Twitter use by SCWW

Twitter

When I graduated from high school, high tech consisted of electric typewriters. We had only one electric in a classroom with 24 manual Royal typewriters. The teacher allowed only the “good” typists to use it. I was not a good typist; in fact, I ranked near the bottom of the class because I made so many errors. Erasing those typos and keying over them made my papers look like patchwork hieroglyphics. No one seemed concerned about my lack of progress, however. I was one of only a few boys in the class and most everyone wondered why I had taken a girls’ class anyway.

I thought back on that situation as I considered the election of officers and our discussions during our recent board meeting. I’d almost bet that some of the writers attending workshops at the seventeen plus chapters across the state are still using typewriters. If you are, I applaud you. I gave up on those things many years ago. I now have a PC, laptop, and keyboard Kindle. When I make a mistake, a single keystroke will usually make it right. I’d also bet my typing teacher, Mrs. Hanna, would be amazed that I have been elected secretary of SCWW.

A major theme of our meeting concerned our use of technology. While there will always be books, most of our information now comes to us via digital displays. If one produces an eBook and it’s never printed on paper … but I diverge.

There seemed to be universal agreement that we as a group need to be more proficient in our use of technology, especially the big three: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Oh yes, YouTube and Skype.

Twitter became my assignment because during the meeting, I was naïve enough to admit I already had an account. However, this tasking caused me to look more closely and the more I become involved in Twitter, the more I realize the magnitude of its potential. I now truly believe the possibilities available in proper use of Twitter are beyond what most of us might imagine. Certainly, it offers us an easy and immediate method for keeping all members in the state informed, but that’s just the beginning. Imagine announcing a conference, book festival, or the publication of a new novel to literally thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of people with one tweet. Imagine continual contact and interaction between SCWW and major publishers, agents, and editors. All this and more can happen.

But first- you knew there was a but- our members must become tweeters. Once signed on at Twitter, search for scwwsecretary and “follow” it. That way you should receive any tweets we send out. A few tweets have already been sent and more will follow. If you wish to have a message tweeted to all members, send it to scwwsecretary@gmail.com

Remember tweets must be less than 140 characters and spaces count as characters. More information about Twitter in future blogs.

SCWW secretary – Monet Jones