Twitter: to lurk or not to lurk

So yesterday I mentioned the concept of lurking in social media; I've been quite the lurker in my time, and thought in this post I'd share my experience of the process of "de-lurking".


I've used the internet since 1995/6, am a huge internet banking convert, I use email for work and friends, and I "Facebook" with friends in about as locked down an environment as I can set.
However, I just didn't "get" the appeal of a twitter experience; I set up an account a number of years ago, had a bit of a search and look around, but never really delved or explored further to prove or disprove that perspective. Safe to say, it was one for the backburner.


Probably the two biggest prompts to me developing my Twitter involvement were:
1. meeting Susie Macfarlane @susie_mac through a curriculum renewal project last year.
Having joined Twitter back in 2008/9 and deep-lurked for some two-ish years, last year Susie "followed" me in the ether, and during our in-person meeting her enthusiasm encouraged me to get Twitter-active, and see where it lead.
Between Susie M, and my having met Deakin Uni academic and former journo and PR guru Ross Monaghan @themediapod , I had 2 real live humans in my workplace that I could connect to, follow, tweet, and more importantly, check out who they follow, to see who else out there "spoke to me".


2. attending the Melbourne component of the PLE Conference 2012 (thanks for the invite Joyce S).
Keynotes by Dr Alec Couros @courosa and Dr Inger Mewburn @thesiswhisperer, a room full of interested, engaged and tweeting professionals from academic and corporate origins, workshops that buzzed, and thoughtful and interactive panels took off. Tweets did fly! Add to that, the conference was co-sited in Aviero, Portugal in a different timezone, and there was quite the bunch of people connecting, commenting, sharing, retweeting, and encouraging each other. It was quite an experience. See the hashtag #pleconf for some of the flavour.


What does this mean for me?
Well, for starters it's not a competition. I'm not looking to gather @ladygaga like numbers of followers (27.9million as at 5/6/2012).
I follow some 200+ people for professional, personal and hobby interests. I am followed by less.
But I do want to connect and participate; I've seen the humble 140 tweet characters inspire and assist.
I hope this blog will be

• a place where I can share my ideas and experiences,
• use twitter to essentially advertise that my "thought of the day/post" is available,
• then create more meaningful and connected relationships with people via the comments or tweets that follow.

If you have any questions or thoughts about this post or blog, please use the comment field below, tweet me, or get in touch. I'll be pleased to continue the conversation.


Technical tip
This post was written in the notes app on my iPad, jumping between it and the Twitter and Safari apps to crosscheck links and facts. Then a cut'n'paste into Blogger software/app with some hyperlinking work.
Fingers crossed, a click of the publish button, and hey presto, post 2 should go live :-)




* Sponsor's declaration
I'll be making references to Susie Mac's blog http://futuresgazing.blogspot.com.au/ over the coming weeks, and am looking forward to seeing that blog project develop too!


Kp