Haven’t clicked all the links on this post by Olivia Mitchell but it seems like a terrific resource for people who present and train online. Note the free book on this site too “How to Present with Twitter (and other backchannels.) Thanks Olivia!

It can get very confusing and cumbersome to manage more than one Twitter account. At least for me it can. I have followed lists for social media under my e-learning account and it sucks. Too much and all mixed up.

Sometimes a good link can be shared on more than one account, other times it only makes sense to share it for a particular account. I think that’s a courtesy and service for people who choose to follow you based on the area of expertise you list in your profile.

I tend to be all over the place so I’m probably not the best example for keeping things neat and orderly but still…I think it’s important. I’m trying to do a better job of that.

I am currently using TweetDeck to follow multiple accounts. Here’s what the multiple accounts look like. You can click on as many or few as you want. So typing something and click on all accounts will send the tweet everywhere.

I rarely have used the @MVCowork account. It’s a pet project I simply don’t have time for but if I come across something good about coworking, I’d like to be able to share it. The @jclarey is my primary account. The@ janetclarey is new and is my effort to separate the marketing-type stuff from e-learning (same purpose as this blog). I rarely send updates to Facebook via TweetDeck because Facebook is an entirely different group of people for me. Finally, @BHallResearch is kind of a news account for  I post to. It normally includes webinars, workshops, blog posts, announcements, etc.

I’ve also made columns on TweetDeck for both accounts. It’s gettting more manageable.

I did a Google search for “multiple Twitter accounts.”  Here’s a few links that look good:

25 Twitter Apps to Manage Multiple Accounts
Managing Multiple Twitter Accounts for Your Nonprofit
Managing Multiple Twitter Accounts Is Easier Than You Think

If you have multiple accounts what are you using?

Lisa Gualtieri, Editor-in-Chief, eLearn Magazine wrote an article called Learn from Rogue Tweeters: 7 Steps to Promoting Your Organization in Twitter. She writes that while organizations are trying to figure out how to use social media in a formalized ( more on that later) way, the rogue employee  just does it, “it” being participating in mutually beneficial dialogue about the company with the general public . You rogue-types know who you are (from the article: “Mark plans to continue tweeting until someone tells him “that’s not your job.”)( I would add “or until he gets promoted or finds a sweeter gig.”)

Why does Mark  (the employee in the article) tweet for OMSHR (the company in the article) when it’s not in his job description? My guess is passion, greater good (it’s safety stuff), dedication, or if-not-me-who? (he’s in IT). Only he knows why but OMSHR is lucky to have him. He is concerned however, that policies may eventually constrain him…he believes the current informal process works because he is “conscientious and diligent.”

THE CURRENT INFORMAL PROCESS WORKS. So why formalize social media (in my mind a highly informal way to learn)? Or should we be saying “non-formal?” (And go me! for not tripping over that stack ‘o buzz words.)

Let’s go on a little Google hunt.

Back in 2005, Stephen Downes had some comments on formalizing informal learning based on a CLO article

Of course, this [the writers had said that informal learning needs to be integrated into formal learning in the sense that it should be tied to measurable performance metrics] isn’t the point of informal learning at all – but I can see the point. It requires a very careful balance between respecting learner intentions, which in the end drive informal learning, and supporting corporate needs, which are addressed not through demand learning, but rather, by making appropriate informal learning resources usefully and widely available.

Respect your learners intentions and make informal learning resources available and useful.

Earlier this year Mark Oehlert, in response to a George Siemens post about “formally adopting” informal learning (vs. trying to make it formal…big diff), said:

why does it bother me that people/organizations think that somehow they need to “adopt” this mysterious thing called “informal learning.”? How about this…the principles of ID can’t handle it, IDs aren’t taught how to design with it, no one knows how to assess its impact and yet we feel compelled to somehow exert our control over something that largely grew up because we failed so miserably in other areas…

[ID should] stay the hell out of it.

Catherine Lombardozzi, also earlier this year,

I think that creating an informal learning strategy in support of business learning needs is mostly about aggregating, organizing, and making available a variety of resources that can support learning on a specific topic, similar to how I’ve talked about learning environments in the past. The strategic part is making decisions about what resources we’ll deliberately support – we can’t possibly corral all possible informal learning resources, and we need to figure out where to start.

Aggregate, organize, make available and decide what to deliberately support (formally adopt a strategy)

And this, recently from Mike Prokopeak talking to Lance Dublin about a third domain:

Formal learning typically refers to structured learning events and programs, while informal refers to unstructured learning that happens outside the bounds of traditional learning events, whether it’s over the water cooler, in the field or through a blog or discussion forum.

“There is a third domain,” Dublin said. “That’s the domain where you use all these informal tools but you use them with intention. You put enough structure around them so they have a purpose within the organization.” [He calls this non-formal learning] The opportunity lies in defining the middle between the two poles, Dublin said. Non-formal learning is structured, but not formal, intentional but not directed.

Structured, but not formal, intentional but not directed.

Lastly, a conversation I’ve been having in comments with Karl Kapp in What are the Results of Following an Instructional Design Process? in which I’m disagreeing with the idea of Web 2.0 ‘design’ entirely. Karl mentions templates, simplified (read standardized) tagging,  guidelines, etc.

As designers, we need to provide templates for meaningful contributions of one peer to another, perhaps a sample blog entry to use as a model, or a method of standardizing contributions, a list of key words so the folksonomy is limited, something that ties strategies to contributions to encourage learning and retention of the content contributed. These elements add structure to the contributions but still allow creativity.

What’s your take? Ithink we need more Mark’s and OMSHR’s. Less meddling and a better understanding in the industry of what strategy is.

Interested in seeing how microblogging can work for you? The time was right at Brandon Hall Research, so I sent instructions out to my co-workers interested in using Twitter. Since we’re all analysts, I added #3. If you’re not an analyst, you might want to seek out people in a similar position as yours to see how they are using Twitter in their work.

1. Join Twitter if you haven’t already. You can post, reply, and direct message directly on the Twitter site. I use TweetDeck to manage Twitter. It’s a download. I like it better than the main Twitter page. There are other Twitter apps. You can see what apps people are using by looking at their tweets (it will say ‘via twitterfeed’, ‘via twhirl’, ‘via web’, ‘via IM’, etc.). I user Twitterberry for mobile.
2. Follow some people on Twitter. You can look through my follows/followers to see if you know anyone. I follow people in the learning industry mostly. Follow me!
3. Go to this site and ask that you’re name be put on this directory . Follow some analysts to see how they’re using Twitter. (see note above non-analysts)
4. If you want to relive your middle and high school years, join Qwitter so you can find out when someone stops following you. Below is an example of the email you’ll receive when someone quits you. I didn’t want Eric Miltsch at Auction Direct following me anyway. He must have decided I was more interested in talking about wikis than buying a car. I provide this example simply to let you know that there’s a lot of marketing/spammy followers you are likely to see following you. Tip: when someone follows me, I take a look at their last few pages of Tweets to see if their content is relevant to my work before following them. (Of course, if someone stops following that I like, I think I’ll feel like I’ve been broken up with.)  So far so good, so my twittiquette must be acceptable. )

Enjoy! See you in the Twitterverse.

UPDATE: Great post on Twitter apps from Jane Hart and the case against Twitter from D’arcy Norman