I have had quite a few people follow me on twitter recently that weren’t exactly people. They were organizations and schools. They were large groups of people that all somehow are tweeting with the same account. This, is a little unsettling to me and I’m not sure why.
I guess it is partially because I believe it is a little less than genuine to have a single voice represent an entire entity. I also believe that many groups are joining twitter simply to advertise that they are on twitter. This is even less genuine.
To me, an organization should encourage all of it’s members to become a part of a learning network. It should ask all of it’s employees to have heir own voices and then stream them all into a single place. The school should aggregate the conversation about learning in their space, not merely give updates as to the merits of their latest program changes.
You raise the level or discourse about any topic by giving that discourse an official channel. By asking all participants in an organization to tweet on behalf of that organization, you can actually find the pulse of what is going on. Which is, after all, the major goal of Twitter.
Sent from my iPod
Truth in advertising…
Author: Ben Wilkoff
I use Twitter to learn from individuals and enjoy the personal dialogue that causes me to think. I am not on Twitter to buy something or hear organizational information. With that said, I know that there are social media marketing folks who rely on Twitter for just that and I applaud them for their work. I’m sure there are people out there who enjoy the forum for that purpose. For me, keep it personal, professional and thought provoking!