The TwitterCycle…as Cog Dog notes joining in April of 2007.

It was very cool being a part of “Fleep”, Chris Collin’s, “first epiphany” and doubly ironic since she has been such a positive force for me and I dedicated a Second Life Satellite Convention to her and other teachers and people who have had a positive influence on my life.

I have cited a sample below, but there are many, many more at the Twitter Cycle list and I urge you to take the time to read it.

• Heather Dowd - heza - Started tweeting (twittering?) in February 2008 after reading about Twitter before going to the IL-TCE conference (ICE - Illinois Computing Educators). I was thinking of giving it up, but maybe I will just stay on this curve. I think I am currently in the “who are all these contacts?” phase.
• Fleep Tuque http://twitter.com/fleep - First Tweet: March 11, 2007 First Epiphany: Crossing paths with Wayne Porter First Evangelizing to Educators: Posting on the SLED list Now closing in on 700 followers, have gotten much more selective about what I tweet. What felt like a conversation among friends or friends of friends now feels like a shouted conversation in a really crowded party where I know some of the people but not sure who all might be able to hear me. Still find it incredibly valuable, but not sure what I should be adding to the network.

 

• Antoine http://twitter.com/japonophile - First Tweet: October 16, 2007, I’m only starting to grasp the value of Twitter: Twitter: gazouillements du Web 2.0.
• Joel Zehring - http://twitter.com/joelz - Started April 27, 2007. With very limited time, should I blog it or to twitter it?
• Phillip Long - http://twitter.com/RadHertz - First Tweet April 24, 2007. Had to look back to find my first Tweet (424 of them). That’s 50,880 characters of Tweeting (if ea were 140 chrs. long). Wow!
• Colleen Carmean- http://twitter.com/carmean - First Tweet May 15, 007. Stopped in now and then. Got sucked in more and more, especially via distant connection to friends at a conference. Got scared cuz I’m a wimp (see Jim Groom’s thread), now sneaking back in slowly to get my dose of tweets. Still murky. Going to use it to connect to my online students next few weeks and see if ‘learn by doing’ will wipe away fuzzy understanding.

Chris’ Basic Adoption Pattern:

- Joins and answers the standard question- What are you doing right now?

- Has an epiphany, among many I am sure, looking at the chain of collisions, when we “cross paths”.

- Begins to evangelize to other educators about the power of Twitter

- Now has over “700″ followers, which is quite a few people, making her an influential educator.

- She notes that it now feels like a crowded conversation.

- She is now much more selective about what she “tweets”.

- Not sure what or who she should be adding to the network…

So-Called Social Media Fatigue

This seems to be a frequent cycle people go through and I think it is a misnomer to call it “social media fatigue”- it is more about going in without strategies and good tools. It is all also dependent on what and how you plan to use Twitter, or any nano-blogging or micro-communication platform. Tactical formation of your network and even how often you use the tool is predicated on your strategic goals.

As an educator Fleep can certainly gain insight by following expert marketers, administrators, analysts, futurists or people OUTSIDE of her core competency. That is one of the most powerful aspects of Twitter. Whether you get it or not, it is an important shift.

Fleep may not use it like Gary Vaynerchuk a master marketer, or a technology futurist and author like Sam Harrelson, a video maven like Steve Rosenbaum, a famous virtual worlds designer and pioneer, an academic administrator and Hebrew scholar like Chris Brady, a reknowned security ace like Chris Boyd, a technologist and publisher like Steven Hodson, a seasoned programmer and developer like Ruud Hein or someone like myself. (I am a bit hard to define.) The great thing about Twitter, or the nano-sized communication format, is the ability to get a little bit closer to some amazing and diverse people!

“Twitter allows you to form bridges into new social networks and the chance to build diverse and rich relationships.”

Wayne’s Top Tactical Twitter Tips

1. Try to avoid over-use of the @symbol, although it is o.k. for “micro-conversations” to break out- they will happen. You can also use brackets like [@wporter] or send a direct message.
2. Don’t tweet every single blog post or photo upload, etc. unless you know your audience really well.
3. Avidly look for interesting people outside of your normal network so you are exposed to new ideas.
4. It is o.k. to emit some “noise”, after all part of the medium is to be fun, but avoid sending so much noise that people stop following you. You will develop your own “style” as you go along. Be human.
5. Look at your blog posts and tweets and see if you can correlate jumps in your “follower” growth or a trend in the “types” of followers to other activity in media.
6. You do not have to follow every single person on your list. You should frequently review new followers and see if you can find interesting people, and even if you don’t follow them, you can certainly stop by their blog or page.
7. Ensure your Twitter URL points to a site or page where potential people evaluating whether to follow or reciprocate with you. This way they can get more information about you and make a better decision. They are about to make an investment in their time so help them make it.
8. Occasionally reach out and spend some social capital by helping or simply a “thank you”. For example, thank someone who inspires you with their writing, or someone who helps you out, that you admire, or you find contributing to the commons. Sometimes they will respond in surprising ways.
9. Find technically advanced users or resources that will teach you how to effectively handle all of these emerging technologies like a pro.
10. Be genuine, be polite and have fun.

Summary

I hate the term “social media”, but it has stuck so we are forced to use it… I think the final take aways are to get your hands dirty, explore people and thoughts out of your normal haunts, and make contributions when and where you can.

“If you are always in your comfort zone, you are not getting real value out of services like Twitter.”

For Fun

This post’s random Twitter person… I don’t know them and I have never read them, I went to the public timeline and pulled out a name… mayobrains. Patricia Mayo “My Brain is Random Access - New Media Publishing smarty, Social Media Strategist @nowsourcing, Wordpress podcast co-host, Serial Entrepreneur, & workaholic, etc”.

Another cycle begins…

ADDENDUM 6.13.2008: Thanks to  Grace Midyette for expounding on the various tips and tricks.

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