I have two Twitter accounts - one for the design business and one for a more personal nutrition blog. I’ve been noticing that people in the nutrition community talk to each other on Twitter all the time - they respond to tweets and actively participate in the community. However, the design community posts seem to be mostly self promotion and link-sharing (often not to original content) just to maintain a certain frequency of posting. There’s very little communication. Tweets with questions tend to go unanswered and I don’t see nearly as many @ reples. I think we in the design community need to balance things out a little more and remember the “community” part of the picture. I’m guilty of it too. On a busy day it’s much easier to just put a link up than it is to talk with others, write something original, or help someone troubleshoot an issue.

Personally, I think it’s better to tweet less frequently and put up quality content than it is to post a link to something that’s already been tweeted 500 times. Self promotion has its place. It’s important to share what you’re working on, post launch announcements, and share your excitement when you land a new client, but it’s also important to share some knowledge or advice when another developer is lost and asking for help or suggestions. We all tend to be very busy and our work is stressful, but the value of human exchange is worth the time and effort.

Well…I’m no longer on the fence. I’m really enjoying Twitter. I’ve made some great work connections and gotten to know some genuinely nice people. For anyone who freelances or works alone most of the time, it’s a fun way to feel connected to everyone out there. I’ve  received lots of useful, time-saving info from fellow designers and developers, and I’ve been able to quickly share info that helped other designers out of a bind or pointed them in the right direction. I’ve never been one to network too actively, but Twitter is, in my opinion, the most effective tool for networking and sharing information I’ve seen yet. Want to know more about how it all works? Check out The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein.

Since my last post, I’ve discovered a few tools that make “tweeting” a little easier:

Twhirl - a desktop client for Twitter powered by Adobe AIR that allows you to quickly view and post updates, retweet, send direct messages and @replies, post images to TwitPic, search tweets and more…

TweetDeck - Another Adobe AIR app, TweetDeck is also a desktop client that integrates with Twitter and Facebook. It allows you to manage messages, create groups, shorten URLs, record video clips and more…

TwitPic - Lets you share photos to Twitter from your phone or through the website

TweetPhoto - Another good photo sharing tool

WordPress Plugin - For self-hosted WordPress blogs, this plugin will allow you to integrate your Twitter account with your blog.

Ping - A service that allows you to post to all your social networking sites at the same time

Twinkle - A nice app for the iPhone and iPod Touch

I’m sure there are many more. Please post a comment and share your favorite Twitter apps with other readers.

I’ve been on the fence about Twitter. At first I didn’t see any value in it. I thought it was a way to spread a huge amount of useless, narcissistic information. However, I decided I’d better try it out before passing judgment. Now, I’m intrigued - still uncertain, but curious. I’m finding it very useful for getting and sharing good information about design and development. I’ve gotten some great tips and discovered good resources through the designers I’m following. I’m still not interested in finding out where they’re eating dinner or what kind of coffee they’re drinking, but I don’t mind sifting through those posts to get to the good stuff. Sometimes a quick glimpse into someone else’s life provides a smile and a little break from the work day. That’s not a bad thing.

I’m steadily learning more about how it works. For example, you can use hash marks (#) to tag keywords in posts. Here’s a great explanation from Kristine Wirth: http://kristinewirth.com/that-mysterious-sign-in-twitterwhat-does-it-mean/. You can also “retweet” other user’s posts to share good info with your followers. You can address a post to another user by putting @username before your post (these are called “at replies”). It’s a nice way to quickly send a message to someone or reply to one of their posts.

The following video talks about the value of Twitter’s search engine. This is an aspect I hadn’t considered until I saw this video. I like the idea of “the most contemporary thought stream humanity has ever seen.” Check it out:

So, my advice is this: try it out. Experiment, play, figure out if there’s a place for it in your life. At the least, we humans keep trying to connect with each other. That’s what it’s all about, right?

By the way, if you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m @dgraydesign. Happy tweeting!