Sunday, August 30, 2009

Don't Tweet? You're Not Alone

One of the social networking tools that didn't make it into my book was Twitter. Even now, I rarely use Twitter (except for a major burst at one event at the American Library Association conference in Chicago, IL).

Does Twitter have a future among genealogists? I'm still not at all sure. And this recent article gives me reason to wonder:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/30/why-dont-teens-tweet-we-asked-over-10000-of-them/

As with the teens, many genealogists are heavy users of Facebook (and now Genealogy Wise). So is there something unique to genealogists that would make us react differently to the use of Twitter? Hmmmm....

3 comments:

  1. My 2 cents - twitter is annoying.... short, incomplete thoughts in reverse order. Making it a pain to follow. I'd rather read a blog that has been thought through, organized, embellished and published than quick random thoughts to be read from the bottom up.

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  2. Perhaps you've changed your mind since then, but I have to say that I totally disagree. I learn more and communicate more with Twitter than anything else, despite being a heavy user of Facebook. Facebook is for friends but Twitter is for everyone. I don't use it every day but whenever I do I learn something about people or genealogy-related resources that I didn't know before.
    It is also much easier to follow when someone is tweeting through a conference (eg RootsTech) or a national disaster (eg The Queensland floods last month). It's all on Twitter first.

    OK, I'll settle down now!

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  3. Nothing particularly earth shattering here. I disagree with your point that twitter is annoying. Twitter is actually beneficial, especially to your business. Also, twitter apps can make Twitter life a lot easier. Why not try it.

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