After repeatedly becoming frustrated with the way some educators talk about twitter, I started compiling some information on how it’s being used OUTSIDE of education. Say what? They didn’t create this crazy little tool just for educators? Really? I’ve commented on a certain post too many times already and decided to just write my own post rather than cluttering up the comments over there any more.
See, I always feel like I’m straddling the line with my network as I interact and follow MANY educators, but I also follow and interact with almost as many people in business, especially social media types. I also don’t limit my blog reading to education blogs or twitter interactions to educators, so I’ve been rather frustrated when I see educators (and social media users, for that matter) try to make rules for twitter based on their particular use for the tool. As I’ve stated numerous times elsewhere, and to different audiences, twitter is not yours, it’s not ours, it’s for EVERYONE. You get out of it what you put into it and making rules for it just irritates the masses. Everyone has their own particular way of using the tool and for deciding who to interact with and that’s wonderful, that’s the way it should be! The only place I’ve seen sensible rationale for using twitter is in the PR/Marketing area, where there definitely can be right and wrong ways of using your corporate identity on twitter.
Listed below are just a few of the posts I’ve read lately (I’ll be adding to this) relating to how twitter is being used in PR and Marketing (one of my areas of interests), I think many educators will find it interesting to see how differently twitter is viewed by a different profession.
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Blogspotting Creative Business Uses of Twitter - BusinessWeek
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Blogspotting Looking for Tweets on how social media has changed - BusinessWeek
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Corporate Twitter Entities - Yay or Nay? : PerkettPRsuasion - The PerkettPR Blog
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Digital PR? No Twitter account is like no fax number in the 80’s | TweetPR
- Twitter Hasn’t Hit Mainstream - Online Media Daily - added 5/2/08
- All A-Twitter About Comcast’s Twitter Guy - Social Media Insider - added 5/2/08
Also, if you’re in love with all things twitter, an excellent place for resources is the Twitter Freaks Diigo group (no, I did NOT name this group!) - there are tons and tons of great resources for all twitter users. I’m considering doing a blog post on links from that group in the future. By the way, I wrote this post in Diigo’s “send to blog” feature.
So, as I said about blogging a few months ago, let’s just tweet and let tweet, shall we?
Related Reading
I’m Nobody! Who are You? - Diane Cordell
Special Twitter Message - Al on What’s Up?
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post :-)
I appreciate all the good links.
@MoCheeks
Tweet on m friend.
Hi Kate, thanks for including my post in your list. After I posted I also found two more links you may wish to add - http://tinyurl.com/6rgnua and http://tinyurl.com/6zzgj3
What was surprising was the rank Twitter had in the list of social networks. I guess it goes to show that certain communities are using it much more than others because in my day-to-day life Twitter is my #1 or #2 network. The use of Twitter for customer support and outreach is also really taking off.
Looking forward to seeing your list grow. It will prove to be a great resource.
Cheers.
David Alston
TweetPR.com
I went back and re-read the list of comments on “that blog”, including my own. I think you called it correctly. We are somehow educentric. There in lies the conflict that is illustrated by the steam of comments we participated in. I wonder if other groups of networked people are the same way. Thanks for a good post and your well-rounded perspective.
Kate - I agree that there are way tooooooo many people attempting to tell others how they should manage their twitter account. Who or how many a person follows on twitter is up to that person. I follow many more than follow me and it doesn’t really bother me. I enjoy my contacts and like I said last usually they start following me after the find out I am not a pervert or a jerk. At least I don’t think I am :).
What I do in twitter is my business and what other people do is their business and we shouldn’t be having twitter police telling us how to handle our account.
Realistically if it were not for twitter my PLN would only be about 10 people, so anything over 10 followers/being followed is “gravy” to me :)
Kate,
I agree with everything you said in your post except the title. Everyone is exactly who does own Twitter. That is why, as in any other public social situation, there should be some social norms.
Concerning the “certain post” you refer to…no names were mentioned, which is as it should be. It was simply an expressed opinion, just as yours is on your blog, and as I am doing here.
What is, in my opinion, unacceptable is when someone makes a personal attack because someones opinion differs from theirs, which is what happened on the second of the “related reading” posts you linked to above. That could be injurious to a reputation, and could be injurious to a career if people take them too seriously. If I were the person attacked, I’d want to defend myself, too.
