I was skeptical to join Twitter. At first, I thought it was unorganized – just a jumbled list of different people’s thoughts. I thought it would be overwhelming to keep up with.
I’ve been tweeting since November 2010. I really only joined because my English professor assigned us homework that required us to condense some of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets into 140 characters or less and post them on Twitter. I ended up really enjoying the assignment, and I decided to keep my Twitter account after the class ended.
When I first joined, one of the first “mentions” I received was from my friend, who told me that Twitter would become “the most addicting thing in my life.”
I have to admit…he was right.
Since then, I’ve found that Twitter has many more practical uses than just social networking. I work for Ohio State Athletics Communications and also in marketing for Ohio State Rec Sports. In both organizations, we use Twitter to post game updates, scores, general news, and events. During spring quarter 2011, Twitter was very useful in informing the public about cancellations of outdoor sporting events because of the rain. Twitter is also very useful in getting feedback from students when they retweet or mention us.
Most recently, I have paired up the use of Foursquare with Twitter. Foursquare is a social networking site that allows you to “check-in” wherever you are and lets your friends know what you’re up to. Ohio State Rec Sports also utilizes Foursquare. We monitor how many people are checking in at the RPAC, ARC, and Jesse Owens Rec Centers.
I also follow many local businesses, PR resources, and media outlets. I found it interesting that many of the PR sources, like @easyColumbus, tweeted internship opportunities. It seemed like there were at least five or more new opportunities posted every day. To me, this seems like a great way to inform people about ways to get internships. I have many friends that have had trouble finding internships. I’d love to tell them about following PR resources on Twitter.
In short, I am very enthusiastic about Twitter. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with it, and I intend to keep tweeting for a long time.
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