Librarian by Day » Twitter

My Favorite Tools in Ten Installments: 2. Twitter

Bobbi Newman — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:56:11 +0000

This is post 2 of 10 in my 10 favorite tools series. I regularly get asked how I “do it all” so I’ve put together some of handy tools that (in addition to hard work) help me do it. I covered the many ways I use Google last week, this week its Twitter! Now that might seem obvious since I have over 4,000 followers, but hopefully you’ll find something useful.

In the past I’ve written how I decide who to follow on Twitter, and that hasn’t changed much. Although at that time I was trying to keep the number of people I followed around 250 and I stated I “absolutely wont go over 300.” Now I’m up to almost 350, I’m trying very hard to keep it under 350. But the rest of the information is the same

I have Gmail set to filter emails from Twitter with their own label and to skip the inbox. I go through them every week or so. I try to look at each one. Any of the following disqualifies the account for a follow:

the default avatar
10,000 followers or more
businesses
social media experts
marketing experts
no bio
no real name
private account

I also look at the bio and think about some questions, the first being do I know this person personally? If the answer is no I look at the location and the bio, those 140 characters matter, if it catches my attention or its witty I look at the tweets and ask is this person sharing something new/different from other people I follow. It may seem harsh but I don’t need to follow someone else who’s tweeting the latest Mashable story, I already follow 100s who do.

Notifications

No matter when I’m using Twitter I have push notification turned off. It’s distracting and bad time management to be constantly interrupted. Remember these are tools that work for you, not the other way around. Don’t let them dictate to you. I’ve disconnected Twitter from my phone number so DMs do not come to my phone anymore, that’s what text messages are for.

Lists

I’m a big fan of Twitter lists and the ability to view those list dictates what tool I use on which device. I have 4 main lists, don’t bother to go look for them, most of them are private to avoid hurting feelings etc.

Friends – people I know personally and consider friends.
A-Team – these are the people who most often share links that are of interest to me.
Non-libs, in the last couple of years I’ve made an effort to follow more non library types and I get some good information and interaction from this list.
Local – these are people in or around Des Moines, IA. This is a fairly new list and I don’t follow the majority of the people on this list. I wanted to try to connect with more local people and info without following a lot of additional people. The nice thing about lists is that you don’t need to follow someone to add them to a list, but you can still see that list in your tools

Scheduling Tweets

Yes its true! I schedule tweets. I’m not always on Twitter when it looks like I’m on Twitter. I schedule for a couple of reasons, one I’m often up early , so I schedule things to come out when more people are up and online. A lot of what I share comes from my GoogleReader and rather than sharing it all at once and flooding Twitter I space it out. I use Tweetdeck (see below) for scheduling.

Now for the tools!

Tweetdeck

When I’m using Twitter at a computer I’m using Tweetdeck. I can’t imagine using Twitter with out it. I have 12 columns, a couple of weeks ago I wondered if that was too many, Audrey assured it is not since she has 16! I use Tweetdeck on my work computer, my laptop and my netbook. It allows me to show my lists as columns and have searches display as columns as week, very helpful for conferences or webinar or other events with a hashtag, such as Day in the Life.

I’ve also use Tweetdeck on my iPad, but it often crashes so I’ve been exploring other options

Hootsuite – so far Hootsuite is the closest competition for Tweetdeck on the iPad, I’m still deciding between them. But it meets all my requirements: allows me to see my lists and choose between old and new style retweet on each tweet.

Seesmic

When I first got my Android phone Tweetdeck didn’t have an app so I tried a LOT of options until I found Seesmic. My requirements included being able to see my lists on the phone, and being able to choose my retweet style. Sometimes I like to add a comment but sometimes I like to use the new style. I also needed to have the option to turn push notifications off. Even after Tweetdeck released their android app I’ve stuck with Seesmic.

What didn’t I cover? If I left out some info you’d like to know, let me know!

Resources:

Stay tuned for Tips & Tricks Three!

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10 Ways Twitter Will Make You a Better Employee, Better at Your Job and Benefit Your Library

Bobbi Newman — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:30:15 +0000

In my case this means my day, the 9 to 5 one, not the one on the side where I write this blog and other stuff and do workshops and present and read article and government reports, though it helps there too. For the sake of this post I’m focusing on my 9 to 5 job or more like 7 to 6 job.

Here are 10 ways Twitter has made me a better employee, better at my job and benefited my library.

1. Connection to experts.

Thanks to Twitter I can connect with experts it might take years to connect with otherwise. I might see them in passing at conferences (if I’m fortunate enough to attend) or exchange emails. But Twitter connections so much easier to make. No need to write a formal email, I respond to their tweets starting a conversation that is much faster and easier to maintain than formal emails. Through my tweets they get a feeling of what I am like professionally and as in individual.