There are lots of articles like the ones you linked to above written by educators as well. Just as I’m sure if we dig deep enough, we’d find just as many business users frustrated with the “I have more followers than you” or “if I’m following you, you must follow me” mentality that was, in my opinion, the point of David’s post.
So…as you say…tweet and let tweet. However, don’t condone personal attacks if my opinion differs from yours.
Kate - thanks for the link! I am passionate about this topic and it’s great to see all types of folks gaining ROI from Twitter. It drives me crazy when everyone states “rules” because a) they’re all different b) not everyone is there for the same reason and c) who are all these rule makers again? (Mostly the earliest adopters who may have the most followers but… are they using Twitter the most sensible way? It depends.)
I am giving a speech next week on social media and PR at a communications conference and I will definitely be referring to your ideas here. I look forward to reading more.
All the best,
Christine
Great blog posting that goes right to the crux of the problem that some people have when they believe that they are somehow better or more important than those they erroneously consider “the great unwashed”. I am so glad you didn’t put their name or the name of the offending blog here either because that would be playing into their bid for advertising. Good goin’!
I saw the comments of which you speak;D Personally, I thought their whole posting was a ploy to get people to react, and I did react. I agree with you, there is no reason to respond to these “hoity-toity”, divisive bloggers on THEIR BLOG. It just feeds their assumption that they have some special hold over the internet.
You have developed an enormous amount of product and process in a very professional manner, and I am glad to learn and share with you;D
Amen, sister. Why are so many people heck-bent (see how I behaved myself?) on controlling other people?
Kate,
Education comes in all shapes and forms. I’ve learned a lot from the teachers & ITs on Twitter, but perhaps my greatest growth has come from interacting with the Others.
Business people, students, artists, saints, and sinners: Twitter is a carnival of viewpoints and life experiences. The further I stray from the straight and narrow path of formalized education, the broader my horizons and the brighter my understanding.
Thanks for linking to my posting. Thanks even more for being part of my online world.
diane
Hi Kate,
(Seems so odd calling you Kate since I know you on twitter as kolson29.) Thank you for putting the link up on twitter about your blog and also for writing this blog entry in the first place. I read that “certain post” the other day and was not really very comfortable with its content. I wondered if the author was simply trying to draw additional attention to himself; however, I do not have an answer for that. Regardless, I agree with your sentiments that twitter is whatever we would like it to be and therefore should have no official rules. Those who wish to create their own rules should simply follow them and expect no additional buy-in from others. Either that, or create their own little version of twitter with said rules. :) IMHO we should allow one another the freedom to “be”, and expect no more.
Wow, I read all these the minute they came in but just now got a chance to process and reply. Sorry for the delay!
@MoCheeks - I’m glad you appreciate the resources, it’s one of the main reasons that I blog. I love to share the quality stuff I find!
@Kevin - will do, I’m a big fan of tweet-freedom :-) Thanks for being a part of my network!
@David - I added the great links you shared to the post, thanks so much for sharing them with me! I believe I found your post either from someone sharing it with me on twitter or from a link from a comment on another post. I can’t follow the trail anymore! It seems as if everyone’s jumping on this right now, so there’s a lot of reading to do on this. I look forward to it!
@Nadine - I always love it when someone agrees with me! I think people in most groups start to get a fairly narrow view of things unless they make a concerted effort to look outside for other perspectives. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in 1 tiny world, isn’t it? Thanks for commenting on my class blog today!
@Harold - You’re definitely not a jerk :-) I’m sure people realize that within a second of seeing your profile! I don’t really know who follows me right now as I don’t analyze it. It’s all in good fun and learning, right?
@Heather - We discussed this via email after your comment and I do see your point, although our view on the situation differs. In this post I’m moving past that and bringing this into a larger realm. I hope to let that ugly situation die, or at least my part in it.
@Christine - I’m really happy that I found your post, and of course it came from one of my twitter contacts. I’m looking forward to hearing more about your speech, I’ll stay tuned for a blog post on it!
@Sheryl - no one owns the internet, I’m with ya! Thanks for the nice words, I love learning from you as well…….
@Taylor - you crack me up and what sweet language! My constant ? is “why do people keep telling me what to do?” in all areas of my life. sigh.
