I created my first and only Twitter account when it was still considered new – back in March 2009. For the first 3 years or so, I struggled to make it useful.
In 2012, however, I was tasked with recruiting middle school educators to participate in an experiential learning program. I gave Twitter another shot – and I’m so thankful I did. I found hundreds of thousands of educators, education technology vendors and researchers actively participating in worldwide Twitter conversations about education.
I wanted in immediately, but knew I had to ‘listen’ if I wanted to truly understand the educators I was trying to reach. It was in this way that I learned how to build my program around their needs. But I picked up a few other things as well. Through active listening and increased participation in these Twitter conversations, I learned how to build and manage what is often referred to as a “personal learning network,” or PLN.