Thing 7: Twitter

I’ve had a Twitter account for the past year, and use it about once a week to update my friends on what I’m doing.  The tweets that are sent by my “real-life” friends, like friends from high school or whatever, are sent to my phone.  My friend, Michelle, sends multiple tweets daily, which can be a bit much for me.  I’ve changed my settings so that tweets are not sent to my phone from the hours of 12-10 a.m. so that they never wake me up. 

For this assignment, I created another Twitter account just for this class.  My personal Twitter account is personal and I must accept friends in order for them to follow me.  For this class, I’ve made my account public for simplicity purposes.  

The only “professionals” I’ve seen or heard about using Twitter are celebrities.  Most often, these tweets are inappropriate or unnecessary (I’m thinking Lindsay Lohan or Charlie Sheen).  That being said, I can most certainly see how PR professionals could use Twitter in a more effective way.  Event planning could be one of the most prominent ways that Twitter updates could be used.  Reminding the public about events could help increase revenue, participation, or raise awareness for whatever the PR person wants.

I like tweeting to personal friends, and have not used it in a professional manner.  I’m sure I’ll have to get more comfortable using social networking sites in the future, but right now I feel like a sales person when I try to urge people to do something through Facebook or twitter.