Twitter is very dependent on your followers and as much as I enjoy tweeting about my late night snacking and my pleasure reading, I really look to Twitter as a source for entertainment, news and a couple of good laughs every now and then.
Twitter at times can seem like a lot of work. You are constantly having to update your tweets, scroll through your hundreds (or less :-/) of followers and pinpoint exactly which tweets you want to pore over. Not everyone would call making the choice of who to follow or un-follow a game plan but when I click that blue and white button I made the conscious choice to absorb the particular content that they present.
When I created my new account, I, more so than my cardinal account, deliberately chose feeds I would find effective for this class. I did not want to overcrowd my feed with nonsensical stories from my friends or pictures from last night's party. I decided instead to follow various types of Lehigh accounts, news sources both local and national, a few Bethlehem organizations, and lastly a couple of entertainers including celebrities just to have a few light hearted tweets thrown into the mixture.
My favorites to follow are Huffington Post, Obama 2012 and Stumble Upon. My favorite aspect about HuffPost's twitter feed is their stupendous source of news. They tweet about absolutely everything from campaign stories to Lindsay Lohan's most recent hit and run. It gives a broad range of news and it links to the actual article. They are very proficient at grabbing the eye of their consumer with their quick-witted penmanship. Their tweets create an ethical buzz within the twitter sphere.
I follow Obama 2012 because as a first-time voter I want to stay informed about the campaign that I am choosing to support. As a full-time student, I do not always have to time to sit and watch a full hour of a news report and through his live tweeting, I can read quotes, stay updated on the President's whereabouts, etc. Lastly Stumble Upon because it helps you discover the best parts of the web, without actually having to search for it. You will quickly realize you are not wasting your time, although it certainly feels that way.
Sounds like you're still reacting to twitter as a consumer. Could it be a possible tool for community research? How's your local community building? Get a sens for what local and Lehigh users are doing on twitter, and you'll be better able to define it's capacity for a future communications campaign.
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