If you’ve been presenting for a while you know that Twitter has changed the audience.

• Presenting pre-Twitter – you saw a sea of faces looking at you
• Presenting during the age of Twiter – you see a sea of heads looking at laptops or smart phones

It can be disconcerting if you’re not used to it.  Pistachio has a great article on How to Present While People are Twittering covering topics such as

Benefits of the back channel to the audience- As a presenter, the idea of presenting while people are talking about you is disconcerting. But to balance that, there are huge benefits to the individual members of the audience and to the overall output of a conference or meeting

What about the speaker? Yes, presenting with the back-channel is challenging. Prepare yourself for what it will be like. We’re used to having eye contact with our audience and using that eye contact and audience reaction to measure how well we’re engaging the audience. Now when you say something brilliant, instead of nods of appreciation, there will be a flurry of tapping.

Managing the back channel – We used to suffer in silence through bad presentations. Today, the audience is now connected. They get to know that others are suffering too – and that changes the way they react.

Last week Kate asked

Do you hide Twitter from your boss? Or is it ok for you to be Twittering while working? Do you (honestly) think it hurts your performance?

Not many people answered her on Twitter or FriendFeed, maybe it’s because it was an odd week, between Christmas and New Years or maybe because they didn’t want to answer, I don’t know.  So I’m asking again -

1. Do you Tweet at work?
2. Do you hide it from your boss?
3. Do you think it’s ok to Twitter from work?
4. Do you think it hurts your performance?

I’ll even answer them myself first.

1. Yep!
2. Nope, in fact I sometimes point him to particular Tweets or conversations on Friendfeed.
3. Yes, I do. Not all the time not every day, but yes I do.  For me its no different that water cooler talk with coworkers who I see face to face.  I get valuable information and feed back from both sets of people but in the middle we talk about trivial stuff, tv shows, lunch, etc.
4. No I don’t, like all things I do it in moderation, some days more some days less.  With my job, like so many, focusing on technology etc, I can work from just about anywhere with an internet connection and I do (coffee shop, laundromat, public library etc).  This means I don’t’ remember my last 8-5, straight 40 hour work week because the line between personal and professional time blends.

• Additionally some of the best ideas I’ve brought to my library in the couple of years have come from my online connections.  As I am the only person in my library who does what I do, they are my colleagues, my network, troubleshooters, sounding boards, naysayers and supporters.  I’d say in many ways it improves my work. 

As we’ve seen from previous posts keeping up and feeling overwhelmed is something I struggle with regularly.  There are so many great people out there in libraryland, it makes sense that I would want to keep up with all of them.  As part of my “I’m not a Superhero” therapy I’m admitting I can’t do everything I’ve been attempting and over the next month or so I’ll be weeding.  I started with Twitter.

First I needed to figure out what I need/want to get from Twitter, so I went to my del.icio.us account.  I’m an avid user of delicious and while I don’t like the option to automatically post my links to my blog I’ve decided I should share them more often.   Here are the ones I reread

• Chris Brogan’s 50 Ideas for Using Twitter for Business and
• Do What Works for You
  
• David Leek King’s Twtter Explained for Librarians, or 10 ways to use Twitter
• Sarah Houghton-Jan’s Being Wired or Being Tired: 10 Ways to Cope with Information Overload

I also considered some of the popular and/or successful librarians who don’t use Twitter.  I wont point fingers, but they are out there.

I decided what I want from Twitter is a “real” connection and/or useful information. So it was weeding time.  Yes I know this can be perceived as cold, but hey, it’s my time and it’s valuable! Then I went through my “following” pages.

With some people I recognized names/handles immediately.  If I did, I questioned -

• Have I had a personal interaction with them?  If yes, most of them stayed.   If no, I took a look at their feed and biography.
• Was I getting useful information from them?
• Could that information be better accessed somewhere else?   For example if it’s a link to their latest blog post, I should have their blog in my FeedReader.  That way I can read it when I have the proper time and attention to devote to it.
• Did I want to connect with them but hadn’t yet?

If I didn’t recognize a name I looked at their feed and biography and considered -

• Was I getting useful information from them?
• Could that information be better accessed somewhere else?
• Did I want to connect with them but hadn’t yet?

I’m now down to 133 people.  I’m really hoping to get down to 100.  We’ll see.  I also decided if what I’m looking for it a real connection or information I’d better be providing that those things  too.  I believe by attempting to connect with fewer people I’ll be making better connects with those I connect with.

Has anyone else done this?  If you follow 500 people do you feel like you’re getting what you need/want from Twiitter? and what is it?

The folks at Common Crafts do it again! Twitter is one of those Web2.0 tools that can be hard to explain to people how aren’t familiar with it, and even harder to explain why they’d want to use it. Check out this great video for a fun explanation.