Using micro-blogging services like twitter.com plurk.com and pownce.com is not only fun but they are a great way to build relationships and network with people inside and outside of your industry
I use micro-blogging services as a way to connect with people on a professional as well as a personal level
How I manage multiple micro-blogging services
I use a service called ping.fm to post to all three micro-blogging services at the same time. I use this service only when I feel it is appropriate if I am talking about what I'm reading or linking to resources that all the people following me on all the services would find useful. I don't use it if I'm making statements about one particular service for instance if I'm talking about plurk's karma feature I will only post to plurk I also don't use it when I am responding to one person on a particular service.
The power of ping.fm is that you can ask a question or make a statement and get responses from people on multiple services. The one drawback of course is that you have to check each micro-blogging service separately for the responses I keep all my micro-blogging services open in separate tabs using Firefox for this reason
What I write about on these micro-blogging services
When I first started micro-blogging I didn't really have a purpose I just wrote my thoughts down and talked about what I was doing occasionally
After doing some research I found that many people recommended that you have a goal when using these services
I decided my goal was going to be to make my micro-blogging as useful as I possibly could. I would do this by sharing what I was reading throughout the day I would also share useful websites as I find them. I do a whole lot of reading and research on the Internet during my day so my objectives fit right in with my workflow.
How I made it easy to post what I am reading and looking atthroughout the day
Having to copy and paste the website URL from the address bar into the micro-blogging input field was both time-consuming and frustrating for me.
I use two tools to make posting what I am reading easier I use ping.fm's "ping this" button which I acquired from ping.fm's webpage all I had to do was click and drag the button from their webpage to my bookmark toolbar in the Firefox web browser that I use. From then on all I had to do was click on the "ping this" button on the toolbar when I was on a page I wanted to post. The ping.fm service than filled in the Web address and the title of the page all I had to do than was insert the word "reading -" at the beginning of the title to signify this is what I'm reading at the moment.
I try not to post to plurk too many times in a row because it can clog up people's timelines on the service and could be very annoying
When I want to post a website I'm reading or looking at to twitter only I use a Firefox extension called Shareaholic using this extension is even easier than ping.fm because the extension inserts the word "reading" (and there are other options) before the title of the article. There are two drawbacks to using Shareaholic however:
- you can only post a link to one service at a time
- and there is no support for plurk yet
In addition to posting links to what I'm reading and looking at on the Web I post my thoughts on blogging and technology issues. I talk about both successful achievements and problems I am experiencing with my blogs
I only post links to my website when I have a major update or I have a really good article posted. I don't want to spam people who choose to follow me on these micro-blogging services I am really conscious of that.
The results of my approach so far
I have found that people find my posts useful and I have gained a good amount of followers on plurk and twitter
I have 133 friends on plurk and 389 followers on twitter
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Microblogging is really powerful. I do most of the things you describe. In the process, I also make a few friends! :)
Posted by: Katherine | July 28, 2008 at 02:44 PM