I’ve been using Twitter for about 16 months now, and it took a concerted, conscious effort to get into it. It is evolving into a huge double-edged sword as a writing resource.
In 2007 my first Twitter foray revealed a uniquely worthless new digital communication medium. What TV shows someone was watching? Favorite movies to rent? Color of clothes in the washer? What?! “Pointless!” was my disgusted impression.
Early in 2008 I looked again at Twitter’s capabilities, and was again unimpressed. Yet the references to Twitter were becoming more frequent. Over the summer I started Googling Twitter+business and similar themes. I began to find blog posts and news reports showing some more valuable uses of the tool. I’ll talk about those uses in future posts; for this discussion I want to highlight Twitter Search. This is on the positive side of the sword.
This certainly won’t replace Google or Dogpile or Clusty, but it’s possible you’ll find a pertinent, unique and extremely timely blurb on your topic.
Go to the footer of www.Twitter.com/home and choose search from the horizontal list of links. first try the names of your contacts, the company, the town - whatever is most specific to your assignment. Then work outward in conceptual/thematic circles with new search terms - the industry, competitors, similar products, etc.
Try it on more well-known items/people/places first to get a feel for how it can work. Best case scenario you’ll find some mention of your assignment providing insight from angles you never thought about.
Oh yeah - the other side of that sword is you’ll simply learn about your assignment’s favorite tv shows, movies, laundry….
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