The Power of Twitter

My name is John Matthew Helmandollar, but I have been known as Matt my whole life. I am currently a sophomore at Stockton University, and I am a Business major with a concentration in Accounting. I am partaking in the dual-degree program at Stockton where I will be able to earn my Masters in Business-Accounting in five years. I am a member of Stockton’s Accounting and Finance Society on campus. I plan on taking the CPA exam after I graduate to become a Certified Public Accountant, which is my plan to work after graduation.

Chapter Six of "The Connected Educator" focuses on building your connected learning community. When it comes to starting your personal learning (PLN), there are many platforms to choose from; you can use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Google+, among many others. Finding a mentor can really help when it comes to starting your PLN. Also, you need to know who you should follow for your particular purpose. You should look into each person you are thinking of following to see if they will actually aid you in expanding your PLN. It is tough to maintain a stable relationship with more than 150 people; however, using lists can make it easier to maintain many people by putting them in categories of certain topics that will make it easier to know what is going on and where. Overall, you need to follow the right people, be patient, and get involved if you want your PLN to grow to the greatest of its ability. You must evolve over time and adjust to what is happening so you can stay relevant and up to date in all the current trends. 

The video on why you should use twitter made me realize that other people felt the same was a I did. Eric Sheninger, the principal of New Milford high school stated that he thought Twitter was a "useless, meaningless, time-waster," and, up until recently, I still thought it was used mostly as a time-waster; I was unaware of exactly how much professionals used and relied on Twitter to convey information. I was able to see how you can use Twitter professionally to help yourself and/or your organization grow.

Steven Hughes gives insight in his article about how to gain Twitter followers that are actual users. He recommends users who wish to gain followers to do several things: set a profile picture, tweet often, follow the right people, retweet and mention people, utilize lists, and be patient. Personally, I am not an avid Twitter user, so I did not realize that gaining followers is as easy as Hughes shows. As long as you remain patient with Twitter and are consistent with tweets and everything else, your network will grow and grow.

When it comes to Twitter, if you are following hundreds of people and organizations, your Twitter feed is going to be full of tweets and it will be very difficult to see everything, and because of all these tweets, you may miss important things that you would like to not miss out on. Twitter lists are a great way to follow a lot of people and still have the capability of seeing everything you want to see on Twitter. Twitter lists are a perfect way to break up who you are following on Twitter into specific categories that will help you find what tweets you want when you want to.