OPEN

Some useful thoughts on developing personal use of Twitter: "The value of that network to an individual is at least twofold – firstly, as a source of information, observations, news and feedback to you as the person at the centre of your own network; secondly as an amplifier of your own ego broadcast messages. (There are other benefits of course – like being able to see who is talking to whom about what.) You may also feel there is some benefit to just having a large number of followers, if only in the bragging stakes.

That is, the more followers the better, right? It's bound to be good for my reputation, if nothing else, surely…?

Well….. maybe not…?

Consider these two questions:

– who follows you? if I look at your followers what can I tell about you, from them?
– what is your blocking policy? who you block is just as much a part of the way you manage your network as the people you actively follow."

"There is some variation in the types of people who tend to use each of the top three social networks. Typically, MySpace users are more likely to be women, Hispanic or black, to have a high school education or some experience with college. The median age of a MySpace user is 27 years old.  Facebook users are more likely to be men and to have a college degree. The median age of a Facebook user is 26 years old.  LinkedIn users are more likely to be men, to be white and to have a college degree. The median age of a LinkedIn user is 40 years old."