Giving Twitter a Second Chance

            I have been using Twitter for a few days now not just 48 hours. Yes, I know impressive coming from someone who was so against it at the beginning of the year. Throughout the semester I have grown to like Twitter more and more much to my surprise. I am still adjusting to this social network and I still have a lot to learn however, I have played around with it in my spare time and have learned a few things that are of interest to me. I even got one of my roommates to join Twitter!

            I am now following 82 people with a majority being PR professionals, businesses, celebrities, and classmates. There are a few random people that are “following” me that I was not at all interested in following and would never consider a “tweet-up” with but I enjoy reading the Tweets from the different people I have in my network. I have updated 41 times total with 20 tweets in the last 48-hours. I must admit that I am proud of myself for trying to do more on Twitter. I understand that it is a social network, but I also know that it can be very beneficial to those who allow it to help them.

            At the beginning I was very against using Twitter because the idea of having followers and following people really freaked me out! Now, I have learned that you are able to block people you do not want following you and you have the ability to set your profile on private so people have to have your permission before they are allowed to start following you. This is comforting. Another plus with this site is people aren’t getting on to look at photo albums like they do on www.facebook.com. I feel that Twitter is much safer and privacy is really in your own hands. I am still not fond that you can find some of your tweets by typing in your name (ex. @laurenashleylee) into www.google.com but it just lets you know that you really should be careful in what you are putting out there.

            Twitter is much more interesting now that I am following interesting people. Like most things in life it is what you choose to do with it that allows it to help you. The more time and effort you put into using Twitter the more you are able to get out of it.

            This go-round I did not just tweet about what was going and the mood I was in. I was much more informative and direct. For example, during the first week of Twitter I wrote things like, “YAY! Done with class until next week!!” In this 48-hour time span, I twittered things that had more substance so I could help others and also help myself. For example I tweeted on April 16, 2009, “Eat McAlister’s tonight between 5-9 & tell them you’re there for the fundraiser & they’ll donate 10% of the profit to the cancer society! To see all of the tweets I sent click on the following link: www.twitter.com/laurenashleylee.

            Due to producing more public relations tweets, I have had more and more people ask to follow me. I feel that because there is more than artificial status updates in my updates, PR professionals and other students have become more interested in me, Yay!

            Honestly, the most surprising thing to me about Twitter is how many people use it and its continuing growth. Not only has it grown on Georgia Southern’s campus but also in the media. I do not go a day without hearing something about Twitter whether it is face-to-face with a person or on the radio or television. There are so many celebrities that I love to follow on Twitter now including Oprah, Ashton Kutcher, the Today Show, Kelly Ripa, and many, many more.

            If I could change anything about Twitter I would make it easier for people to see replies to one another. I know you can check your own @replies, but when people are replying to others I find it hard to find where the conversation originated. Other than that I would keep Twitter the way it is. I especially love that it is free!

            After following several different PR professional my top three picks would be:

1.      Nashogden at http://twitter.com/nashogden He has given me helpful hints with internships and other things dealing with public relations. His updates are also very informative.

2.      Ryan Seacrest at http://twitter.com/RyanSeacrest I am very interested in doing PR for celebrities and following him helps keep me updated on everything going on in the entertainment world. Ryan is not someone some would consider to be a PR professional but he does a great job promoting events and different celebrities.

3.      GetEventJobs at http://twitter.com/GetEventJobs This person is very informative and lets followers know different jobs that are available.

 

In conclusion, I would like to add that although my 48 hours of Twitter is up, I will still continue using this site. I have enjoyed staying connected with the people I am following and I am interested in seeing where Twitter will go in the future.