using tools like Ning to create social networks specific to their course?
Are future professionals being encouraged to experiment with new technologies and think of new ways to use them in libraries? Are they being asked to think about the potential drawbacks or legal issues? Are they being taught best practice? Are they debating where to draw the line between personal and professional or, if indeed there needs to be a line? Or are they teaching themselves?
Twitter – the next level
Earlier this week my boss started using Twitter. She got herself up and running and then called me in for some help with a few things. Watching her get started made me realise that I needed to revisit my post Twitter - the basics and provide you with some more tips. Now I know it's been done before but there are some folks who read this blog that don't read Mashable and the like. So here goes.
Blocking
When my boss signed up her first follower was someone like "celebritysex101". Clearly if you're going to be presenting yourself in a professional capacity you don't want a follower like this. So how do you get rid of them?
- Click through to your list of followers from the sidebar of your homepage or profile.
- Next to each follower, who you don't follow yourself, you will see these buttons
- To block a follower it's simple, just click the block button and follow the steps to confirm the action.
Retweeting
I'm finding that as I'm following more people I'm retweeting more and more. The principle is simple - when you see a tweet you like and want to share it with your followers you retweet it. The image below shows an example of a retweet.
Retweeting is easy, all you need to do is copy the content of the original tweet, preceded by RT (so that people know it is a retweet) and the original tweeters username (to give them the credit). If you've got space I always like to add a comment of my own afterwards just to give it a personal touch and show why you are retweeting.
Shortened URLs
When sharing links on Twitter you don't want to eat up your character allowance with a lengthy URL. So why not use a URL shortener such as TinyURL or bit.ly to help you save some space. All you need to do is copy the original URL, paste it into the box on the site of your chosen URL shortner and hit go.
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