Baby Steps to a PLN using Twitter: Get engaged!

Hopefully you've taken some baby steps-or giant steps-with Twitter since my last post. If you have, it's time for that next baby step. Learn from me and take those next steps sooner rather than later. It will change you from a passive observer to an engaged learner in your PLN.

1. Start Tweeting (I really had to push my growth mindset here!)

• It's okay to stalk observe Twitter to get a feel for it, but don't wait too long. I followed people off and on for about a year before I felt comfortable with how twitter works. Then I realized I needed to jump in if I was really going to grow. I still don't tweet that much but I'm getting better. New worlds do open up once you tweet more yourself.
• I dipped my toe in with "favoriting" Tweets. Yes, I Googled how to do this, too! This is when you click on the star to show you like what someone had to say (similar to "liking" on Facebook) or maybe you want to refer to that tweet later (like bookmarking).
• Then I started "retweeting". The idea that each click I made was going to build my Twitter personality for my PLN was scary for me. It wasn't until later that I understood hashtags  (below).
• Then I started sharing a few tweets of my own. Each tweet built my confidence and I'm sure soon I'll be Tweeting without a 20 second pause before hitting "send".

2. Follow and Start Hashtags

• It took me a bit to realize that you enter the hashtag into the "search" field and it will take you to the tweets that are using that hashtag. You can also save that search so you can easily go back to that hashtag. 
• When I created my first (and only) hashtag, I wanted a hashtag that my staff and I could use to share ideas and info so we started #rvwhatif. My staff and others in our school district use this hashtag when they want to share with my staff or give us a shout out.
• I have many teachers who create a hashtag each year to make it easier for the parents (and students) in their class to follow their journey on Twitter. 

3. Join a Twitter Chat

• I started with #MOedchat because I felt safe learning with some of the amazing educators in my PLN but you can start anywhere.
• Consider a Twitter Chat like walking into a room at a conference. The people from your PLN are there...plus many more. 
• Sometimes there are scheduled chats. They usually have guiding questions with a timeframe to answer the questions. Just like any discussion, you can choose to just listen by reading the tweets with that hashtag or you can jump in with a comment of you own by referring to the question number and including the hashtag. In a scheduled chat. you can follow how it works then tweet your thoughts when you get the hang of it (true confession: I haven't done this yet in a chat but it's my next mini goal. Baby steps for me.)
• You can also use that chat hashtag any time you think the people in that chat would like to see what you are tweeting

4. Random Ah-ha's

• Twitter is like a conversation going on constantly at a 24/7 coffee house (minus the coffee). The people you follow are the people in the coffee house who you know. Hashtags are what identify different conversations that you can choose to join or leave at any time. 
• You'll never read all of the Tweets out there so don't try and don't worry about it. You can tap into Twitter at any time by reading tweets, clicking on someone you follow or searching a hashtag.
• Starting a tweet with @ will make that tweet specific to the person you tag but is visible to anyone who follows both of you and it shows up in you twitter feed.
• What you tweet is captured in your Twitter feed and it builds who you are in the Twitterverse
• You can make lists of people you follow so you can read their conversations without wading through all of the Tweets from the people who tweet a lot. Tweet Deck is a great way to organize lists and hashtags or people you follow.

I recognize that I still have a lot to learn, but I wanted to share my "baby steps" journey so far. When I see how many PLN "experts" there are out there, I get quickly overwhelmed. Hopefully in sharing my experience, I can provide courage for people who have yet to take that first baby step.