Getting More out of Twitter

While trying to figure out how to use Twitter these past couple of days, I came across a few things that I found useful, thought I'd share...

I connected with this edtech specialist/ teacher in England (@tombarrett) after I read his name on the 10 teacher list above. He sent me a link to his blog, which is really neat, featuring an article called 5 Things to Get your Twitter Network Off the Ground. Here is the summary:

1. Complete your profile to help others know who is requesting to follow them or who they may be interested in following.
   
2. Dive right in.
   
3. Follow a bunch of people with similar professional interests (eg. whose blog you may have enjoyed reading)
4. Piggyback off someone with a large network by asking them to put out a good word for you, so you can get some exposure.
5. Reply to people (use the @ followed by their username in the tweet), it gets you more engaged.

Here is a list of 10 Teachers to follow on Twitter (from Free Tech for Teachers)

Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter (from Free Tech for Teachers):

1. Twitter 4 Teachers wiki: "The Twitter 4 Teachers PB Wiki was started by ed tech specialist Gina Hartman. This wiki is organized content teaching area so that visitors can connect with Twitter users who teach the same subject(s). "
2. Educators on Twitter is a Google Docs Spreadsheet started by Liz B. Davis. The list is constantly growing as new additions are added almost daily.
3. Twitter for Teachers "is a wiki started by Rodd Lucier with the purpose of educating teachers about the use of Twitter as an educational tool and as a professional development tool. You may want to check out who the contributors to the wiki are and follow them. Rodd has also produced a great video demonstrating how to use Twitter, Delicious, and Google Reader to find more Twitter users of interest to you. "
4. Jane Hart, founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has compiled a list of nearly 800 educators on Twitter. Each entry is accompanied by a short summary about the Twitter user.
   
5. Twitter search. Located at the bottom of the Twitter page is a search link. Try searching for key words commonly used in educational technology. Then follow the Twitter users who are writing messages containing those key terms.

Want a Twitter button for your blog? Find a free one here, there are tons of options! All you have to do is add it to your blog as a Picture Gadget, then create a link from the picture to your twitter profile page.

Some great tips on how to use Twitter are found on the Twitter help page, for example... If you type in GET username, it retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the person.