This is written as my personal response to a series of tweets and a blog post from PaulBradshaw.

1. I did initially start using Twitter to publicize my work. Once I started working a lot more online, I found it was difficult sometimes to get people to read my stories when on different days of the week, I’d have a piece on LoudounExtra.com, a piece up on youthvoteblog.com (now defunct), and a piece on Connect2Mason.com. It just got too confusing. So in an effort to boost the number of people who see my stuff, I started twittering each time I had an article go up. I still do it every time I do a blog post, through ping.fm, a really fabulous tool that “pings” out your updates to any social medium you like. Mine goes to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
2. Though that’s how I started with Twitter, I quickly became sucked in by the other element of being so connected with other people in such a quick and easy way. At this point, not everyone and their mother is on Twitter (although mine is!*), so it’s an easy way for me to follow what other people are doing in a way that’s fun, and not aggravating. I love putting up little tweets about what I’m reading or watching online so other people can check it out too.

3.    It’s actually a well-reported fact that the more a blogger or writer personalizes their point of view, the more likely people are to read it (I’ve definitely read the studies in the past, I just can’t find them offhand right now). That’s one reason my blog is on such varied topics that interest me and another reason my Twitter goes all over the place. It’s another publicity tool that helps the reader feel a lot more connected to the writer.

4. In the future, I’m hoping this will turn into a great way of building up contacts. I’ve only collected a few contacts this way so far- a few journalism professors and news-themed tweeters, but it’s been interesting just reading about some of the stories they post up even if I don’t know if it’ll help me get a job yet. I follow PaulBradshaw (senior lecturer in online journalism and web design at Birmingham City University) and frontlineblog (writes about news on foreign correspondents) a lot.

5. I do think it makes me look a little more technologically forward to use Twitter. I don’t know necessarily whether that’s a plus or a minus in getting jobs- though it would be very much a plus with applications to online publications like WPNI or perhaps USAToday online, it doesn’t really help with my apps to more conservative, print-based newspapers in Texas. In fact, I worry that mentioning too much of my online technological cred in interviews with representatives of those papers could actually make me come off a little unsuited for the job, or even too open with my communications online for a generation that is often afraid of exposure on the Internet. You can argue all you like about how all newspapers should be working to innovate online, but it’s just a fact of life that some companies aren’t following every single online trend, and it’s certainly not my job as a student applying for an internship to try to force it down their throat. If they have different priorities, I try to show them how my skills can fit those goals as well.

6. I do enjoy using my TweetDeck to search for different topics- seeing if anyone’s written about me or George Mason lately and what it’s about. I haven’t used it to break a story yet, but I definitely see that as a possibility in the future.

7. It really is a lot of fun!

At the same time though, I find a lot of times on Twitter I have to hold myself back from writing something I might regret later. It’s easy to think since it’s so casual that what you say there will just be passed off, but I have to keep in mind that my Twitter feed posts on my blog, an address I’ve given out to every employer I’ve applied to, and a single crass statement highlighted out of context there could look worse than anything I mix into a longer blog post. You have to be careful what you write, just like with everything else online, and realize your parents, friends, and future employers can read that.

Overall, Twitter is a really great tool that I enjoy using and plan to continue using long into the future.

*My mom actually got a Twitter account because one of the book awards she collects announced their new selections that way. Kudos for the literary industry getting an upper generation into Twitter!