What is Twitter? Librarians and Twitter, Twitter for Libraries

What is Twitter? Twitter for librarians.

The question 'What is Twitter?' is being asked a lot at the moment - particularly by librarians. This page will look at answering the question of Twitter, how Twitter can be used by libraries, how librarians are using Twitter, and how to use it if you're new to the system.

What is Twitter - an introductory screencast

Writing your first Tweet, searching Twitter and following someone

Twitter; your first 24 hours

I've noticed a lot of new followers on Twitter recently, and most of them are probably looking at the thing and wondering 'OK, I'm here, what do I do now?' I thought it might help to provide a few pointers that should make that first day a bit more enjoyable and productive.

If you like background reading you could try my blog posts on using Twitter in libraries or by looking at the above screencasts. Alternatively try 'A guide to twitter' which provides some useful hints and tips on getting started, from Lost art of blogging or CNet's 'Newbie's guide to Twitter' which will take you through some basics; it's comprehensive so there's no need for me to explain basic functionality.

If you're the type of person who likes to jump in and start looking for people to follow you could start with Twitter's follow suggestions tool, but quite frankly that's pretty dire. Better might be to look at the visual 'friends network' tool to see who your friends are following. You could alternatively try Twellow which takes a category approach to individuals or use the Twitter name search option (which also isn't great either!) One resource that I like is the Just Tweet It directory, which lists individuals in different subject areas, such as librarians.

You may be a 'what's in it for me' person, and if that's the case I'd suggest heading over to the Twitter search engine to see which people are talking about subjects that are close to your heart. You can then decide to follow them (or not!) or jump in and start chatting. Alternatively, try clicking on the 'Find People' option top right to see if you already have friends and colleagues who are on the service.
If you're not any of those people, you might just want to sit back, follow a few people and see where Twitter takes you. I can't offer much advice here, since the people I follow may not interest you, but you can always take a look at them if you like!

However, there are a few that you might be tempted by:
http://twitter.com/ICHCheezburger if you are into LOLcats
http://twitter.com/guardiantech to keep up to date with what's happening in the tech world
http://twitter.com/ukeig for obvious reasons (if you don't know what they are, you can ignore this one!)
http://twitter.com/stephenfry who now has a ridiculous number of followers.

If you really want to utilise Twitter to the maximum, you'll want to check out the many hundreds of applications you can use. Many sites to choose from, but I'll suggest Twitterapps as one of the best. Of course, if you have any questions just ask them - either here in the comments field or generally at Twitter itself.

Now I know/hope that you're going to be rushing to try Twitter out - but before you do, please do a few things first:

Create an avatar image to use. This is a small picture - of yourself, your cat, something abstract, it really doesn't matter, but it's the way that most people will learn to recognise you. You can change this at will, but it makes sense to stick with something you like. I often scroll through tweets looking at images for those people that I particularly like, and if you stick with the default image this will not bring you to the attention of people who are following you.

Fill out your profile. People need to know your name, a URL to explore in more detail and a little about you. If you have a blank profile there is a reasonable chance that you'll be seen as a spammer, and you don't want that!

Start with a few tweets before you look for followers. Say who you are, what you're doing, what interests you and so on. While no-one will be reading those at that time they're very useful ways of judging a person and deciding if you are going to be of interest to them enough to follow. Try and pop in a few links to resources as well, just to show how helpful you are.

When you've primed the pump as it were - then go and find some followers - I guarantee you'll get more if you do those few things first of all.

Twitter Search. Want to know more about searching Twitter? Try my Twitter Search page, with Twitter search engine alternatives as well!

Why I (or anyone else) may not follow you back.

If you don't get followed back by me, or anyone else, please don't take it as an insult. Obviously I can't speak for other people, but these are some of the reasons why I don't (immediately) follow someone back.

1. You haven't told me who you are. If you haven't put in some sort of avatar image, linked to a website or weblog, or haven't filled out the one line biography I have no way of telling who you are.

2. You've not written any tweets, or the one that you have written says 'I'm trying Twitter out' or something like that. If I don't have any information on you (see point 1) I'm going to rely on what you've posted to highlight what you're interested in. My rule of thumb is that if you've not done point 1, I'll look at your tweets, and if I find myself clicking on a couple of links, you're clearly providing useful stuff, so I'll link to you.

3. You post in a language that I don't understand, which is (to my shame) anything that's not English. I'm impressed that anyone can speak languages, but if I can't read what you're tweeting, there's no point in me following you.

4. You lock your updates. If you lock your updates it's because you want to talk about private/personal things. If I don't know who you are, why would I want to intrude, and more to the point, why would you want me to? If you're not bothered, then unlock them.

5. You don't say anything that interests me. Sorry to be harsh, but it's true. If you're on Twitter to tweet about your rock band that's great, but don't expect me to be interested. Again, it's nothing personal, but I use Twitter as an information source, not as a leisure activity.

Now, if you fall into any of these categories, it's not a problem, because I don't choose to follow/not follow as a one off. I regularly check to see what people are saying, and I also see if anyone refers to me using the @philbradley option. That'll certainly catch my attention, and the same goes for anyone else. I also search Twitter a lot and may well find tweets that you've posted, and I'll start to follow you back of my own accord.