Twiitter

Twitter isn’t actually dead but it is down. By my unscientific estimation it has been comatose for almost two hours. Rumor has it that you can hear Mark Zuckerberg and and Larry Page laughing maniacally, but I can’t confirm that.

What I can confirm is that I don’t particularly like being disconnected unless it is my choice to do so. You see Twitter is just one of the tools that I have come to rely upon to connect me to my online community. That community has become a big part of my life.

It is important enough for me to dedicate an entire newsletter to it.

My online community is composed of friends and colleagues. It is a vast network of resources that I rely upon daily. If I have questions I know that I can reach out to my community and ask for help or opinions and be confident that I will always receive an answer.

For those of us who work from a remote office Twitter is one of our virtual water coolers. It is where I can talk about Game of Thrones, favorite music/movies and just relax.

A bunch of us have been kidding around on Facebook that productivity throughout the world has shot up dramatically and that the net result of Twitter being down will have a positive impact on the economy.

I Hate Headlines

I don’t really hate headlines but I dislike living in a world of instant gratification and short attention spans. I dislike the emphasis to always have to be clever so as to grab the attention of prospective readers.

This is the sort of complaint that I tell my children to ignore. That is because I can’t see an easy way to change this. All I see is an uphill battle and though I have never been afraid to fight against anyone or anything there are some battles that aren’t worth it.

What good will come out of my complaining about headlines. The answer to that question is painfully obvious to me but probably not to any of you.

I have some really good things going on in my life now. There are some really big opportunities that I am excited about but it will be several days before I find out whether they are going to materialize or not.

So I am feeling a bit crazed because it is close enough to see but too far away to touch. Consequently I am feeling a bit frustrated and somewhat stifled. This is it coming out.

It is also one of the reasons why I love blogging. I know that just writing about this will take some of the edge off and that I will feel better. My community will read this and I know that I will be supported.

Support is important for everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you are someone who is confident enough to go against the tide or someone who isn’t. The support of a community provides comfort in a variety of areas and that is invaluable.

What do you think?

We are going to continue to see more examples of government using various forms of social media to communicate with the public.

(CNN) — When a report of a possible explosive device on the roof of a city parking garage came in to the Lakeland, Florida, Police Department, public safety officials there sprang into action.They sent out a squad to investigate and they posted a notice on Twitter.

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are mostly used by those who want to keep their friends and families informed about their lives and activities.

But increasingly, police and fire departments across the country are tapping into social networking to disseminate information to the public.

“We think the police department has an obligation to get information out to the community through whatever means or mechanisms we have at our disposal,” said Lakeland Police

Assistant Chief Bill LePere. “Traditional media releases, expecting the local print media to pick it up and run it in the newspaper tomorrow, is 24 hours too late.”

With Twitter and Facebook, there is immediacy. Information can be shared as quickly as the poster can hit send.Public safety officials are finding the use of sites to be not only speedy, but also a convenient way to distribute press releases, Amber alerts, road closings and suspect descriptions.

Bruce Frazier, public relations specialist for the Dalton Police Department in Dalton, Georgia, said the way in which Lakeland police utilized Twitter is exactly what he envisioned when his department started using the site a few weeks ago.

His department has a blog and Frazier said he learned the value of being able to keep the public updated quickly in October after a bombing at an area law firm.

I made another spelling error on one of my Twitter Tweets. It irks me. It chafes my hide because there is no way to correct it. That mistake just sits there and mocks me.

At least blogging offers a way to edit your posts so that you can correct your mistakes. Unless I am mistaken Twitter does not. So the moral of the story is to tweet carefully.

I have been using Twitter for around a month and am slowly learning my way around it. For a long time I was reluctant to get involved with anything else that could serve as a time suck. As it is I feel like I am constantly searching for ways to turn a 24 hour day into 36 hours. So the idea of adding another responsibility bothered me.

But at the same time I find social media to be incredibly interesting so I wanted to dip my toes into the water and see what happened.

Thus far I have been pleased with it. It is fast and easy so I haven’t found it to be particularly taxing…yet. Yet is the operational word because I can see a time and place when it becomes too time consuming so I have been relatively cautious about who I follow.

I have also been trying to determine if it is an asset or a detriment to my blog. At the moment it appears that is serving as a good tool for sending traffic here while not requiring so much time that the content suffers.

And lately content on the blog has been on my mind because it hasn’t been quite as tight as I’d like it to be. But that is not a Twitter issue. Rather it is due to my trying to function on three hours sleep. In the very near future I am going to have to take steps to get a bit more shut eye because this is just ridiculous.

So dear reader I am curious to find out if you have any opinions about Twitter. I know that some of you use it on a regular basis, but I am curious about the rest. What do you think?

I am a relative newcomer to Twitter but have found it to be interesting. The 140 character limit provides a good exercise in brevity.

Sometimes the hardest part is trying to deal with a URL that is exceedingly long.

One resource that I find useful for dealing with this can be found right here.