Using Twitter to Stay Connected

All the tech world seems to be abuzz with "Social Media" and "Staying Connected" saying they are the next big thing. Well, as hams we know better right? I mean how much more social can you get than a good rag chew every morning!

We can however take advantage of at least one of the new social media technologies to aid in our Emergency Communications efforts. I'm talking about Twitter!

So What the Heck Is Twitter?
Twitter is a short message, update based service hosted at, you guessed it, Twitter.com. The premise is simple. You post short (140 characters or less) updates about what you're doing or, say, that a net has been activated on 146.xxx, etc. Other Twitter users subscribe to your updates (known as Following in the Twitter world) and when they do, their Twitter home page is updated with your status. And if you follow them, your Twitter home page will be updated every time their status changes as well.

Ok. So What Does This Have To Do With Ham Radio or EmComm?
Well, I'm glad you asked! For those of us involved in EmComm, Twitter can really come in handy. For example, lets say the SEC, N1LF, wanted to start a state-wide drill? One way to do that would be to call each of the Assistant SECs, then they would call the DECs, then the DECs would call the ECs... you get the picture. Alternatively, he could simply post a message to Twitter, something like "AL Section Training Net on 3.965" and it would instantly appear on everyone's Twitter home page, alerting them to the net. See, that's much quicker and more efficient, right!

Yeah, But I'm Not Always Sitting In Front of My Computer
Ok, ok, I hear ya! Not always in front of the computer. Don't want to keep Twitter open all the time... etc. I hear you loud and clear! Well, here is the great part... You don't have to! Twitter has a really cool SMS (cell phone text messaging) integration piece that lets you use your cell phone to interact with the service. If you have your Twitter account configured to use SMS, when N1LF sends out that drill message, it will automatically pop-up on your cell phone! Now you can go about your daily business and still take be instantly up to date with alerts!

Alright You Sold Me... Now What?
Well, its pretty easy. I'll even walk you through the steps right here. Lets get started!

Step One, Setup a Twitter Account
This is pretty easy. Go to twitter.com and click the big green "Get Started - Join!" button in the middle of the screen. The next screen will ask you for your Full Name, Username, Password and Email. I suggest using your callsign as your username. Fill in the anti-spam words then click "Create My Account".

The next screen asks if you want Twitter to look for your friends on other services like Google Mail, Yahoo, or AOL. This is optional and totally up to you. If you want to skip it, click the "Skip this step" link at the bottom of the page.

Next you'll see some suggested people to follow. Most are celebrities of well known people in the social media world. If you're not interested in any of that, simply click the Select All checkbox at the top of the list and they will all be de-selected (meaning you won't be getting updates from any of them). Click the Finish button to get to your very own home page.

Step Two, Follow Somebody
Ok, so we missed out on following a few folks during signup... who can I follow now? Well, may I humbly suggest myself?!? At the top of the screen you should find a link for Find People. Clicking that link will bring you to a screen with a search box asking, "Who are you looking for?" Type K5JTR in the search box and press enter. You should get a result with my callsign and name. Out to the right will be a grey button that says, "Follow." Click that button, and the label will change to Following. You are now all setup to get updates from little ole me!

You can repeat this process to find the SEC. Simply type ALSEC in the who are you looking for box.

After following the SEC, you'll notice that the username alsec is a link. If you click on that link, you can see Les' profile. The profile has a handy little link called followers (near the top right corner). Click on followers to see who is following Les, you might want to follow some of them as well!

These are just a couple of ways to find people to follow. Play around a bit and I'll bet you find a few more. For now... lets move on...

Step Three, Get SMS Setup
Up in the same space where you found the Find People link, you should also find a link for Settings. Clicking this link will take you to, um, your settings page. There are lots of interesting things here, but lets click on over to the Devices tab.

The Devices tab is where you tell Twitter about your cell phone number. Enter your number in the field and remember to include the plus sign ( + ), the 1, and you full ten digit number... it should look something like +12565551212. Check the box to say its ok for Twitter to text you and then the Save button. You're in business!

Remember, if your cell phone plan charges for text messages, you will be charged for ever update you get from Twitter!

Ok, that's it, you are on Twitter. Shoot me an email if you run into any trouble... and happy Twittering!

73,

Thom / K5JTR