Tweetarded

In my multimedia producing class we've been discussing Twitter a lot lately. Professor Williams devoted the better half of a class to it.  He presented an interactive discussion on Twitter via the Poynter Institute.

A lot of people don't get it.

In a recent CNN.com story about why facebook is ideal for old people, one of the reasons listed was, "We just don't understand Twitter."

Many of my classmates expressed equal sentiment.

I get it. I use it. Daily. Hourly even.

Twitter has many uses especially for journalists.  Both the print side of journalism and strategic communication/PR side can benefit.  I use it for both.  As a print journalist I use it to share information with others quickly.  I follow updates from the New York Times, The Kansan, the Topeka Capital Journal and Lawrence Journal World. I've been up to speed on countless news stories because of these tweets. I can share information quickly with my mother, a journalist in northeast Kansas.  I followed the presidential debates via Lawrence.com's tweets, which were  informational but mostly hilarious.  I saw the country band together and tweet minute by minute on President Barack Obama's inauguration day. Professor Williams used Twitter to contact me during my coverage of a local fire.  He could actually instruct me via Twitter through my cell phone and check on the status of the story.

I use Twitter for public relations and promotions because I'm the live events director for KJHK, our student-run radio station.  Using tweets I booked an artist for a poster for an upcoming event.  I use it to tweet about events that the radio station promotes or events of artists whom I support with my personal Twitter account.  KJHK executive staff members have the Twitter account information and can tweet what's going on with the station at that any instant.  People can quickly gain information about the station with the tweets, whether it's history, photos of the station or who's currently on-air.

And it's fun.

Some of my favorite Twitters are Diplo, P. Diddy (oh, did we drop the P?) and MC Hammer.  Most of their tweets are lighthearted and funny.    Diplo recently returned from Trinidad and Tobago. He'd been there over Carnival, exactly the same time my sister was in Trinidad and Tobago.  I followed his tweets and learned about where he went and what he did.  Some of it was relevant and some of it not, like the time he dropped his toothbrush in the airplane toilet. Two days ago MC Hammer wanted to know which show a character named Diego was on.  His son requested to watch "Diego" on TV.  I was able to tweet back and tell him that Diego is a character on Dora the Explorer.

Twitter has many uses.  I see people use it to self-promote or to provide social commentary on news, events and people. I see local musicians, in particular the local djs and rappers, use it to trade beats and share music samples. My friend's dad is a plastic surgeon and she said that doctors are starting to use Twitter to tweet about medical procedures as they're being done.

That sounds a little more serious than how I use Twitter, but at least I got to help MC Hammer be a better parent.