How to find who to follow

I first started using Tweeter at conferences.  I’d follow the Hashtag for the conference and liked reading others’ Tweets on sessions.  I was a lurker for sure.  Eventually colleagues of mine started Tweeting. I followed them, but never signed into see what was happening.  I attended presentations and teachers raved about Tweeter being the best professional development they’ve done in a long time.  This inspired me to sign in and read.  I began following people based on Tweeter’s recommendations.  This ended up being a great resource.  I had 15 people following me and I was following 20.  Tom Whitby, @SBEducation recently posted “Building a professional learning network on Twitter”   He recommends looking at who other people are following for ideas.  After his recommendation, I choose some of my favorite people and went to see who they follow.  I found more great people including Tom Whitby.  I agree with Mr. Whitby, it’s all about who you follow.

Quality over Quantity

Currently I’m following about 100 people and about 50 people are following me.  What’s a good number?  I can’t imagine keeping up with the thousands of tweets generated by following thousands of people.  Most of the people I follow have between 1000-2000 followers, some even more with many people posting multiple tweets a day, so I’ve decided to grow my Professional Learning Network slowly.  I like to take the time to click on the links and often Retweet (RT) a blog posting or web site I like.  I think it’s important to quote and Retweet. It creates a community and helps people get their message out.

Following Hashtags

MsH, @howardsucceed posted a link to an Edudemic blog posting, “300+ Educational Twitter Hashtags Being Used Right Now” by Katie Lepi.  Hashtags are great for focused conversations.  The best part is that as my interests change, I can drop in on conversations without needing to “follow” them on a daily basis.  This means that they don’t clog my Twitter stream as well.  I often follow #innovate2013, #engchat, #edudemic, #edtech and #etmooc.  I find amazing resources every time I visit.  Recently, Shannon Miller, @shannonmiller posted on #engchat a discussion she was hosting.  The result was a Google Doc where teachers listed resources they use, “Tools of the Trade for English Teachers.”

I’ll close with a blog post that best summarizes how I got started on Twitter, “The 46 Stages of Twitter Usage” by Chris Voss, @chrisvoss. I have to admit that my introduction to Twitter did take a long time.  Now I’m hooked and really enjoy reading others’ blog posts.  I can finally understand why so many have raved about it being the best PD.