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I’ve been thinking a lot this week about how I got myself digitally active. I’m not a digital native, sadly way too old for that(!), but somehow in the last 12 months I’ve learnt to navigate my way round the twitter-sphere, countless blogs, tweet-ups twitchats and the strange world of conference back channels (http://tinyurl.com/5ajqrc)! It’s been fun and not unlike trying to learn to drive in (which I also did recently), at times embarrassing, occasionally frustrating but ultimately really worthwhile. The main difference being that I hardly drive anywhere but I use social media most days now!

This month we’re running a ‘23 things’ programme at my workplace, if you’re not familiar with the 23 things idea you can find out more here http://t.co/hk7gCz3k. So for my fellow ‘23 thing-ers’ a few words of encouragement from one who’s been there…

Explore everything, you never know where it will take you. I’ve got myself linked into some great L&D discussions with people working in learning around the world. If you’re having trouble knowing where to start (like me) then use the countless blogs and websites which review the different tools. If you’re shy there’s nothing wrong with a bit of lurking; spending some time just listening into your tweet feeds or reading other people’s blogs, but at some point you’ll want to dip your toe in the water. I did this with tweet chats, these are when people interested in a topic get together and chat using a shared hashtag about all sorts of subjects. Chats usually last an hour so not a huge investment of time for getting to meet lots of new tweeps interested in the same things you are. There’s a list of tweet chats here: http://bit.ly/rSYmeq.

Most of all enjoy it, I’m not very good at this digital malarky but I’m getting there.