A 'Claytons' use of Twitter

Some readers might have noticed in the last 6-8 weeks that the option to follow the CASE blog via Twitter has appeared on the sidebar. Some will be well aware of Twitter, while others will be less familiar. Why have I done this? Some of you will know that I was an early critic of Twitter (here) because its early use by celebrities seemed somewhat self-focused. As well, Twitter's 140 character messages can seem quite banal when used simply for social networking. I'm still not keen on the use of Twitter for social networking (but others love it), but I have come to see it has potential for CASE. Here are just two ways I'm finding it useful:

a) I have found it an excellent way to keep in touch with a variety of people's reading. While using a method like Google Reader (or many other readers), Twitter offers a way to scan a wide range of people's interests and links and to do it quickly.

b) Second, it is an excellent way to increase the visibility of organizations like CASE and to further its goals. Twitter raises the profile of blogs, websites and online publications and attracts readers.

The non-alcoholic drink that led to the popular saying

Do you need to have a Twitter account to 'follow' CASE? You do if you want to follow the CASE blog using Twitter (and this is easy to do) rather than a reader. But if you simply scan the sidebar Twitter headed 'Join the Conversation' box, you can click any of the links that feed automatically each time I tweet something (2 or 3 tweets each day). Each of these represent some of the things I've spotted and feel are worth reading, viewing or listening to. It's a bit like a blog links section but it streams automatically and (for me) acts as a record of the various links through the record of my 'tweets'. So while I only tend to write a blog post every week, there are tweets streaming to the site every day that you won't be aware of if you simply follow the blog via a reader.

I'd encourage readers to check out the links on the sidebar if you haven't already done so. You can become 'Claytons' users of Twitter and make better use of the links.