‘I just don’t get it?! Why would you want to… tweet! Look, I will give it a go for a few days and I will see how I get on. No promises mind. I am no internet champion you know and I don’t want to make a fool of myself in front of everyone.
If you stuck with Twitter, or have every championed the benefits of Twitter, you will recognise the above conversation. What is more you will now be willing this Twitter newbie on, urging them up and over the engagement tipping point and into a rich stream of professional conversation that is the Twittersphere.
You have covered the basics, the profile, the avatar, hashtags, @ and DMs. You may have even put a shout out on their behalf,
Please welcome @Twitternewbie, educator and great teacher…….
You tweeted a few ideas and a few twitter-quette suggestions, like thank people for following you, pay-it-forward, share resources…. but Twitter only becomes TWITTER when there is conversation in your stream. Smart phone apps and desk clients are redundant if Twitter fails to live up to its billing.
So, its rough around the edging, it might not be ‘cricket’ but its effective, its BlastFollow.
Simply enter a favorite hashtag (for example, “twittereducator”) in the box below. Then, click the “Get Users!” button. After a few seconds, you will see the number of users who tweeted with that hashtag recently. Then, you need only enter your Twitter name and password and click “Blast!
With twitter chats, conferences and Google / Microsoft teacher training camps all using hashtags there are numerous blasts available. With @primarypete promoting #twittereducator and @stuartridout #newleaders, @ianaddison #edchat and your stream has become a river. A word of caution, don’t drown in your own enthusiasm but do BlastFollow!