Thing 4 - Becoming a professional Twit

Familiarity with big name social media tools, such as Twitter, was one of the main reasons I was attracted to the CPD23 course. It was with some trepidation, then, that I embarked on setting up my first Twitter account. Three things I've learned over the past few tasks:

1. I spend an inordinate amount of time on the seemingly small things, like photos, layout, what to call myself etc.;

2. It takes twice as long to complete the social media tasks than I originally plan for;

3. This is mostly because I become completely absorbed in all the information suddenly at my fingertips!

Setting up my Twitter account was no exception - I'm an instant convert to the value of the format, not only for the passive benefit of keeping up to date with current issues and events in the library and information world, but also for the active benefits of networking and finding opportunities to get involved.

I've been looking for voluntary opportunities, so @GlasgowLib has given me some inspiration. I'm part of the Multimedia, Information and Technology Group Scotland (MmITS), so now I can follow my group's Twitter account @MmITScotland and post comments. I can find out the latest event being organised by Glasgow Library Tweet Ups (GLTU) from @AnabelMarsh and and also by using #GLTU. I've found that my chartership mentor has a Twitter account, so I'm eager to investigate this as a quick way to keep in touch and ask questions. I can also ask Stuart Bain of @OrkneyLibrary what type of biscuits the kind folk of Kirkwall have donated to the library this week.

And all of this in a couple of hours!!

Ok, so I admit that RSS and Storify attracted far less of my attention. In many ways, I feel that Twitter is now doing the job of several RSS feeds, but in a more compact way. Although I have used RSS feeds before, I found I just didn't use them often. I might revisit RSS when I have created a longer list of blogs and other sources to follow, though. Storify looks like an excellent tool that can be directed towards various audiences, but it isn't something I have a use for as yet. I really wanted to try it out simply for this course, but time is already getting away from me. Another one for the future to-do list!