These connections include those tweets that aren’t related to work or libraries, personal tweets help build a relationship between people who have never met face to face. They are the mortar between the bricks. Think of them as office cooler talk, it’s the grease that helps the wheels turn.

These connections are invaluable for asking questions, getting feedback and growing as a professional. It also means when my library is exploring a new project my network of experts to ask for advise is much, much larger than others. When we are researching a new service the first place I go is to my Twitter connections and I get accurate, up-to-date information faster and more efficiently. What boss wouldn’t love that?

2. Pool of information

The amount of information shared on Twitter is amazing. Even better because the information shared is first vetted by the individual who shared it I am assured of its accuracy timeliness and relevance.

3. Real time awareness of News

Your best bet for real-time, as it is happening awareness of news is Twitter. It is just better than newspapers, radio and TV for instant news. News my patrons are interested in, news my management team needs to know. News that effects the decisions we, the library, make.

4. Real time updates in technology and library issues.

Want to know what latest technology marvel Apple is unveiling that wont work with any of your library services but all your patrons will be asking about? Twitter. Want to know what is happening with Vendor issues like the JSTOR interface change? Or Libraries lending Netflix? Twitter.

5. Connection with patrons

Patrons ask me questions on Twitter all the time. Yes for real. Patrons go to the easiest, most convenient method for them, for some its Twitter.

Technically my librarianbyday twitter account is not related to my library in any way. It doesn’t matter, people who know me in the community know I work at the library, I’m their point of contact.

6. Professional development for free!

Hey budgets are tight. But it is important that we take time to develop our staff. Library staff members need professional development to best serve our patrons.

Twitter is no substitute for conferences or face to face training or workshops, but if money is tight it is better than nothing. I get to interact with my peers, exchange ideas and I get pointed toward important library developments without leaving my office.

7. Contact with local organizations and groups.

Because I live in my community I follow local organizations and groups I am interested in. I ask them questions, retweet their tweets and keep up with upcoming events. They know I’m a librarian that works at the library, they also know I am a customer/patron of theirs. When they have need than could be met by the library they’ll think of us first because they know me.

Twitter is a great way to build relationships with other organizations, something that is especially important in today’s economy. Even better you don’t have to spend two hours of work time eating bad food and listening to bad presentations.

8. I’m always learning

I think it would be next to impossible to be on Twitter and not learn something new. Librarians who are always learning are more flexible and open to change. One thing we know for sure about libraries right now is times are changing and staff need to be able to change too.

9. Keeps me in touch with the larger world.

As human being we tend to gravitate to people with similar ideas and interests. Twitter connects me with people I might not connect with otherwise, they might have completely different interests outside of libraries. Because I frequently interact by choice with people with ideals different than my own I’m better able to assist patrons with ideals who don’t align with me. Remember we are supposed to be warm and welcoming to everyone equally, even if you think their ideas are abhorrent.

10. Sharing and borrowing

Thanks to Twitter it is easy for me to share information about all the awesome things my library is doing and for others to share what their libraries are doing. Why reinvent the wheel when I can steal programming ideas from libraries who have already implemented them? Even better programs I might never have thought of.

Still not convinced? Check out:

Don’t have Twitter and now want to set up an account? Check out these great guides.

New to Twitter? Here’s what you do
Dipping into the Stream from American Libraries
Twitter 101: How should I get started using Twitter?
Twitter basics
The Twitter Glossary
Newbie’s guide to Twitter
Twitter for Libraries (and Librarians) from Computers in Libraries

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What Twitter Lists Say About You

Bobbi Newman — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:50:57 +0000

Ever since Twitter implemented lists I try to check out mine regularly. Mostly I’m looking for bad or amusing ones, but so far if anyone has me on a list titled “idiots” or “b!tches” its private. :-)

As of writing this I am on 373 lists, of which probably 90 – 95% say something related to libraries (I didn’t actually do the math). This aren’t surprising to me. And that’s good. I am a librarian, I work in libraries. It’s the ones that fall outside of those that intrigue me. What do they say about me? My tweets? My online persona?

I started thinking about this thanks to a post my friend Dani wrote about how people define you pointing me to this post, where Naomi asks what Twitter lists do you WANT to be on?

What do the lists you create say about you? - clearly your priorities and interests, what else?

What do the lists you are on say about you? – I’m not sure about this one

What lists would you want to be on? - I wish I were on more transliteracy lists, but other than that I’m not too sure.

Just for fun a snap shot of some of the non-librarian related lists I’m on. Take a look at yours.

