Microblogging is huge! Why didn’t anyone tell me? OK, I’ve got to admit, when I first heard about Twitter — the microblogging and social-networking site that allows users to write short, 140-character entries in response to the question, “What are you doing?” — I was a major skeptic.
Who really cares if I’m “Sitting at my desk, trying to think of a good way to describe Twitter for Champion magazine” (91)? Do you really want to read that “I’m drinking coffee and reading the Double-A Zone” (45)?
“Tweets” (Twitter-speak for the 140-character updates) aren’t intended to be profound; they’re meant to be small touch points of digestible information that give you a window into a bigger picture.
Just like a blog, Twitter allows you to write posts that others read. The big difference is that those posts end up sounding less like a traditional blog and more like a one-sided instant messaging session.
Anyone who “follows” you can read your posts on his or her choice of device – cell phone, via the Web, through an RSS feed or using IM. In fact, Twitter was designed with mobile devices in mind – 140 characters is the maximum that can be sent via a text message.
Like most of you, I wondered what value these inane conversations could possibly bring to my life. So, I registered a Twitter profile to find out. (I’m MartaNCAA if you want to start following me.)
Despite my skepticism, the Twitter world opened and I became a believer. As I predicted, the banal conversations among friends – the I’m drinking coffee and reading the Double-A Zone kind of talk – didn’t interest me at all. My conversion came when I discovered the ESPN and New York Times official Twitters.
These organizations (and others like them) use Twitter to drive readers to their Web sites. In most cases, the updates are simply headlines with a link to a story. Genius.
For me, Twitter isn’t a way to stay connected to my friends (most of them aren’t on it anyway). No, Twitter is my personal headline service.
An example from my Twitter feed:
OK, so let’s bring this back to college athletics. With Twitter, your fans could get automatic updates of scores, headlines and other information you want them to know. They’ll get these updates on their phones, surfing the Web, IMing or reading their RSS feeds. It’s free to you and it’s a great marketing and outreach tool.
Of course, there are plenty of other interesting ways to use microblogging, and since I’m new to the service, I’m learning new ways to use it every day. Send me a Tweet and let me know what other ideas you have. “I’m sitting at my desk waiting to hear from you” (48).
– Marta Lawrence is NCAA associate
director of new media.