Over 500 tweets in, I have had a love/hate relationship with Twitter since spring 2009. Originally, I created an account thanks to encouragement by a friend (@mandibaronas) but grew frustrated - it simply didn't seem to have a purpose to follow people I don't know or care about.
I started my internship at a local full-service agency in June, and from the day I stepped in, it was quite clear that social media, especially Twitter, presented great opportunities in the communications world. For my own use as a public relations student, I find it fascinating to connect with people I never would have, had it not been for the site. For instance, I can follow CEOs of major companies to see their innovation in social media (@zappos is one of my favorites), professors from Marquette and other schools to get their insights on the field, athletes and celebrities to get a glimpse into their everyday lives, and people that I do know through my daily life.
The most difficult thing for me to grasp when I first started using Twitter was the difference between this site and Facebook. Many in Twitterville poke jokes at Facebook, asking why we would care that Jenny is taking a nap, or Chris just found his lost sneakers. In my own opinion, I compare and contrast the two like this: Facebook is saying what you ate for dinner. Twitter is sharing the recipe.
The community sense of Twitter is overwhelming, as I have found in my first year using the site, and people truly enjoy sharing and retweeting (RT) interesting articles, links and thoughts. One of the biggest challenges - yet in my opinion is one of Twitter's biggest strengths - is the 140 character limit: this forces you to be succinct, clear and concise while still sharing a message.
This assignment to tweet twice daily for two weeks, including responses to classmates and retweets of insightful thoughts, was not a challenge for me since I tweet multiple times a day, but gave me a greater understanding of the universe run by Bluebird, and devastated by the fail whale.
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