Some make me smile

http://twitter.com/BLQHAWK/intriguing-tweeters

Some make me proud

http://twitter.com/pjf/techwomen

http://twitter.com/hbraum/my-learning-circle

Some make me scratch my head

http://twitter.com/madarat/notboringlibraryrockstars

http://twitter.com/wesunruh/real-people

Some make me wonder that means

http://twitter.com/VenessaMiemis/metacogs

http://twitter.com/kzookev/the-antibunhead-league

Some make me wonder if I’m worthy

http://twitter.com/hkconk/make-me-smarter

http://twitter.com/MNlibraries/library-thought-leaders

Some I wonder what I did to get on it

http://twitter.com/TaraLSF/librarians-extraordinaire

http://twitter.com/lyndamk/librarianrawkstars

Some I squirrel way to take out and look at on bad days

http://twitter.com/MLx/backbone

http://twitter.com/JustinLibrarian/kick-butt-library-typesSimilar Posts:

How to Decide Who to Follow on Twitter

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:40:17 +0000

I have had several conversations lately about how to use Twitter and how to decide who to follow. I know everyone has a different methodology and goal when using Twitter. Here is mine.

I have gmail filter, label and auto archive emails from Twitter and I go through them every week or so.

Any of the following disqualifies the account for a follow:

the default avatar
10,000 followers or more
businesses
social media experts
marketing experts
no bio
no real name
private account

Of course as these are my rules I have broken them all at least once I’m sure. :-) Other than that I look at the bio, the link if there is one and recent tweets.

I try to keep the number of people I follow around 250 and absolutely wont go over 300. I can’t keep up with more, some people can, I can’t. I spend most of my time on Twitter using Tweetdeck, without the columns I think I’d have to follow less than 250.

How do you decide who to follow?

Other strategies and tips:

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Don’t Miss These Twitter and Facebook Guides from Mashable

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:51:13 +0000

Whether you are teaching a class, helping a friend or just looking for information for yourself these guides from Mashable are a great resource.

The Facebook Guide topics include:

Facebook 101: The Basics
Managing Your Facebook Wall
Using Facebook for Business
How to become a fan of Mashable
Using Facebook Applications
Facebook 305:Advanced Topics

Twitter Guide topics include:

Twitter 101 – The Basics
Building Your Twitter Community
Twitter for Business
Twitter Guide Book To Go: PDF Download and Slideshow
Sharing on Twitter
Managing Your Twitter Stream

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Put Down the Phone and Pay Attention

Bobbi Newman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:50:20 +0000

CC image courtesy of Lights Out Photos on flickr

Last week I (and many others) spent a lot of time documenting the Internet Librarian conference, photos, tweets, blog posts, facebook updates. Did the act of digitally documenting the events change anything? Did the process of lifestreaming change my (and others) behavior, perception of what was happening and memories of it. Will we remember it better or worse?

A recent article from CNN Do digital diaries mess up your brain? looks at the effects of lifestreaming. Just knowing others are watching you may change the types of experiences you choose to have, from books to movies to where you eat and what you wear.

“If we have experiences with an eye toward the expectation that in the next five minutes, we’re going to tweet them, we may choose difference experiences to have, ones that we can talk about rather than ones we have an interest in,” he said.

It also detaches you from what’s happening at the moment. If you’re focused on tweeting what’s happening, you’re not fully engage in what’s happening.

But recording everything you do takes people out of the “here and now,” psychologists say. Constant documenting may make people less thoughtful about and engaged in what they’re doing because they are focused on the recording process, Schwartz said.

What does that do to our actual memories of events? Memories are shaky at best even when you’re completely focused. If you’re only half there, will you remember it later without the aid of digital documentation? What would I rather have a memory of something or documentation of it to prove I was there? What if that documentation goes away?

It makes me think, I do want to be living and experiencing life to the fullest. Does this mean I’ll put down the camera, the cell phone, the laptop? I don’t know. Probably not at conferences, but I’ll be thinking hard about doing it in other areas of my life. What good is lifestreaming an experience if I’m not fully enjoying it?Similar Posts:

How social media can hurt your library

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:38:49 +0000

photo by DCvision2006 on Flicrk

We’ve all seen warnings and stories about people getting fired from their jobs because of status updates or photos on social medial sites like Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

CNN is has a new one with some social networking don’ts

1. Don’t announce interviews, raises or new jobs

2. Don’t badmouth your current or previous employer

3. Don’t mention your job search if you’re still employed

First I think number 2 should include – “or coworkers”, really nothing good can come of that either. But the point I want to add for librarians (library workers) everywhere is

4. Don’t badmouth your customers.

We all get frustrated, we all have bad days, I understand that, but venting on social media sites isn’t the solution and it could cause real problems for your library. Your customers may read what you wrote, they are more tech savvy than you give them credit for. In addition to some old fashioned hurt feelings this can lead to some real problems for your library. They could complain to someone at the library, which means staff will need to spend time dealing with this issue. They could email it all their friends or maybe the newspaper, this is bad PR no library needs. Or they could just never come back, which is contradictory to the mission of libraries, and loosing patrons is never good for libraries. Libraries don’t need bad PR, especially not now when so many are facing funding cuts.

