Twitter Delicious Practice

Twitter, the popular social networking miniblog grows in stature as people learn ways it can improve their work life. There are also groups like the Red Cross who are experimenting with twitter groups to provide information about Red Cross during an emergency. The Red Cross has also started a related website called, Safe and Well. People can enter their personal information after a disaster, so loved ones can reunite. While this project definitely shows progress, it is just one more illustration of the value of Twitter.

While I use Twitter for all the reasons I mentioned earlier, I noticed a surprising, yet useful unintended consequence. I learned to write in a more minimalistic, not verrbose manner. To reduce my Twitter message down to 140 characters, including spaces, I must remove the chaff, the flotsam of a thought or story.

On Twitter, posting need some punch, pizazz...some interesting or valuable points that make it worth reading. Not everyone reads my Tweets , yet I like to make them appealing to those who might be interested.

The unintended consequence of this Twitter practice results in more effective annotations on my del.icio.us bookmarks. While not everyone writes something about their bookmarks, I have found them to be more useful to me and others in my network if I describe or annotate the bookmark. Next to tags, bookmark descriptions (annotations) are a critical part of the social networking side of del.icio.us. People in my network who tell me why they bookmarked a particular site help me decide quickly if I should also bookmark it.

Thanks to my Twitter practice in effective miniblogging, I have improved my del.icio.us descriptions. These annotations have turned into miniblogs themselves. If you have tried Twitter and/or del.icio.us, go ahead give the a chance to improve your work productivity. BTW, they can also be used for hobbies and personal interactions and bookmarks.