I saw guys, who bought T-shirts with inscription like “Follow me on twitter @andriybuday”. These weekend I’ve been on Rock Fest in Slavske and I did something more original. Take a look:

Not so long ago I created my twitter account. Indeed it brings me some value and I get fun with it. But many people get interested how that rubbish could bring any value for me or either someone else. Couple of my friends are really concerned about it and even laugh.

Which kind of value does it bring?

I decide whom to follow, this way I consequently decide which kind of information I will get. So if I’m following some programming guys, I obviously get bombarded with information on programming. The more information I get – the more information I process – the more value it brings. The only one important restriction is that information have to be useful.

So whom do I follow?

I follow lot of MVPs on .NET(C#) and other geeks, this way I get information about new technologies and opinion on them provided directly from best professionals around the world.

Also I follow twitter accounts of different interesting sites/organizations on programming. This way I instantly get information when new podcast is ready and I can immediately start downloading it for my listening. Also I’m informed if some new versions of some products are available. For example I get information that NHibernate 3.0 Preview is available. Please notice that since I’m following those, whom I chose, I do not get information about new version of Photoshop or something like that.

I follow friends and local programmers. Actually most of my friends are developers, but anyway following them keeps me informed about their interests and allows me know what do they do.

Also I follow just few News accounts to be informed about events from real non-virtual world.

Whom do I not follow?

Different bullshit first of all, then accounts that post advertisements, those who posts on not interested for me themes. I do not follow or start unfollowing accounts, from which I get twits too often or who mix good stuff and advertisements.

How do I decide whom to follow?

Decision if I should follow someone I make taking into consideration his/her/its top 10-20 posts, if there is no more than 50-60% information on tech or something I’m interested to get from that account I do not follow that account.

What do I tweet?

Of course information that is similar to information that I would like to hear from others. It is different links on programming, my opinions on some technologies or my thoughts on stuff I use right in the moment of tweeting. I also share my personal success notes like passing some MS exam or like fixing ugly bug related to some technology.

Reasons why I do use twitter

1. I get valuable information from known professional around the world
2. I get technology news and instantly can respond to them
3. I share my opinions, thoughts and could get response
4. I get introduced to famous developers
5. I make my blog known using twitter
6. My tweets are across other social networking (like LinkedIn), so people who do not have twitter also know what do I do
7. Simply getting more closer to my goal of being known community developer

Concern about the time it takes

Yes, indeed twitter takes some time on responses and tweeting and it could even take away your concentration on work. So where from do I take this time? I would say: I do not IM others uselessly and I do not spent my time on youtube or other entertainments during the work, so I think that having few tweets per day is ok, taking into account the value it brings to me.

You decide your own if twitter is something for you or not.