Using Twitter for work, not diversion

Ian Case

10 March 2010

With custom stories, lists and other services, Twitter can become a helpful info source for those that don't tweet. The reality is, you do not have to post a message to get the maximum out of Twitter. Even the most prolific users say Twitter has become more helpful as a method to tap in to the dialogues of the day than to send out their own thoughts. And after you get pulled in, you could just find you've got something to assert after all. For the holdouts, here are one or two paths to make Twitter work for you. I be a pretty personal person, and I do not feel I have anything that must be announced, she claimed. Find those folks by searching Twitter directories, like WeFollow or merely Tweet It, and by following folk whom others repeat or mention. A fast scan uncovers the reports of the instant as the most vital stories of the day bubble up and are reposted. Twitter is a fast moving stream that you may not need to follow everybody who posts about your interests. If you do not know who the best users are on a favorite subject, look for Lists on sites like Listorious or by checking profiles. Each morning, she checks a few Twitter Lists of people that work in human rights. I do not wish to follow all those folks, but I will get a picture of the landscape every day by taking a look at the Lists, she claimed. At the exclusive TED meeting in Long Beach, Calif, in Feb , as an example, guests added TED to the end of their posts. By searching TED on Twitter, folk could read the most recent updates ( and skip over the $6,000 attendance charge ). Others told us what we were fortunate to be missing : last talk on evolution TED was clear, uninteresting and put audience to sleep.

Twitter is working on methods to deliver reports close by, like alerts about a quake or the closing of a bridge, Stone announced. In the contemporary snowstorm in Washington, folks added snowpocalypse to the end of their posts. By searching that term, Goldbeck stated that she read stories about closings of presidency offices and Metro stops before she heard it some place else. Once your Twitter writer's block lifts, you may use Twitter to raise questions when you do not know whom to ask. Ask where to eat dinner in a new town, as an example, or the simple way to extend your iPhone's battery lifespan, and you are sure to find answers. Inside hours, experts worldwide had replied, advising gallstones, lupus or growths on the pancreas.