If you don’t care about how it will affect your library keep in mind your boss may read what you wrote, there are endless ways this could happen. I can’t imagine a library manager anywhere being happy that an employee is publicly badmouthing patrons. There are a wide range of outcomes depending on what was said, how the library handles custom service issues, but being fired is a possibility.

Think being anonymous will protect you? think again. Think having a private account will protect you? It might, unless there is a glitch & its made public, even briefly, or until you *friend* the wrong person.

Your best plan is not to put anything online you aren’t prepared for the whole world to see. Just don’t do it. Think twice before you post that next Facebook or Twitter update or write that next blog post.

Additional Reading

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Twouble with Twitters: SuperNews!

Bobbi Newman — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:21:08 +0000

Because its funny, enjoy!

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Video – Do you suffer from information overload?

Some interesting and useful Twitter Stats

Bobbi Newman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:32:08 +0000

Influential Marketing has a post with some useful stats from the Sysomos report on Twitter. I wonder why Tuesday is the most active day. hmmm. There is more information on the orginal post and you download the full report if you’re inclined

21% (One Fifth) of Twitter accounts are empty placeholders.
Nearly 94% of all Twitter accounts have less than 100 followers.
March and April of 2009 were the tipping point for Twitter.
150 followers is the magic number.
A small minority creates most of the activity
Half of all Twitter users are not “active.”
Tuesday is the most active Twitter day.
APIs have been the key to Twitter’s growth & utility.
English still dominates Twitter.
Twitter is being led by the social media geeks.
Bonus Geographical Stat/Quote: The cities with the biggest Twitter populations are New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco, and Boston. Los Angeles is the fastest growing city on the list.”

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Why I’m over people Twittering Conferences, Meetings

Bobbi Newman — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:45:31 +0000

and anywhere else two Twitter users happen to run into each other.

Its seems like a day doesn’t go by without signing into my Twitter account to see a stream of tweets from someone going by with a #hashtag I don’t recognize. I’m not talking about a couple of tweets, I mean the full-on stream. I’m begging you, please stop!

I’m all for the idea of sending a Tweet when you hear something remarkable, moving, or innovative, but based on the number of Tweets I see flying by every other sentence is worth exclaiming over, somehow I doubt this.

What it really looks like is too many people are using Twitter as their personal note taking system. Get a notebook, a netbook, or a pen and paper, whatever, just stop Tweeting!

If you’re Twittering:

You’re not paying attention – mulitasking is a myth – you can not text as fast as you type, so whatever you are texting likely happened 30 seconds or more ago, meaning you are not paying attention to what is being said now. Stop texting and pay attention, its what you’re there for. Even if you’re tweeting from a computer…
You’re not contributing. Yes, I know there are a few cases where some awesome back channel conversations* happen, and someone rushes off to write an article or a post about it, but most likely you’re not.
You’re crying wolf – If you’re sending 20 tweets an hour, the really awesome super duper things got lost in the crowd of the bagillion others you sent you sent. Pick and choose the really exceptional things to Tweet.
Someone else is saying the SAME thing at the SAME time (most likely). Instead say something new, say something of value, pick the one or two really good pieces and Tweet those, it is much more useful for your followers.
You’re loosing your followers, I don’t mean unfollowing, I mean they aren’t paying attention to you. Sure one or two might love to here a play by play of whats happening right now, but the others don’t care. They don’t care because they don’t want to spend the energy chasing down what the heck your hashtag means, they don’t care because they just popped on so see what their friends are up to and instead all they see is one person, you, filling up their screen. They dont’ care, not because they don’t care what you’re tweeting about, they do, but because they don’t have the time and energy to focus on it right now. They don’t care because they just don’t care.
You’re making it hard for people to find the information later. Sure you can search the hashtag and read through thousands of 140 character snippets of information, many of which say the same thing because everyone else was tweeting the conversation.
You’re not blogging. Yes I know some have declared blogs dead, but f I want real information about a session I missed I’d so much rather find a blog post. Yes a blog post, with everything nicely typed out, not abbreviated in weird formats to fit in to 140 characters, not scattered across tens or hundreds of tweets. I can bookmark one page, not 20.

If you find you absolutely must conference/meeting tweet prodigiously, take a page from my smart friend Maruice’s book and get a seperate account just for conferences.

*I’m not sure how I feel about these back channel conversations, everyone thinks they are so awesome, but arent’ they really just the equivalent of two people talking to each other in the back of the class? It might go unnoticed in a large audience, but in a small group its just rude.

I’m not advocating never Twitter anything from a conference, meeting or pow-wow again, but show some discretion man, moderation in all things, even Twitter.Similar Posts: