Thursday, June 27, 2013

You Are On Twitter, Aren’t You?


Those of you who are researching your own family history are probably familiar with several online genealogy resources. We all know about FamilySearch.org. Many of us subscribe to Ancestry.com. We may even dicker over which of several other family history websites are superior to the rest.

When it comes to asking people about using Twitter for genealogy, though, it seems that question still draws blank stares.

Twitter—that one hundred forty character microblogging service—is something often relegated to the mobile phone crowd. “On the go” hardly seems to suit the image of the serious researcher, holed up in the back reading room of a major library.

However, if you’ve never considered building your network on Twitter, I invite you to experiment with this resource. It has all sorts of possibilities for the synergy of crowdsourcing your family tree.

Obviously, I’ve got a Twitter account (see, I’ve even included my Twitter handle over in the left hand column) and certainly invite you to follow me if you are on Twitter. If you choose to do so, you and I and many other family history fanatics can share resources with one another.

Think that wouldn’t be useful? Here’s two examples of how Twitter has helped just this past week:


Not only does Twitter facilitate people-to-people connections between those with similar interests—just type in a hashtag (example: #genealogy) before any subject you are interested in searching on Twitter to see how many results you can find—but it also can be used to connect with other genealogy groups.

Just recently, on behalf of our local genealogical society—you do belong to a local genealogical society, don’t you?—I set up a Twitter account. We are just starting this project and it isn’t fully set up the way I’d like, but you are welcome to visit it. Just type in @SJCoGen to get there.

The beauty of putting your genealogical society on Twitter is that it becomes a way to spread the word about your organization and its mission that will reach an entirely new audience—the next generation of genealogists!

An added benefit comes with utilizing Twitter’s capacity for list building. While I’ve yet to polish my lists up on our society’s Twitter account, the task is off to a promising start. So far, I've built a list of all available state genealogy societies that I can find on Twitter. Lists for local societies, national societies, professional genealogists, special interest groups, genealogy businesses, and historical societies will follow.

Take that a step further: do you know that you can subscribe to follow other people’s lists? That’s a great way to discover who else is out there on Twitter—and follow them! For instance, take a look at @michaelhait and click on “Lists” on the left column, which will show you all the lists this genealogist has either created or been included in. You can even subscribe to his own lists—or follow any of the resources he has listed there.

You can take a look at the Saint Louis Genealogical Society’s lists on Twitter, too, for an example of what one genealogical organization is doing with their tiny 140-character cyber-property.

Of course, input is not the entire picture. Twitter becomes your mouthpiece to share what you are accomplishing with your own research or blogging, too. Frankly, although all these Google Reader replacements we discussed yesterday are important, I sometimes will more quickly click through to a link I’ve seen on Twitter—including announcements of fellow bloggers’ latest posts. I’d love to see yours mentioned on Twitter, too.  

12 comments:

  1. No iphones or ipads here. My husband does have a cell phone, but we rarely use it.
    I am sure it is another valuable resource for you! :)

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    1. Far Side, what I neglected to say is that I am more likely to use Twitter, personally, on my desktop computer. You don't have to use Twitter on a mobile device!

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  2. I'm on twitter only because of you. :) I rarely use it - I think too many people get into trouble with it (saying what comes to the mind before the discretion kicks in) but used properly its a great tool.

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    1. Aw...really?

      You are right about watching what is said on Twitter--or on Facebook, or any online forum, for that matter. I like the way one group put it: don't say anything on a social media site that you wouldn't want your boss or your mother to read.

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  3. Not only do I use Twitter - @celialewis - but I love reading what others have posted, and follow links there for more info. I usually check several times a day (I do have a life away from computers), post my blog details on Twitter, follow specific events (e.g., RootsTech, GenChat, etc.) in specific columns on TweetDeck. Yup - I may be 70, but I love love love technology!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Celia. I'm following you! :)

      Good point about the valuable links that can be found on Twitter. It all comes down to who you follow. Connecting with people whose mantra is "adding value" is such a boost!

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  4. Excellent post Jacqi and THANK YOU so much for writing about the benefits of using Twitter in our family research and more! Where would I be without Twitter? I simply don't know and shutter to think of not having it around to use. I'm going to follow your lead and blog about my use of Twitter and other tools sometime this summer. Again, thank you!

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    1. Thanks, Liv, and you are so welcome! This is a topic that deserves some ongoing conversation. There are a lot of helpful points to be considered.

      Please do come back and post a link here to your blog post when you write about how you are using Twitter. I think it's so helpful that we all share our ideas.

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  5. Another social media site. It's tempting to do Twitter but I must admit I'm not ready for it yet. Maybe I'll put my big toe into the water one of these days.

    Regards, Grant

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    1. When you do, please let us know your Twitter handle so we can all be in touch!

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  6. Thank you, Jacqi. An eloquent tribute to the powers of Twitter. And you've taught me how to get to other people's lists! Too often we take Twitter for granted, but you've spelled it out for us. Many benefits.

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    1. Mariann, I think the "lists" function on Twitter is one of their best-kept secrets. A great place to trawl for potential contacts. A way to benefit from others' curation of genealogy-related social media resources--and to add our own discoveries to pass along to others who are interested.

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