Sunday, September 12, 2010

twitter guest panel in DMP

last friday in DMP, we had a twitter guest panel, featuring shawn calhoun (@GleesonLibrary), char lobo soriano (@itweetUSF), and thomas listerman (@usfca).


first up was shawn, head of access services at USF's gleeson library, who shared some of his experiences tweeting for gleeson. shawn talked about using twitter to notify followers about library news and materials, build a broad and diverse community, and share knowledge about free, open-access tools and resources. shawn also raised the fascinating question of whether or not to tweet about the shortcomings or limitations of one's own organization.

next up was charlene, associate director of USF's first year student services, who brings to her presentations the same energy she brings to her tweets. charlene talked about developing your own voice on twitter and suggested the best voice is your true voice. she talked about reaching out to and engaging with USF students in general and first year students in particular and she shared some of her strategies for building community.

the last panelist was thomas, USF's advancement e-communications manager, who approaches twitter as one tool to get across other tools. he talked about using social media to reach out to alumni, students, and parents. he talked about maintaining a somewhat formal voice but linking out to and retweeting less formal material. he also talked about using twitter as a kind of campus calendar and, like shawn and charlene, talked about building community.


"learning how to use twitter," i told my DMP students the first day of class, "is totally easy. developing a voice on twitter - now that's another story." after this excellent panel, i hope they got a good taste of that story.

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