Today with access to the internet, anyone can acquire as many skills as they desire, with the billions of contents available at their disposal. With over 4.2 billion active users on the internet, millions of people from around the world use the internet for entertainment, to keep in touch with friends, get the latest news, lend their voices to trending issues or strengthen their professional network. Many times, all these are done with the use of Social Media applications. Today, people are redefining how they use the internet with learning in focus.
Social media connects you with experts in your topic of interest, gives you important insight and analytics into issues and can be a source of data extraction.
Every social media application has its uniqueness and personality; LinkedIn, the oldest of them all, the no-nonsense uncle with a suit and tie serving inspirational and motivational talks. Facebook, the aunt that never stops talking and reminds you that your whole family is watching you. Instagram, the slay queen that never stops posing for selfies. Twitter, the savage young man, King of clap back and with its 280 characters, can give fame or destroy reputations. Understandably that is one of the reasons why people may never consider it as a place to acquire skills or even knowledge. However, with over 320 million active users, Twitter is one of the many platforms with enormous learning resources online. With its vast usage and tremendous features, Twitter allows for seamless communication using hashtags, @ messaging, micro-blogging, voice notes and recently, group conversations using ‘Spaces’. Though it can be used as a channel to spread fake news, rumors and false information, a research work by Carlos Castillo, Marcelo Mendoza and Barbara Poblete revealed that there are several human ways of assessing the credibility of Twitter contents, such as the post engagement and reactions, the poster’s pedigree and more. Whether you are a teacher, fashion designer, mechanic, student or just a random person seeking to learn or get upskilled, here are various ways through which you could use Twitter to achieve your learning objectives. Follow Relevant Accounts: With Twitter’s follow feature, you can follow as many accounts as necessary, howbeit with a daily limit. Exploit this opportunity to follow as many accounts of people who share contents of interests with you and probably turn on their notifications as well. Follow Topics: As a person who is focused on learning, one of the first things you want to do is to follow related topics on the app. Twitter Topics allows you to get the latest tweets, events and ads about the topics you have followed. This way you can familiarize yourself with people whose niche is your topic of interest. Read up more on how to follow a topic here. Join Spaces: Twitter Spaces is a new way to have live audio conversations with more than one person. It allows for up to 11 speakers at any given time. Interestingly, Twitter notifies you when an account you follow closely goes live on a twitter space. So, do well to join those conversations, it might be your opportunity to get quick responses to every question you have ever wanted to ask about your subject of interest.
Make a List: Twitter List is a feature that allows you to organize the accounts and topics you follow. For instance, this could help your group “Top UX Designers” or “Top UX Writers”, so that tweets from the same list appear in one stream on your Twitter feed. Read up more on how to create a list here. Ask Questions: Ask open-ended questions and use the mentions feature whenever you need an instant answer, this way you’ll be able to pull out from a pool of ideas, suggestions and knowledge. Create and Share Contents: One of the major essences of Twitter is social sharing. So, utilize this opportunity to share the contents you have created with others. This way you open doors for plaudits or criticisms which of course will make you better in your pursuit of knowledge. Twitter, if used correctly, will indeed be a great channel of knowledge acquisition and skill development for lifelong learners. If you know of other ways through which Twitter can be used as a great Learning hub, please share in the comment section. Do not forget to like and share our content. Visit our blog for trends, updates and tips on lifelong learning, Product Design, and mindset reskilling.
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