Yes, that’s right – Twitter is not all fun and games (although it can be – the subject for tomorrow’s post!).

Can it be used for professional reasons?  Absolutely.  And once you learn this it is hard to turn back because it is so useful.

Remember when I wrote about social networks and the ability to bring geographically disperse, like-minded people together?  Twitter does the same thing.  I follow people (from all over the world).

People I follow on Twitter

Most of the people I follow I am similar to in some way (except for maybe the llama).  Twitter brings us together to allow us to have discussions (albeit short ones).

Here are a few of the most popular professional uses of Twitter.

#CHATS

Example of TweetGrid on the #lrnchat hashtag, but not during a session.

There are Twitter Chats that happen on many different subjects.  Usually one hour is set aside for anyone to join in on a chat and it is assigned (by the moderator) a #hashtag.  Then they use web page like TweetGrid or a downloaded app like Tweetdeck to watch the chat’s #hashtag.  They will automatically update.

Then, at the appointed time, those who want to join do a short intro (every tweet will have the hashtag) and the moderator will ask the first question.  Everyone else will start answering and having discussions about the topic and sharing resources (links to more information).  These are very valuable discussions which help you step out of your comfy box and find out what others are doing or how they have tackled certain problems.

Sound good?  Find a Twitter Chat that interests you.  Here is a short list of twitter chats.  There are chats for the organizational learning profession – #lrnchat (a favorite of mine); accountants – #AcctgChat; knowledge management – #KMers; children’s literature – #kidlitchat; social media – #socialmedia; young moms – #youngmoms; dogs – #WoofWkly, and a ton more.

#CONFERENCES

This is what hooked me on Twitter.  Every conference nowadays will have a specific hashtag.  For exmaple, the Enterprise 2.0 conference uses #e20conf.  Those tweeples at the conference can use the hashtag to discuss or share the content of keynotes, sessions to those who didn’t come, which sessions to come to because they are so good or which ones to avoid, and to hook up with others for dinner after the conference.  There are many more ways to use it – these are only a few.

#TOPICS

Dave Wilkins and I used to moderate a “social learning question of the day “(@slqotd).  We would ask one question and everyone would answer.  We used a little bit of technological magic that made it so when you DM’d @slqotd, everyone who followed received the response, but we got too much spam.  I haven’t done it for a while, but need to get back on track.

Others, however, have done it differently.  For example, #lrn2day – what have you learned today?  Andrew McAfee asks a question a day using #andyasks.  Everyone answers with that hashtag.  Everyone else follows it to see all the answers.

There are lots of ways to do it.

#QUESTIONS

So many times I have thrown out a question on Twitter and received immediate responses from people who knew more than I do.  These are people I would not normally have access to.  What a great resource that is!

ASIDE: In a session where I spoke about Twitter, one person asked why I didn’t just Google a question.  I brought up the point that the answer may not be out on Google (imagine that!).  But someone from that session later emailed me his AH-HA moment which I feel is worth quoting:

“I hadn’t thought much about the power of Twitter, but yesterday’s session brought it into focus for me.  When I do a regular internet search, I’m either added or doomed by my choice of words for the very rule-based machine search that ensues.  In Twitter, I benefit from the interpretive skills of fellow human brains that read and interpret my need and thus are able to better design a relevant response.”

Well said!

#THROUGHtheDAY

All day I have Twitter up on my screen.  When I have a free moment, I look at it.  I always find something valuable to my profession.  A link to a study. A reference to a new technology I had not heard about.  A new perspective that helps me broaden my own. A person in need that I can help by responding to.

BTW – there is so much coming in that I miss most of it.  And remember – it is OK to let go of what you missed.  Taking in more than you are able would overwhelm you.  Don’t even try.

Do you have any more professional uses of Twitter that you can share with us?  Use the comments below!

Tomorrow: The fun side of Twitter and great Twitter apps.

Here is my SLQOTD Blog Project response: SL happens all around us at all times – like breathing. How do we take adv. of it?

This question first came up when Dave Wilkins and I were doing our last podcast.  We were talking about how we learn all the time, but those in the learning profession ignore that piece and focus on creating elearning, for example.  So the original question was: SL happens all the time – now what?

FIRST, we have to recognize that it happens.  Too often we ignore that it exists.  Or maybe, even worse, that we feel that we can’t do anything about it, so it isn’t even on our radar.

It is time.  Our job is to enable learning, enable performance improvement.  Yet if we ignore the most fundemental, basic ways that we learn, we are doing a disservice to those very people we claim to support.

During #lrnchat on Twitter last night, there was some discussion on learning and training: @marciamarcia: We still seem to be neglecting any mention of helping people learn how to learn or liberate their self-direction. #lrnchat.  Are we helping others to learn what they need/want to learn, or are we forcing learning that they don’t want?  Sure, they may need some of the latter, but what about all that they REALLY want to know?

But, truely, it happens ALL THE TIME.  Learning is ALL AROUND US.  How do we help others with that?  It isn’t by creating a course on it.

I think of homeschooling my own kids.  There are things they NEED to learn. But what about those things they are really interested in?  We point them to the resources.  We make learning available.  We hook them up with the books, sites, people and other resources.  We don’t try to give it to them in nice, neat little packages.  That is like saying, “Oh, you are running and need to breathe heavily?  Here let me give you this breath.  And this one.  And this one.”  Instead it is, “Here is all the oxygen you need.  Oh, and here is some more I found.  Breath away.”

(Another favorite tweeet of mine was from @ hjarche: if I had to develop a lot of learning “stuff” last people I would hire would ID’s (sorry) – artists, writers would come 1st #lrnchat.)