Twitter and Libraries

I am a woman of many words, verbose could be my middle name, so what could a microblogging site like Twitter which only allows me 140 characters have to offer me. Quite a lot actually and I am surprised. After blogging about a frustrating start I have been using Twitter sporatically thought this semester.

Some of my achievements:

• I have composed over 80 tweets
• I am following 48 people and being followed by 22
• I have been retweeted at least three times
• I won a book with a competition from Get reading
• I followed a chapter of Pride and Prejudice achieved in tweets via the characters via Story Monkey
• I have promoted my library
• I have played around with attaching photos to my tweets and using the tag #ediblebooks
• I am beginning to become aware of how important hashtags are to having tweets searchable and found by others.  I am looking for popular hashtags in my areas of interest that I can use such as #mustread; #bookreview; and #handmade.

I have been surprised by the versatility the Twitter has for libraries.

• It can link to any URL. For example Parramatta Library linked to a pin on Pinterest of an image on an author talk.
• Tweets can be linked to Facebook status updates.
• Libraries can offer reference and answer library questions through Twitter. Arizona State Library  has students asking the library where to find certain resources, asking for directions, and answering student feed back.  
• As with most social networking sites it is great for promotion.  Eastern Regional Libraries promotes books, events, author talks and resources