If you're not on Twitter, you're missing half the conversation

Traditionally the Eclipse community has used the mailing lists, newsgroups and an aggregation of blogs to stay connected.  Mailing lists and newsgroups have generally been more technical, while the blog-o-sphere has everything from tutorials to highly opinionated views.  Over the past year and a half, many of those in the Eclipse Community have also emerged on Twitter.

We have used twitter for Bug reporting, bug triaging, blowing off steam, tracking down committers – and we even organized our Movember team through the social medium.  Twitter takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it can be a valuable way to stay connected.  I’ve been using twitter for about a year now.  Here are a few tips if you’re just getting started:

1. Post some content before you start following people. You can post the typical: I’m just figuring out twitter. But follow it up with a few interesting posts – ideally about something you care about.
2. Follow your friends first.  It’s good to follow some people who will follow you back… Once you get some people listening, others will follow you too.
3. Get a good twitter client. I personally like https://brizzly.com/. I hear there are very good clients for the Mac.
4. Follow people (and topics) that you find interesting.  In the Eclipse ecosystem, there is a lot of activity on twitter.
5. Once on, Re-tweet and Reply to things you find interesting…. i.e. Join the conversation

If you’re interested in Eclipse and are looking for people to follow, check our twitter wiki page, or look at wefollow.com.

Peter Friese also has a great post on why he uses Twitter.  I really like his suggestion Don’t protected your posts.  If you’re worried about privacy, just be mindful of what you write!

Note: Yesterday Google announced ‘Google Buzz’, which some are calling ‘What Twitter Should Be’.  While Buzz may take down twitter, likely it just means one more stop in my daily commute (E-mail, twitter, blogs… now buzz).