I blog and I tweet

Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 10:52 AM by Lucid Chaotic
Updated Aug 11th, 2009 at 12:25 AM by Lucid Chaotic

On the hierarchy of communication priority, Twitter is still pretty low on my list of tools that I use on a consistent basis. However, I must admit to the benefits that I hadn’t expected until I explored the tool a little more and started to use it for more practical purposes.

I really don’t see the need for using it just for the heck of it! Many people still take the tagline of a “life stream” very literally – tweeting about their every moment and routine. Granted, tweets are meant to be tiny (140 characters), but it doesn’t mean you tweet about every single minute of your life.

I’ve used twitter to find like-minded people who have similar professional interests. Following them on twitter, I get to learn about the latest industry trends, new research, upcoming events, and lessons learnt from their daily undertakings.

I’ve also tapped into a tacit resource base that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to. I’ve come across people who’re doing similar academic research as I am, and I’ve asked for references and advice, as well as provided suggestions to other researchers.

For me, the main benefit of twitter is that it acts as a real-time search engine as opposed to an archived search engine like Google. I can search on key terms to see what people are talking about related to my area of interest at any instance in time – was there a new report that was released? did someone have an important blog post sharing their take-aways from a seminar? etc. The same documents would only be indexed by Google in probably another week’s time or even longer – so if you want to be on the forefront of thought leadership, then Twitter is a tremendously valuable resource to avail in your gamut of communication and interaction tools.

Anyone else on GS using Twitter? Feel free to add me @Informatician

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	hmm...good use of twitter
	Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 11:02 AM by DeSiMuNdA

	oh interesting.. Thanks for sharing :-)
	Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 11:04 AM by Gemini the Great

	I am bit apprehensive about adding one more thing on my do to list but that's interesting to read how you use it
	Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 11:13 AM by njgal

	Great to see Twitter being used for something productive, rather than just stalking celebrities
	Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 11:15 AM by maroush

Quote:

Originally Posted by njgal

I am bit apprehensive about adding one more thing on my do to list but that's interesting to read how you use it

I hear ya njgal... it took me 2 years to adopt the tool. I'd been hearing about it for a long time, but everytime I considered it, I was put off by the mundane routine messages like "I'm having coffee" or "I'm walking to the kitchen" etc. I think initially it wasn't being marketed well either... it was meant to be a social networking tool, but it has evolved into a micro-blogging and real-time search engine which is its main value proposition.

Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 11:18 AM by Lucid Chaotic Lucid Chaotic is offline

	I enjoy reading your blog...
	Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 11:20 AM by chips6

I follow my mayor, my county, my congressman, my senator, my president, my professor (and a lot of other friends) and I think it's an awesome tool.

There was a fire in the mountains the other day and due to the smoke and low visibility they shut off one of the highways I often take going home. The county tweeted about it and I took a different route, saving me at least half an hour of headache and traffic.

Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 11:21 AM by ahmadjee ahmadjee is offline

	not for me im a back to nature person even though I am usually connected to atleast 1 piece of electronics in all my waking hours. besides its too cool for me.
	Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 11:37 AM by ravage

Thanks for the compliment chips...

ahmadjee, you seem to be a passive user of twitter - more of a content consumer type profile. I'm certain once you use it more actively, you'll get even more out of it.

ravage,
trust me man... for people like you and I who're engaged in research at the cross-section of academia and industry, twitter is an indispensable tool. Give it a few days of an honest trial, and you'll see *hopefully*

P.S. No - no... I'm not getting paid to promote twitter. I've just found it really useful so I wanted to share the experience with fellow guppies.

Posted Aug 6th, 2009 at 05:19 PM by Lucid Chaotic Lucid Chaotic is offline