As I hope to work in a public library once I have graduated from my degree, I decided to follow a number of public libraries on twitter to see how they utilise microblogging. My initial opinion of organisations using twitter was that it was a bit of a gimmick designed to appeal to a younger audience, however I quickly discovered that tweeting or microblogging can be quite effective at delivering information to a wide audience.
After observing the tweets, I found that twitter was mainly used to promote upcoming events or relay news regarding the library. These tweets would often link to another blog post that would elaborate on the tweet. I found this to be a very effective use of Twitter's basis on shorter messages. In my opinion tweeting is a very good use of technology to overcome information overload, as people can quickly see if they would be interested in the story or event before reading a larger blog post on the topic; much in the same way newspapers use headlines.
Beyond the use of twitter to relay news and information, I have often found that a tweet will link to something that is not related to the library. Instead the article is something that could be of interest to someone who would follow a library on Twitter. While this does not relate to the library specifically it is a means to engage with the community.
Due to these observations I have made, my opinion of twitter as a tool for organisations has become much more positive. I can see that it is an incredibly valuable tool for organisations to share news and articles of interest in a world that is becoming overloaded with information. It also allows organisations to connect with their audience which can be a very positive experience for both the organisation and the community.
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