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Vaught's Views: Tweets part of change

June 08, 2009|LARRY VAUGHT

Change and technology are not words that a 57-year-old sports editor can always understand. Put the two words together and it can be mind-boggling for my generation.

However, sometimes that change can actually be good - and fun.

That's the case with Twitter, a concept that took more than a few minutes for Gary Moyers, our Web master, to explain to me recently. But now that he has got the concept into my head, hopefully it will benefit those of you who are technology savvy.

In April, Twitter users spent about 300 million minutes logged on to the site in April. That's an increae of 3,712 percent from a year earlier.

That's what led to the emphasis for me to have a blog featuring not only University of Kentucky columns that appear in The Advocate-Messenger, but also special posts for the Web. And that includes my tweets from my Twitter account.

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What I love about Twitter - and I did use the word love - is that it gives me a chance to post short, quick-hitting notes, thoughts, quotes and updates that can provide insightful information for you about breaking news, upcoming stories or hot rumors/speculation.

If you want to see the blog, go to www.vaughtsviews.com. It has not been unusual to have over 5,000 hits per day at the site - and that has been during the so-called off-season for UK sports.

To sign up for my Twitter, go to www.twitter.com. While my "followers" won't rival the number UK coach John Calipari has, there are now over 500 folks registered to follow my tweets in a variety of ways.

Some followers are local names I recognize. Others are die-hard UK fans I recognize. Some are other media members curious to see what information I might have. There are even UK officials following my Twitter.

The challenge is to make sure information is there that you want and need - and to make sure information stays fresh. This is not something you can do once a week and have anyone wanting to come back to see what is new. It's about continuing to provide information that the public wants to see.

We actually hope to expand the blog and do even more. State Farm Insurance Agent Bob Miller is now the title sponsor of www.vaughtsviews.com and he's as anxious as I am to have you visit the site.

If you have tweet suggestions, let me know. My job is to provide short, useful information often for you with the tweets to go along with longer blog posts that have more in-depth insights.

Sign up to become a Twitter follower and see what you think. Hopefully it's a win for you and for me.

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