How do you Tweet?

I find twitter frustrating. I know a lot of people who use it, but I only know a few of them personally. Most are famous, local entrepreneurs, or companies I follow for general interest, couponing, or to create an impressive profile. As a technologist, I'm not 'in the know' if I don't have a Twitter account.

But, I rarely use Twitter because I haven’t figured how to use it in a way that makes sense for my lifestyle. I have one twitter account that functions as a personal brand representation. I’m not interested in using Twitter to talk about my personal life. After all, it’s part of my digital foot print and at this time in my life I'd like people to find out what I positively contributed to society; not what I ate for breakfast. I struggle with what I would tweet about, and what groups I would join. After all, the Twitter network is larger. At least Facebook I’m connected with Friends instead of strangers and that helps me find interesting, useful, and relevant content.

It’s difficult to keep up with the stream of tweets too, and rather than feeling productive, using twitter ends up feeling like a time sink. I used it enough to know its value and to be able to teach others how to use it – I’m an educational technology manger full-time.

But I’m being challenged now via an online class I’m taking to think about twitter as an educational tool. Yet, I struggle. For me, it’s another social networking tool; a way to share or receive information in short, digestible blips. I’m not presently a teacher, so instead of guessing, I thought I’d ask you, the Y.U. 2.0 community for help.

How do you use Twitter to teach?