Here's how I use Twitter

It's 9 a.m. on a week day. I'm sipping on my morning coffee, responding to email, and glancing over at my second monitor; that's where I keep TweetDeck running.

Every now and then throughout the day I glance over to my Learning Tech/News column or Learning Professionals column on TweetDeck and scroll through to see if anything catches my eye.

1. I notice a Tweet on a tool that identifies web fonts directly on a page without having to inspect the page. I never thought I needed it but it's something that will save me time in the long run.
2. I see a colleague post about a game they made in some tool I've never heard of. I instantly Google it. It's free and something I could use on an upcoming project.
3. A local graphic design event is posted on my Tech News column, I register, and make friends with people who I will learn from.
4. I learn about more research on the 'Learning Styles' Myth (while those who are not active on social media may not have heard the news.)

On Twitter you have to actively curate connections, connections who post resources you need. Once you have the connections it's about learning and taking action on what resources pass by on your stream.

It's also about connecting with your professional community. You share your work with others and promote others in your industry (and they'll generally gladly reciprocate the favor.)

Here is my completely candid list on how I use Twitter.

1. I use TweetDeck to manage my Twitter account to be more organized. Check out how I use it:

2. I post on learning technologies, what I'm working on/learning, game dev, graphic design, coding, women in tech/leadership, and all around techy stuff. I like to think that's part of my brand.

Most importantly I believe I need to be genuine. I talk how I would normally talk, I don't try to sell anyone on anything, and I try to respond to anyone who interacts with me.

3. I participate in a Twitter chat every now and then, such as: guildchat, chat2lrn, codenewbie, and lrnchat.

4. I share my work with my network. I use hashtags and multimedia with those posts accordingly. I try not to post anything without at least an image and 1-2 relevant hashtags.   

5. I only retweet links that I have opened (but to be honest, sometimes I just skim articles.) I can usually tell if something is worthwhile by skimming it.

6. I follow conference back channels as conferences are happening. I do this by keeping a column that has the hashtag of the conference up. I will follow anyone that is Tweeting interesting/useful resources for the conference.

7. I will follow a majority of people who follow me but I won't add them to a list unless they have interacted with me or are constantly posting really good resources.

8. I will unfollow folks who are not following me to keep my ratio in check. This does not mean that you are not on one of my lists though. I know not everyone will agree with this but c'est la vie.

9. When I'm at an event I like to catalogue/share what I am learning by Tweeting, so I try to find out if the event has a hashtag.

10. I'm heavy handed with liking. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. I think this has become a habit of mine and my boyfriend calls me out on it. I can't help it but I do like a lot of Tweets. :)

11. I keep somewhat of a routine. I use Twitter the most first thing when I wake up. I try to respond to everyone right before I leave for work and right when I get home.

12. I use animated gifs sparingly because I feel like it's good practice. It's really hard to sift through an entire stream of animated gifs when you're looking for an image.

13. I make lists for what I want to see. I make lists for news, those who tweet tutorials, and specific industry professionals I want to follow.

14. I don't send an automated Direct Message when someone follows me. I feel like that's possibly the worst thing to ever be created. I loathe when I receive them.

15. I need to start using Tweet Collections to save Tweets on things such as new tools and tutorials I want to check out.

- MelMilloway