Reflections on Twitter and social networking

I’ve been using Twitter for a number of weeks now, and that, combined with several recent social networking activities prompted this reflection.   There’s lots more for me to learn, of course, but there are powerful reasons to blog about it along the way as well.

I’ve talked before about the reasons to blog, including it causing you to think about a lot of things, which can then be useful when they come up, and in general that you need to be using the tools to understand them.   I find blogging personally beneficial to cause me to take time to reflect, and that’s one of the best investments you can make in effectiveness.

Twitter is a different story; described as micro-blogging, it’s more immediate, more a pointer.   Many of the people to track are sharing their interesting discoveries.   Sometimes it’s just personal things, which gives them richer dimension.   However, much like the Facebook opportunity, it’s a way to follow people who could be serving as mentors (even if they don’t know it!).   It’s also a way to track what’s hot and new.

I’m still exploring other uses of Facebook.   My tweets now appear there, and some people respond there rather than through Twitter.   That’s cool, as it provides more ways for interaction.   I like seeing what people are up to, as well.   Haven’t quite got my notifications right, however, as I miss some things.   I keep getting invited to things, though when I do see them, I’m not sure I’m on board with all of them.

I really appreciated Tony Karrer’s pointer on how to use LinkedIn, by the way. I’ve seen it mostly as a job hunt tool (consequently, more for others than myself, e.g. to support people I know who are on a job search), but he’s leveraging it as an expertise tool.

And Ning’s quite interesting   too.   They built one for the Summer Seminar Series, and it’s had some life. The Work Literacy one on Learning 2.0 that’s going on right now is great value if you want to have support in getting up to speed.   Elliot Masie’s LearningTown is ongoing I guess, haven’t been back in a while.   There are some others I’m signed on to as well: serious games, internettime.   However, they’re beginning to turn into one big Ning mass that I have trouble differentiating.   It’s just having to remember to go to all these different places.   I suspect I need to spend more time getting the notifications right.

So, lots of tools, lots of opportunities, still more to learn.   What am I missing?