By Holly MacDonald

It has been a twitter-ific few weeks. 

Did you play #WTHR?  Phase two of the contest is happening this week at Conference. Plus, we’ll get to participate via Twitter in a few ways:

• #WTHR? part two will be happening on April 13th & 14th at Marketplace
• #HRMA2011 will be the home for all conference related tweets – this is where you can share juicy sound bites from a session, share relevant links, introduce speakers/experts with a recommendation, extend the conference conversation to others who are in a different session or just aren’t there.  You’ll see me “there” chatting it up.
• If you have Twitter (or other social media) related questions, feel free to stop by the BC HRMA booth, where I’ll be hanging out and I’m happy to help you figure it out. 
• @bchrma is ramping up their twitter presence, and as members we can offer suggestions about what we’d like to receive from them on an ongoing basis. 

While watching over and playing the #WTHR? game, I started a discussion thread over at our LinkedIn group about who was tweeting.  Pleasantly surprised to see 18 people stick their hands up (and found others via WTHR), so I have decided to create a list of people in HR, in BC (note: having difficulties with lists & Twitter, results may vary!).   If you want to get added to the list, you can @ me: My twitter “handle” is sparkandco. 

In reflecting back, I wasn’t really on Twitter at last year’s conference, so a lot has changed in a year.  I was originally pretty skeptical of Twitter, but now I find it a very valuable tool for my professional development.  Really. I follow 350+ very interesting people, who tweet about: learning, technology, enterprise 2.0, visual and instructional design, HR and various combinations.  People from all over the world.  I receive thousands of tweets in a day and while I don’t read them all, whenever I dip in, I find something really valuable.  If you are on Twitter and this hasn’t been your experience, consider:

1. Following an established list, check out (http://twitter.com/#!/EvolvOnDemand/top-hr-influencers)
2. Unfollow people who are not providing you of value – if it feels like a waste of time, then change something up. 
3. Follow a #hashtag, like #bchrma for topic related discussions (hashtags can be for events, like our #WTHR? is or topic based, like #connectinghr)

If you have ideas for twitter and HR, particularly beyond the recruitment angle, let me know in the comments below. 

Holly MacDonald is an independent consultant with well over 15 years of experience in the learning & development field.  Holly is a bit of a techno-geek and can often be found playing online.  When she steps away from her computer, she spends time outside: hiking, kayaking, gardening and of course walking the dog.  She lives on Saltspring Island and is a leader in the live/work revolution.