Monday, April 27, 2009

Does This Make Me a Twit?

After months of resistance, I have finally joined the Twitter revolution.

The annual LDStorymakers writers conference was this weekend, and since it was in Utah and I was not, I wasn't able to attend this year. Fortunately, a couple of Storymakers on set up a Twitter grid that allowed them to send tweets from the conference. And so...I followed.

And even though I wasn't there, following the Twitter grid made me feel like I'd been there a little, in spirit, participating and cheering everyone on in some disembodied sort of way. Very cool. So I really have to thank all those who supplied the tweets to those of us who wanted to be there but couldn't--particularly Marsha Ward, Matthew Buckley, and Ben Crowder.

And, of course, there's this little side effect now--I now know how to Twitter and I now have an account. So I've been giving it a go. I think I've sent two whole tweets outside of the ones I sent during the LDStorymakers conference.

I was worried that Twittering would be incredibly time-consuming, sending out periodic tweets and keeping up with everyone else's. But at first glance, it seems like keeping up with the occasional tweet might actually be a lot easier than writing big blog entries and keeping up with everyone else's. (Sorry, blog fans; that's just how it is.)

We'll just have to see how this thing goes. After all, the experience of my two tweets and six followers has not yet catapulted me into the position of Supreme Twitter Guru.

So, if you're in the Twitter neighborhood, you can find me there at @katie_parker ... Yes, that underscore between "katie" and "parker" is important. No, I don't know who snagged the username without the underscore before I did. But you might get to if you try to follow her instead of me.

Seriously, though--I'm not going to say that everyone has to go Twitter now. But I will say that it might not be as crazy as I'd previously thought.

And, congratulations to the LDStorymakers for putting on a fabulous conference this year! I might not have been there personally, but I could tell it was definitely fabulous.

6 Comments:

Tristi Pinkston said...

I'm so sorry you weren't able to come out, but glad you could follow along with us!

Marsha Ward said...

Thanks for the mention, Katie. It was a pleasure to serve you and all the others who couldn't come to the LDStorymakers' writers conference.

I also avoided joining Twitter for a long time, but it's fun, and with the little widget on my browser, I get all the new tweets as they come in, and it only takes a moment to check them.

I hope to see you next year, or the next, or possibly the next.

Annette Lyon said...

I'm very new to Twitter myself--still trying to figure it out! I hope to see you at next year's conference.

Katie Parker said...

Oh, thanks, you guys. I very much hope it will be in the stars for me to attend next year...(and if not, then the year after...)

I'm on Day 2 of Twittering. So far so good.

Christine Thackeray said...

Between twitter and facebook, bloggng is not what it used to be. That's for sure. Congrats on the book. I'll have to pick one up.

Katie Parker said...

Thanks, Christine! We won't mention how long ago my book came out...

blogger templates 3 columns | Make Money Online