I have had a Twitter account since attending a training session a few weeks ago but I am finding it very hard to get into. I really hate the slightly stalker-ish way I keep getting emails telling me people are following me, although I suppose it is good that they want to hear what I have to say. It seems like it is written in a foreign language but I suppose as I come to be more comfortable with it I will be able to better understand it.
I think that the main benefit for me will be as a professional development tool. Being able to keep up to date through the use of the hash tags is really useful and I like how you can get access to all of the tweets tagged with a hash tag just by clicking on it.
As for use in the library, it would be useful for keeping users updated in short bursts. Something that they could hopefully keep up with and useful for providing access to short pieces of information that might not otherwise be worth publishing.
One extra feature I have discovered is the ability to follow different publishers. As someone who is studying and writing essays etc, this is a very useful feature as it keeps me up to date on books that could be of interest. Now if only Twitter would cooperate and stop showing me that whale!
Edited to add: Since this post seems to be proving so popular (?!) I'd better add that this was written a long time ago, when I had just started using Twitter. Since I wrote this post Twitter has become one of my most used professional tools. I have made many contacts via Twitter and always find something useful to read or discuss. Hopefully this serves as a reminder that even if you don't like Twitter (or any other social media site) at first it's worth going back to have a second look. You never know how useful it might end up being!
I agree that the 'following' terminology does seem a little weird at first but you do get used it...eventually! And don't forget that you can always block people that you don't want following you. I've blocked some random individuals that just seem out to get as many followers as possible.
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