|
Twitter
Using
Social Media to Communicate
with Your Colleagues
By Sarah E. Hannah, Assistant City
Manager,
Sunrise
-- Chair of the FCCMA
Technology and Public
Information Committee
Are you
a Twitter junkie? Do you
sign on to Facebook before
you pour your first cup of
coffee in the morning?
Or do you think
LinkedIn is merely the
subject of much of the junk
email you receive and
immediately delete before
opening?
FCCMA
recognizes that while some
of us fall into these
extreme categories, most of
us are somewhere in between.
Consequently, we are
developing the basis for a
virtual network among
members that will satisfy
the social media die-hards
while not scaring off the
faint at heart.
Twitter provides a
forum by which members can
“follow” fellow members and
read what they have to say
(tweets) and respond if they
wish.
They can also type in
what they have to say for
others to read.
If you are interested
in communicating with your
colleagues about local
government issues in a
social media setting, please
email Lynn Lovallo at
llovallo@flcities.com
with your Twitter
“username”.
We will
add your name and username
to a list located under the
“Services” tab on our
website (www.fccma.org).
If you wish to be
connected to particular
participating members, you
simply go that section on
the FCCMA website, see who
is a member, sign in to
Twitter, and request to
“follow” whomever you
choose.
Some Twitter members,
such as myself, have
security settings on their
accounts, thereby only
granting access to their
“tweets” to those they have
approved.
However, most Twitter
members allow anyone to
follow them.
Social
media outlets such as
Twitter provide a quick,
easy and free method to
communicate with others
about issues important to
you.
The level of your
commitment to the forum is
completely up to you.
You can be instantly
notified when any of the 350
Twitter members you are
following have posted an
update (or mini blog – no
more than 140 characters) or
you can only read what the
one person you are following
has to say when you log in
once-a-week.
If you don’t already
have an account, you need to
create one by going to
www.Twitter.com.
It’s easy to sign up
and it’s free!
If we
find this forum to be
popular among our members,
FCCMA will explore creating
our own account for Twitter
members to follow.
We will send updates
about FCCMA happenings for
members to read.
Because this requires
a commitment and resources
to devote to such an
account, FCCMA wants to make
sure there is a significant
interest in such a tool
before they create an
account.
So if you would like
to see this happen, if you
would like to follow FCCMA
on Twitter, take advantage
of the forum described above
and tweet away!
|
