Twitter for Health
Nedra Weinreich has a highly detailed post about the utility of Twitter, and how she scoffed before she actually explored it:
When I first read about Twitter last year, I scoffed. Who cares what other people are doing, thinking or eating every waking moment of the day? …
While I was on my blogging hiatus … I decided to try out Twitter on a short-term basis to see if I thought it was worthwhile. After a few days of using it, I was hooked. I found that Twitter was a great way to have ongoing conversations and build relationships with colleagues, get quick answers to questions and get pointers to useful links.
[Via : Spare Change: Twitter for Health.]
She goes on to list many, many practical possibilities for Twitter, such as:
- Providing information and tips - ex: eDiets, womenshealth, Health News
- Providing motivational support - ex: Qwitter (smoking cessation), Twitter PT Challenge (fitness)
- Early warning systems - ex: Morbus (pandemics), trouble alerts
Nedra also carefully examines benefits and limitations.
Twitter is one of those things where you have to try it out (with some friends or colleagues) before you actually ‘get’ it. Once people do ‘get’ it though, they see how useful it could be.
One of the best things about Twitter is that you have only 140 characters to convey your message. That makes messages short, sharp and to the point, as well as quick to read.
Twitter works best with a standalone client — ie a piece of software that handles tweets separately. If you have to go and look at a web page to read tweets it just all seems pointless.
As a Mac user I can say that Twitterific is superb. Windows and Linux users should check out the Twitter fan wiki to locate good software.
This post suggested by Ted Zorn.
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May 28, 2008 1 Comment
How Twitter is gaining ground
For some Twitter is a useful and important tool for maintaining contact with friends and colleagues, and for staying connected to news and events in the world at large, or locally, or as it relates to their hobbies and interests.
One of the good things about Twitter is that you can engage with it just as much as you like: follow one person or organisation and never say anything, interact with a small group, follow hundreds and spend all day tweeting yourself — it’s up to you.
As Twitter develops and increasing numbers of people use it, trends are starting to emerge. Recently ReadWriteWeb teamed up with Summize to look at what people are talking about in the Twitosphere:
What we found is that there are three main types of conversations going on. First, there are status updates of every day occurrences such as, “getting coffee,” “check out this post on X,” “going to sleep,” or other mundane life things.
Second, there are short term memes where many people talk about some event before, during, or after it. These conversations are usually short lived — ranging from a few minutes to a few hours. For example a TV show like “Lost” will have some buzz, before, during, and for a short time after the show airs, but will drop out of the stream very quickly. We saw that happen with “LSD” when the drug’s creator Albert Hoffman died last week.
The final type of discussion we see on Twitter, are long term memes. These are topics of interest that people talk about for days, weeks, or even months. Politics or new video games are great examples of these longer term discussions happening on the platform.
…Conclusion
While technology, politics, and geekery (sci-fi movies and video games) tend to dominate the long term memes, people are discussing all sorts of things on Twitter — from sports to pop culture to cooking.
[Via : What People Say When They Tweet - ReadWriteWeb.]
People love to talk about the mundane, the trivia — it’s the stuff of daily life; it keeps us connected. Then the ‘buzz’ emerges: the new movie, the latest episode of Coronation Street. But gradually and occasionally the long-term or important topics arise.
Could your organisation use Twitter? Could you stay in touch with colleagues? Monitor breaking news? Arrange for your ‘clients’ to support one another (an example might be quitting smoking)?
See the Webguide Tools: Twitter section for more information about what Twitter is and how to use it.
May 19, 2008 No Comments
Twitter’s role in relationship building
Julie Starr, in talking about how news organisations are using Twitter, mentions how important continued Twitter use can be for building relationships:
Twitter is quite an intimate communication forum. Over time you make acquaintances and become increasingly interested in hearing what they have to say, what they’ve been reading, and enjoy having conversations with them. To have great lumps of news headlines dumped in the middle of all this is an intrusion. A couple of headlines here and there is fine, but a lump isn’t.
[Via The Evolving Newsroom: Less is more when updating news on Twitter.]
April 18, 2008 No Comments
Facebook engages conversations
Businesses are getting in on the social networking sites, because they know that’s where a substantial audience is. Then they’re finding that they need to actually engage with their customers:
Ernst & Young were among the first companies to set up a recruiting page on Facebook, aimed at recruiting the thousands of entry-level graduates throughout the world it needs each year.
Young said some businesses felt uncomfortable about their lack of control over what was posted on social media sites.
But he said opening a business to scrutiny was what made social media advertising work.
“It’s conversational rather than just a one-way broadcast,” says Young.
Lee agreed businesses using social media should be prepared for a two-way conversation.
“A one-way push of information doesn’t work any more. You want people to engage.”
February 23, 2008 No Comments
