The Power of Twitter
As some of our readers already know, and as others are just about to find out: M&D Magazine is catching up with modern times. We’ve redesigned our website (www.mums-dads.co.uk) and joined the chatty world of social media. You can now keep up-to-date with M&D’s competitions, debates, latest news, and gossip @MumsDadsPublish or like us on Facebook MumsDadsMagazine.
If you are one of the tweeting creatures or Facebook fans, we’d like to know how it works for you – helps to find new friends and likeminded mums and dads or takes up too much of your time, provides you with useful information or annoys you with news that you don’t want to know. Please write, text, email or tweet to us.
Meanwhile read on for an expert opinion and personal thoughts about twitter offered by Sally-Anne Rogers, Director of Public Relations at The Manchester Grammar School.
To those already in the know the benefits of joining any online community are obvious. If you belong to today’s generation the instinct to check-in on Facebook is second nature; the ease with which you can keep in touch with friends and family, re-connect with those you’ve lost touch with, and the ability to feel loved and supported no matter where you are, is a given.
But what are the merits of Twitter? So many appear to join this communication phenomenon because they feel they should, however once there they are not quite sure what to do next! The power of Twitter is simply amazing. Why? Because it can be whatever you want it to be: it’s all about engagement whether passively or vocally – you get to choose! Just tune into the latest news whatever the topic, ‘Follow’ influencers, whether for political, entertainment, sport, or scientific reasons, anywhere in the world. It’s so easy to join groups of like-minded ‘Folk’ and share experiences, recommend services, to be helpful, or simply to listen in the background.
Twitter for me is about sharing opinion, connecting and engaging and being part of my local community; you can have all this using one account, or sign up to as many as you like, all that’s required is a separate email address for each one. I manage three: @MGSMagic on behalf of The Manchester Grammar School; @firstimpressi0n which enables me to share the latest news on social media and opinion; and @Sally_AnneR my ‘local persona’.
Unfortunately, social media didn’t exist in the 80s when, as an inexperienced mum with twins, I would have found the ability to share the experience online with those who were in the same situation such a support. And now – what seems like overnight – my four children are four adults and with this the opportunity to meet with other parents has suddenly vanished! So when I recently moved to a small Cheshire town and didn’t know a soul I went along to a local networking event. Here I discovered many wanted to join Twitter, but simply couldn’t afford the fees trainers were asking so I offered to give a free session. We had a great night sipping wine and eating nibbles while I extolled the virtues of Twitter. We now have a community ‘Hashtag’ so we can keep in touch as a group; I’ve found a great garage, a plumber, an optician and it’s been a real pleasure to meet the people behind the local businesses. We’ve had our first ‘Tweet-up’ and are planning the second. It’s brought genuine loyalty amongst us – having met each other we want to support the shopping locally concept because it’s personal. After just two months of living in this lovely town I feel more affinity to it than I did after 15 years of living in my last one – to me that’s the real power of Twitter!
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My daughter seems to spend all her time on twitter and facebook, and it’s really hard for me to keep track of what she’s doing (twitter in particular)! I’m worried about what she might be doing on there – is there any way to control it?
What kind of control are we talking about? Switching on all kind of filters and making sure the kids don’t know the password to switch it of or something extreme like having full access to child’s account to be able to read everything?
Hello Sarah
This can be an understandable concern for parents as their child becomes absorbed in the cyber world…
Read the rest of the answer here: mums-dads.co.uk/expert-advice/keeping-an-eye-on-tweeting-kids-or-should-we
Dear Sally, we decided to post your answer as a separate article.