Seeing 51 messages in my phone after not checking for an hour is normally a sign that something is wrong. This week, it was expected.
For my creative message design class at The Ohio State University, I had to follow the Twitter accounts of at least 40 people. They were from a list composed of media organizations or personalities, local businesses and people, and marketing and PR resources.
I have never sent out a tweet before Feb. 24. I was in Twitter but just followed several accounts and looked at the trending topics. I recently allowed text alerts to get the “full experience”.
After a week in twitterverse, here are some of my observations.
News
Whether it be the tension in Libya, iPad 2 or Charlie “Tiger Blood and Adonis DNA” Sheen’s antics, news is breaking every minute. For news professionals, I’d imagine the quick and frequent updates are very useful. For everyone else, they are a little annoying. For instance, I would be perfectly fine reading about some of the news at the end of the day.
Local news, on the other hand, is a lot more relevant. I generally enjoyed all tweets from @thelantern. The Lantern is the student-published university newspaper at OSU.
Business tool
Tweets are teasers. They provide tidbits of information that may persuade you to click on the link to learn more. Some businesses also use it to let people know about specials or promotions that will hopefully lead them to their stores. Some also had contests for their followers. If used correctly, Twitter can be an effective tool for business.
Information resource
As a marketing student, I found the tweets of the marketing and PR agencies to be the most useful. I clicked on and bookmarked many of the links they sent out regarding marketing trends and tips. I may even use one of the articles as a talking point for a job I am applying to.
My first tweet was “day 1 in twitterverse. In the 7th day, will I rest?”
I think I will stay. Other than my phone blowing up every few minutes, my experience has been good and I think the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. I’ll just have to limit the text notifications so I’m not overwhelmed.
If you have space for another tweep, follow me @erikraypalomar.
