In my line of work, we follow the chatter. We follow news and mentions on our university through paper news clips (I know, it's old school), monitor Google Alerts, Web sites, YouTube, blogs, etc. This has always been standard practice in my profession.
There really is no trick to it.
Enter Twitter.
Last fall I became a "peep" and have been "following" social media experts that I have longed to hear present at various conferences but could not because of the cost. It was not too hard to find them on Twitter, and I have been following their conversations–lurking and listening–and have gained an invaluable amount of information in a very short time frame.
At first, it was a little creepy because I was brought up to never eavesdrop. I am basically eavesdropping on instant messaging en mass. You can follow almost anyone you like on Twitter. A few have their account as permission only, but most welcome more followers. It's like a contest to some.
Real difference though in gathering information this way is that it's using social networking to learn more about social networking–as it should be.
Here's a simple video explaining how Twitter works.
Universities don't really know how Twitter fits in with their communication programs yet. Right now my university uses it to send out news releases. Maybe not the best use since Twitter is conversation based, as is all social media, but I've had other "peeps" retweet our news. Considering there were over 3 million Twitter users In October 2008 (University Business, January 2009), a few minutes to copy and paste is worth it.
Joe Bonner, a communications pro for a university in New York, has a good blog called Odds and Ends on using Twitter with links to basic, intermediate and advanced information.
Read Karine Joly's feature on Twitter, "Should you Twitter" in the January 2009 issue of University Business for more depth information.
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