Before I connected with my AWC sisters at the 2013 National Conference, I just didn’t give a tweet about twitter. Oh, I was curious, but I couldn’t see the value in it. I knew that this was something I should explore as a professional woman in communications, but it would take time and effort and I had so many other things to do.
Four Greater Des Moines chapter members went to the conference. There was a lot of tweeting and talking about tweeting. When we got home, we were inspired and started trying to tweet our monthly meetings – tweeting photos and some key points from the speakers. We set up an @AWCDSM account and appointed an official chapter tweeter. We were so engaged! We even developed a Twitter Lab to help others get in on the fun.
Right after the conference, I started participating in #AWCchat. Before, I had only looked at the transcripts and found it hard to understand what was going on and why I would want to do it. I am not a good lurker. I must participate. After all, you only get back what you are willing to invest in the experience. So, I introduced myself. Sheila Scarborough, who was hosting the chat, led us through what to do. Easy peasy.
I learned that you have to include the #AWCchat in every tweet if you want it to show up in the stream of conversation. I learned about apps like Tweetdeck and Nurph which make things easier to see and follow along. I learned how to express myself in 140 characters or less! My skills advanced rapidly with a little help from my friends and #AWCchat.
Each #AWCchat is a learning and sharing experience. We cover a wide range of topics of interest to women in communications. I had no idea what Snapchat was until we discussed it. I picked up great tips for publicizing an event I was working on. I have developed relationships with women in communications across the country which have led to idea exchanges and collaborations. And guess what? There are other chats going on all the time! Just search for a topic of interest. There is no end to what you can learn on Twitter!
Now I am using what I learned to publicize the 2015 AWC National Conference. Follow @AWCcon15 or search for #AWCcon15 and see what’s in store.
