Twitter not for students

All this talk about Twitter. Just who is using it? Certainly not young university students, if my research this week is correct.

I asked for a show of hands in all my PR and business communication classes this week. Of the 180 or so students, perhaps 15 of them were using Twitter. Most just stared blankly at me when I mentioned it.

Facebook, it seems, is the social network tool of choice among this demographic. The question remains: why? Some more research needed.

Twits on Twitter

The excellent Mumbrella site recently began a conversation about people you don't/shouldn't follow on Twitter.

Because of the limited space on Twitter, here's my list of those I don't follow, which really makes my paltry 58 follows lame. But I'm choosy.

1. People who use Twitter with the aim of building their business, simply by asking people for referrals. How dumb is that?

2. People who don't have a decent biography.

3. People who tweet during movies/TV shows.

prLAB

Rudd's blog fails the democracy test

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has dived deeper into cyberspace with his blog. This follows his folksy tweeting.

Unfortunately, the blog is a cynical and futile exercise because (a) it is not really his blog, and (b) it is not democratic.

Is anyone gullible enough to believe he produces it? Sure, he may write the occasional post, but he has plenty of PR people to do the technical hackwork, and reading and vetting comments.

I joined the throng and made my first comment on climate change ... and was rejected – presumably because I had a link to my web site.

However, that's where the democratic nature of the web is being usurped by the PM. Allowing a free and frank flow of information is essential on the Net, and in any healthy democracy. If the PM can't stand the heat, the he should get out of the kitchen.

As I mentioned, he's not really monitoring it, as any blogger worth their weight in words does.

Personally, I'm not really interested in what simply appears to be another PR exercise, aimed in re-election.

prLAB

I'm outa here

Craig Pearce's blog has echoed my sentiments. There is must not enough time to do all this social media if you want a normal life.
Apart from getting some useful information (like how social media is ruining my social life) I find that all this really comes to naught. So what? People read my blog or tweet. But what action do they take and does it influence their lives? Anyway, I’ve mastered to tools, so now I can teach them and let the younger generation worry about their time. I’m off for a bike ride and a (real) surf. Catch you @prlab