Learning Conversations

#yam

Twitter is a great tool for spreading messages and ideas through your network. It also devours time. Not every Twitter message posted by the people you follow will be relevant to you. It's a bit like being in a big hall with a large group of people shouting at you, and then you shouting out anything that comes into your head. Not really a good environment for a conversation.

I've decided that I just don't have enough spare time to listen in to all the people I follow. Instead I'm going to use Twitter more strategically.

Time-limited sessions

As a means of collecting together ideas around an event, Twitter is hard to beat. Simply attach an event-specific tag (like #LT10uk) to your post and it can then become part of a list of tweets filtered on that tag. Again, not so good for conversation, but ideal to pick up what's grabbing people's attention.

Use RSS to pick up your Twitter feed

I have an RSS set up for any Tweet containing @berthelemy. This comes into Google Reader. It means I don't miss messages directed to me, but also means they come to me, rather than me having to go to a Twitter client, with the potential for time-wasting that will involve.

I can do a similar thing for any other saved search.

Post via RSS to Twitter

With Twitterfeed, any new post or comment on my blog automatically gets posted to my Twitter network. Again, it means I avoid using a Twitter client.

Use a Twitter client sparingly

As you can see I will rarely use a Twitter client (like Twitterfall). What this means is that I will then make a deliberate decision to spend time with the people I follow.

How do you make sure Twitter doesn't devour your time?