Last week a set up an account on Twitter for the first time. It is part of a class project, and at first it took me a little bit of time to get around, and it felt frustrating to be truthful. However, soon enough I experienced the goodness of Twitter and TweetDeck.
One of the things that I like to do every day is read the news on-line. However, sometimes seems difficult to read anything interesting about the topics that attract me the most, or that have some professional connection with my career. Thus, Tweeter has helped exponentially to solve this issue. However, Public History, the Spanish Civil War (in English and Spanish) or issues on historical memory do not represent the biggest trends in the mini-blogging community. So my overall experience there has not been as exciting as with following organizations and colleagues. For example, the NCPH, the AHA or the Pritzker Military Library proved to be helpful by re-tweeting or posting information on prizes, scholarships, grants, and job opportunities. In addition, my colleagues tweets also proved intellectually stimulant and helpful. Their comments are not just funny and uplifting but also meaningful as part of my learning experience. One example would be how through one tweet by Kelly Gannon, I learned how she has used a WordPress blog as a platform to promote herself and show her work.
Finally, another advantage that I find in using Twitter is the potentiality of creating a professional network. Or maybe, I should try LinkedIn.