@Diane - I love your comparison of twitter to a carnival - it’s perfect! I have found that following some of those said “sinners” has truly shown me the joy of being open-minded in the choosing of my network - what a glorious place to work, isn’t it?
@Mindelei - ah yes, my secret identity of kolson29 - my darker side! I have a feeling someone WILL create their own version with rules and I hope they do - that way people will be able to feel comfortable, as it seems currently that many people aren’t comfortable with the “wild west” of twitter as it is now.
Good post there Kate. You made a good point in your earlier post regarding ‘blogging rules’ back in February and as I indicated back then I feel that there is an edublogging hierarchy out there that is trying to establish a set of rules for all of us to follow. The ten commandments of the blogosphere. Thou shalt blog in my own style and image, sort of thing. Conservative, as opposed to progressive or even laissez-faire, thinkers. I hope I am not hauled up before the blogging inquistion for these statements.
It is a little weird at times. Sometimes I feel myself getting caught up in it as well and when I feel the tug of that conformist whirlpool dragging me in I don my flippers and swim away.
I agree, there are some twitter users and even bloggers who give the impression that they wish to set the agenda and hammer all of us into a square hole when we are all shaped in a variety of different ways. I am shaped like a rhombus.
Perhaps the ‘rule makers’ are frustrated educators who have a secret desire to be school principals or heads of department. They have an inner craving to be the principal of “Edublogger College” or “Twitter High”. [Not that I have anything against principals. I read a number of excellent blogs composed by principals, enlightened principals. Peter, if you are reading this, I like you too. Tee hee.]
Last night I was thinking wouldn’t it be wonderful if one could change their twitter avatar with a single click to reflect one’s mood or motive, like emoticons. You could have a bank of your own Twitter avatars at your disposal. If you are tweeting on a serious note then your avatar may be wearing a tie. If you are relaxing then there might be a can of beer or a cup of coffee in the avatar’s frame.
I giggled to myself as I thought about that multiple avatar idea further. What I was planning to do was to copy the twitter avatars of a number of the people that I follow and, using photoshop, replace just their face with my own. Then I was going to use the amended avatar and tweet in the style of that person, still with my original ID of course. Sometimes I feel people take Twitter and edublogging far too seriously. It would have been mischievous conduct but what the heck. They cannot put me in prison, can they?
Nadine, Harold, Christine, Sheryl, Taylor, Diane and Mindelei all have the right idea in my opinion. Yes, there is no need for rules. As I commented on Darren Draper’s (Drape’s Takes ~ a great blog by the way) recent blog posts concerning Blogging Etiquette I do not need a set of rules or norms to guide me. I have a set of principles in my own conscience that I follow. That is enough.
Heather, I do not feel that with twitter and also with blogging that there should be some ‘social norms’ to follow. If a twitter user is inappropriate in any way simply block them. Let the masses decide. The same with bloggers. If they are a nuisance or inappropriate then all you need do is unsubscribe. Let the dynamics of the net decide their fate, not a set of rules or social norms. Who decides the ‘social norms ‘anyway?
Blog on Kate and tweet as if the sun had just risen!
Kate,
I love this post in relation to what you say about echo chambers and differences of use - in particular.
Teachers ought to stop following other teachers exclusively. PR and marketing hacks ought to stop following other PR and marketing hacks. Surprisingly enough, these two groups actually have way more in common than either realises.
One group neither of the above appears to be listening to are critical early adopter voices outside of the early/late majority frame of reference. These are the creatives, technicians and observers we refer to as “key influencers” who make (and break) things.
As for rules …
I think it’s important to draw a distinction between people who are trying to make rules for everybody and people who define their own terms of use. This is a critical distinction.
Lastly …
Some internet history - it’s good to know when and who created what:
http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
Melanies last blog post..Digital democracy: Where’s your voice?
Kate-
Of course you know where I stand on all this- we are comrades in arms against the forces of twitter domination.
I am all for twitter freedon. When I adopted use in November 2007, there were already thousands of people on it and using it however they wanted. I also wanted to thank you for helping move my focus off an all tech/ed perspective. I have added many followers just becuase they are intersting people to interact with! Quite honestly, the world is big and we have many voices on twitter we can listen.
@John-Love your ideas for emotitars. Mine would be wearing a party hat most days!
Lindas last blog post..This I believe…
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