Twitter your way to your family research

In a recent article posted 29 April 2009 on LDS Media Talk, Larry Richman, Director of the LDS Church Publications and Media Project Office, noted that "eMarketer estimates there were roughly 6 million Twitter users in the US in 2008, or 3.8% of Internet users. They project that the number will double next year and triple the year after." He went on to note that "Nielsen.com ranked Twitter as the fastest growing member communities site in February 2009. Twitter had a growth of 1,382%, compared with Zimbio’s growth of 240%, and Facebook’s growth of 228%. By all measures, Twitter is growing quickly."

Many of the genealogy sites, including this one, maintain Twitter feeds or "tweets." A recent search on Twitter for the term "genealogy" returned hundreds of sites. Some of the sites returned were simply ads, but a lot of the traffic was inquiries and news.

Although posts are limited to 140 characters, this is enough to give a headline into another link with more information. You may wish to limit the number of your subscriptions to those sites that have real content as opposed to stream of thought sites telling you when someone gets up and goes to bed.