Thing 4: To Tweet and Feed

The aim of Thing 4 of cpd23 was to introduce us to some tools that would help us keep up-to-date with things going on in the library and information world. Here's my thoughts on Twitter and RSS feeds.

Twitter

Until now I've shied away from Twitter. To be honest I just really didn't get it. In the past I only ever seemed to stumble across fragmented conversations and stuff of little interest or relevance. To say I've had a Twitter epiphany this week wouldn't overstate the case.


thewikiman's post "3 essential things to do as soon as you join Twitter" could have come a few days earlier and offered some sound advice; put in a picture, proper engaging bio and write a couple of tweets. When I set up my account my only aim was to try and get my head around how Twitter works, however now realise I was doing myself no favours not doing these things before following people. 

So, default egg replaced with mug shot and a blurb in place all I had to do was tweet. Sounds so simple, but I really struggled to get my first tweet out there. Searching for #cpd23 lead me to a fab list of people on Twitter who are following the cpd23 programme and I've since replied to a few of their tweets.

I'm only following a few people at the moment, however from what I've seen so far I'm impressed. Yes there's still a lot of stuff that's not of interest, but there's also lots of links to articles, blog posts and events and some enlightening conversations. As I follow more people I must remember Woodsiegirl's advice that you do not need to read every tweet that pops up in your stream, instead treat Twitter as what it is; a conversation to dip into as and when you can.

Now the negatives. Building an online presence from scratch is time consuming and I'm definitely learning that you only get out what you put in. I know I can't conjure up an online network overnight, but I’m struggling to find the time to get the most out of blogging and tweeting. I know what I need to do; tweet, respond and comment, however just finding the people I want to interact with, having the confidence to put myself out there (without feeling like a stalker) and finding something relevant and interesting to say is proving a problem. I'm still unsure of what I have to offer?


RSS Feeds

I'd already set up a few feeds using my Blogger account and so far so good, although I find it easier to view posts in Google Reader.

Working in a commercial environment I run regular press searches and often find when I'm reading the Sunday papers I can't help but read the headline, some of the lead paragraph and skim the rest of the article if it's interesting. Whilst frustrating when reading for pleasure, this habit really helps when it comes to keeping on top of my reading list. I'm happy to skim through, see if anything takes my fancy, ignore the posts that don't and mark the really interesting ones to come back to later.

I'm starting to sound on top of things, but I'm not. Seeing what others are posting all in one place is great, but I need to make time to interact with people and their blogs, otherwise I will remain forever disconnected.

Pushnote

Pushnote was the final thing on the to do list this week, however proved to be a step too far. I'm mentioning it here just to remind me to take a look later.