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Twitter Literacy (I refuse to make up a Twittery name for it)

Post-Oprah and apres-Ashton, Twittermania is definitely sliding down the backlash slope of the hype cycle. It's not just the predictable wave of naysaying after the predictable waves of sliced-breadism and bandwagon-chasing. We're beginning to see some data. Nielsen, the same people who do TV ratings, recently noted that more than 60% of new Twitter users fail to return the following month. To me, this represents a perfect example of a media literacy issue: Twitter is one of a growing breed of part-technological, part-social communication media that require some skills to use productively. Sure, Twitter is banal and trivial, full of self-promotion and outright spam. So is the Internet. The difference between seeing Twitter as a waste of time or as a powerful new community amplifier depends entirely on how you look at it - on knowing how to look at it.

When I started requiring digital journalism students to learn how to use Twitter, I didn't have the list of journalistic uses for Twitter that I have compiled by now. So I logged onto the service and broadcast a request. "I have a classroom full of graduate students in journalism who don't know who to follow. Does anybody have a suggestion?" Within ten minutes, we had a list of journalists to follow, including one who was boarding Air Force One at that moment, joining the White House press corps accompanying the President to Africa.

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10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners

by Darren Rowse on November 16, 2008

in Twitter for Beginners

In this guest post Aira Bongco (@airabongco) shares 10 tips for Beginners who are just getting into Twitter.

So you just signed up for Twitter. You make your first tweet and you realize you don’t have any followers. “What a dumb idea!” You say. “Who the hell would be interested in what I’m doing anyway?”

Don’t worry. You’re normal. That is a sign that you are a Twitter beginner. A lot of us Twitter users (or addicts) went through the same questioning routine. And look at us now. We’re geeks who are on Twitter all day and night and we can’t stop tweeting.

So you want to be like us? It’s not that hard really. Just follow these simple steps.

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Twitter Basics for Journalists & Recovering Journos
On Saturday, at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, I gave a talk to an audience of mostly journalists explaining the basics of blogs, social media, and search visibility. People had lots of questions, more than I could get to in the session. I was getting stopped in halls, at parties, and even in bathrooms, to be asked things like, “Does it really make that big a difference if I blog under my own domain?” (Answer: Yes!)

OK, I don’t mind answering those questions. That’s really why I went to this conference — because I know that journalists (many of whom are facing potential layoffs, or who have already been laid off) are in dire need of online media awareness and skills.

So I’m going to do a bunch of posts answering questions, because it’s more efficient to do that via blogging. This is one of those posts.

By now you’ve probably heard about Twitter, the social media service that allows you to publish posts of 140 characters max.

What Twitter does, in a nutshell: This service allows you to receive posts (”tweets”) from other Twitter users whom you choose to “follow.” Likewise, other Twitter users can choose to follow you. When you follow someone on Twitter, their tweets show up in reverse chronological order in the “tweetstream” that scrolls down the Twitter home page when you’re logged in. The effect is somewhat like an ongoing Headline News version of what’s happening in the minds and worlds of people you know or find interesting.

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13 Twitter Tips and Tutorials for Beginners

by Darren Rowse on April 18, 2009

in Twitter for Beginners

Just starting out on Twitter? Looking for some Twitter Tips to get you started?

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When Tweeting Less Can Help You be a More Effective Twitter User

by Darren Rowse on November 4, 2008

“How much do I need to Tweet each day to build a successful Twitter presence?”

I get this question a fair bit from new Twitter users and while I think Tweet frequency is an important topic (one I’ll cover in a future post here at TwiTip) I think that there’s another more important aspect of successful use of Twitter that I’ve not heard many people talk about…

Silence….. (cue the crickets and tumbleweed).

Regular tweets may well be an important part of successfully using Twitter but one thing that I’ve found equally important is regularly ‘not tweeting’.

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WRITER’S TOOLBOX: 35 Best Tools for Writing Online
December 13, 2008 - 7:38 pm PDT - by Paul Glazowski 44 Comments

Whether you’re new to the world of authorship or a veteran trying to make the most of Web services and applications, there are a number of online tools for writers of all types. From blogging platforms to networking hotbeds, and job boards to real-world gatherings, and more, the supply of utilities is comprehensive, to say the least.

But finding them all can be hard-going, so we’ve taken the liberty to make the discovery process easier by arranging our top finds here for your perusal. Here are 35 of the best social media tools for writers.

mashable.com/...writers-toolbox - Preview

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