Tweet! Tweet!

So...I just signed up for Twitter. I love the question Eric Echols (children's guy at 12Stone Church) wrote on Facebook: "Is twitter a new form of connectedness, a tool for community, or is it simply fueling our culture's narcissism?"

I guess I'll find out. I can't believe anyone is that interested in the minutiae of my life. (I had to look up how to spell minutiae, by the way, and I misspelled dictionary trying to get to dictionary.com--might be time to call it a day!)

Comments

[Jill Nelson]

Welcome to Twitter! I've found it to be a great networking tool! All but just a couple of the people I follow are other Children's Ministries people. What's your username (if you care to share)?

[Glen Woods]

Hey Christine,

Welcome to twitter. I will be interested to see what you think of it. I am still trying to decide whether it is something I should be doing long term. I think it really depends on what the user expects to put into it and get out of it. Some users are into building a huge following. I am more interested in following a small number of sharp thinkers. So for me, it is more about the content of a few key people, than about anything I might have to say.

[Adam]

Christine:

TOTALLY feel you on your feelings on Twitter. It's just basically the Facebook status update, but is it just a tool to help me be a more effective stalker? Is it just a quicker way to waste my time?

It feels like a "celebrity" widget. Do I really care that Ashton Kutcher just bought pants? Is anyone really going to care that I just bought pants?

Feels like Cabbage Patch craze to me.

[Henry Zonio]

Um, what's your Twitter ID so we can all follow you? :)

[Chris Yount Jones]

Ok...even more embarrassing...I care to tell what my Twitter ID is...I just don't remember it. How lame is that!? I wrote it down at work so I'll have to post it on Monday.

Which brings up a whole 'nother thing. Have you guys figured out how to synch everything like blog, Twitter, and Facebook?

I'm a novice.

[Glen Woods]

You can synch to blogs and FB through rss feeds. FB allows you to post twitter content as FB updates, although I personally recommend against that. Users who only use FB often get confused by updates done through Twitter. It only works if you use twitter with your FB audience primarily in mind. And if you do that, then I don't see any point in using twitter, except for the possibility that you may meet friends through twitter which you do not already have on FB.

[Henry Zonio]

Use http://www.twitterfeed.com to set up your Twitter account to tweet when you post new content to the blog... If you need help with that I'm sure there are some nerdy ppl there at Group :) or shoot me an email and I can help you get that set up :)

Twitter is definitely a different creature than Facebook. You'll find it useless if you simply use it as status updates. I heard one tech person put it: Facebook is about conencting with ppl you already know and Twitter is to connect with people you are going to know. It's all about adding value, communicating, networking, sharing and building relationships. Learn the art of the retweet, the @reply, and the link sharing... Welcome to the Twittervers! :)

BTW, http://www.tweetdeck.com is a great tool to filter tweets and send updates both to Twitter and FB (either at the same time or independently).

[Chris Yount Jones]

Thanks, everyone! I did get a nerdy friend to help me get things synched!

[Anthony Prince]

I give a second vote to Henry's suggestion of using Tweetdeck.
It makes Twitter usable.
Just make sure you give a column to #kidmin... it'll make your life a whole lot easier.

[Chris Yount Jones]

Okay...my newbieness is showing. What's it mean to give a column to #kidmin?