Working by myself in my own office means very little in-person social interaction on a daily basis. This isn’t to say that I don’t get out or see people, but it’s not the same as being in a place with a group of other folks working on related tasks.

I hated Twitter when it first came out. I felt like it was just a way for the Scobles and the like to own another part of the internet. My first blog post about it was scathing, and I challenged one person to tell me why I should use it. That post got tons of reaction, and the challenge was met when one person pointed out that it was a great disaster communication tool.

Now I’m addicted.

Oh, flattery will get you almost anywhere

OK, I’ll post my Twitter tips. But in the meantime, check out Beth’s list. I’m sure I’d just crib a lot from her, anyway

- Amy

But maybe there is an addictive quality to Twitter, strengthened by the immediate-gratification effect. It’s interesting to consider that right now because I’m trying to wean myself from caffeine for a while since I’ve been struggling with poor sleep patterns for the last month or so. Dealing with that, I’m less certain about where my own lines between habit/preference and addiction are drawn. Hmmm….

There’s a woman named Anita in my local blogger meetup who blogs on addiction issues. I’ll see if I can pull her into this conversation.

- Amy

Do you think tagging and “tagging communities” are dying or become less a part of social media in favor of micro blogging?

We have the NpTech tag where people share resources using the tag. I summarize those resources. I’m finding that I’m discovering stuff in Twitter and tagging it .. so I can summarize it in the nptech stream. Many of the readers of the manual summary aren’t as heavily engaged in social media communities as I am – so I’m sort of translator or bridge blogger between those worlds.

For Kevin, I just wrote up a tip sheet with some useful how-tos
http://bethkanter.wikispaces.com/twitter+recent

Tell us idiots who are registered at Twitter, who go to the Twitter very occasionally, and get notices that someone is following us, how to participate.

How do you personally post into twitter? From your laptop? from a mobile device? how do you receive messages? from rss feeds? into your feed reader? how do you control how many tweets you receive and from whom?

I am not the only who respects your journalism skills and judgment. Finding out how you set up twitter for yourself would help us. Others may do it differently, but I’d like to start out the Gahran way.

Thanks and Happy New Year,

- Kevin