The Monday Evening Post

Today's discussion was around Twitter and using Twitter as a professional tool in building our professional networks.

We discussed the pros and cons of Twitter along with different websites you can use to better organize all the tweets (Like Hootsuite ... so many bird references, I love it). Just a quick summary of some of the Pros and Cons of Twitter are:

Pros

• It is quick publicity
• It is fast and easy to read
• Easy way to connect with people professionally
• Easy way to see what conversations are out there about different topics in library

Cons

• A lot of information - a running faucet! 
• Hard to have one account both professional and personal

We also discussed how Twitter can help in building our professional learning network or PLN. A PLN is a community of people outside of your co-workers. It is a network you can rely on for being a sound board for ideas, projects and problems you may face.

Tonight we asked ourselves who do we want as our peers for our PLN?

I really liked this question, and it is something that I need to continue thinking about and developing. I definitely know there are many people here at SI that I want to stay in touch with and have as apart of my PLN. There are just so many creative, smart and fun people here. But I'm not really sure yet who outside of SI, I want in this network. I think it will come with more experiences with listening to speakers at conferences etc. But I'm glad I'm thinking about it and starting to develop it!

I also think it is interesting that this idea of building a network, especially through social media really didn't seem too strange to me. It seemed only natural. I think it may be because I've been on Facebook since high school. In a way, this is what we did in high school. Someone might friend you on Facebook... comment on your things, then the next thing you know you're talking to each other more in class and sound boarding ideas of your assignments, or what you want to do in the future. Maybe not everyone has had that positive of an experience, but I wonder if there might be something generational for the comfortability and naturalness of using social media for building your PLN. Just something to think about!