Social Media 103: Twitter as Creative Writing Tool in the Classroom

After writing the copy and content for "Web 20.10," a Discovery Education website produced in partnership with Microsoft and SMART Technologies, I was asked to write an accompanying blog. The Tech Tips Blog touches on Web 2.0 topics found elsewhere on the site—like wikis, blogs, podcasts, Skype, social media sites and multimedia presentation tools for schools.Here’s my post on Twitter in the classroom:

Twitter: The Ultimate Writing Tool?

Will Twitter hinder literacy or help it blossom? It depends on who you ask. But more and more educators—many of them former skeptics—are now touting the use of Twitter as a writing tool. The micro-blogging platform is proving useful for all kinds of inventive exercises to hone writing skills, in and out of the classroom.Read the whole blog post here:Web 20.10 Tech Tips Blog | Twitter: The Ultimate Writing Tool?What’s your take: A fun exercise in creativity? or the decline of Western civilization? Leave a comment and let me know…

Tiny Mind Gazette: Satire + a (serious) experiment in social media

Guest blog from EYMER Design:In November of 2009, EYMER DESIGN Laboratories + Think Tank developed a Social Media Test Kitchen, the Tiny Mind Gazette (www.tinymindgazette.com). The TMG is a TypePad blog that is interconnected to Facebook and Twitter.The content is provided by various designers/writers as a creative outlet of free expression. Much of the content is provided by my fellow Cohasset (Massachusetts) resident, Sally Sisson. Sally is a creative content developer for mostly Business-to-Business and Educational Companies. Sally and I first met through Facebook and discussed the possibility of starting a blog, loosely based on our charming New England town of approximately 7000 residents. Picture in your mind, Lake Wobegon seen through the eyes of The Onion or Spy Magazine of the 1980-1990s.Read more and see graphs of page view and click stats at:Tiny Mind Gazette Initiative: a statistical snapshot

Social Media 102: Tweets: Free and Spontaneous (or not so much)

Say you’re a business owner or marketing manager. You’ve got a lot on your plate. Email, voicemail, snail mail. Now add Facebook and blog posts to the mix. Now squeeze in a few tweets throughout the day. Be sure to make them clever and compelling.Some people have their social media channels perfectly integrated and running like a well-oiled marketing machine. (We’ll explore that later.) But if Twitter is just one more thing to send you over the edge, consider this:

Twitter Redux: Stockpiling tweets

During ebbs between deadlines, why not type up a batch of tweets. Make them relevant to your marketing campaign, company mission, whatever you’re trying to convey. Use the “word count” tool in your document to make sure each is 140 characters max.Or, why not pay someone else to write them for you? (Like me.)Preconcieved tweets? Isn't that an oxymoron? Doesn’t it completely miss the point? Well, yes. For personal purposes, it seems a bit contrived. But for business it can make a lot of sense.

Case in point

After writing the copy for a website last fall, I was asked to write a series of tweets to accompany it. The client wanted a stockpile of tweets, divided into categories, ready to spit out on Twitter at a moment’s notice. Some were general tips, others tied in more closely with the partner client, Clorox.After tweeting the entire inventory, they ran them ticker-tape style on the home page of the website. Breathing yet more life into the copy. Repurposing content. Getting more bang for their buck. Brilliant!

Check it out:

New Teacher Survival Guide | Discovery Educationhttp://www.discoveryeducation.com/survival/