Instant-PLN Surprise Gift: the thrilling conclusion!
If you missed the premise:
24 hours ago my Primary teacher colleague Daniel Wearne had just joined Twitter and had 11 followers + 1 tweet. I became obsessed with the idea of surprising him this morning with a 'ready-made PLN'.
A PLN is an online network of colleagues to share with. Normally you grow one slowly, but hey, who says it ALWAYS has to be that way! Everyone loves a surprise present!! Let's gift this great teacher with a ready-made network!
So I tweeted out the idea to follow him and spread the word!
And I watched as the message was rebroadcast over and over...
...and Daniel had 36 followers
...and then 45
...then 82
Stoking the Fire:
I stoked the fire by direct messaging about 15 particular tweeters, who I either noticed were online at that very moment, or who I knew had lots of followers, especially in the UK (e.g. @tombarrett and @joedale) and the USA (e.g. @gcouros). They all got on board enthusiastically, and there's a lesson there: if you're keen to get a message out, don't be afraid to ask!
I kept at it:
Bedtime:
When I went to bed at 11pm there were 160 fellow educators, all around the world, who had put their hands up to listen to his voice.
And I slept.
Morning:
When I woke I immediately reached for my faithful iPhone on the bedside table.
Another 100 had joined the party overnight.
Dan's wife, Linda Wearne, also a teacher at NBCS (and also worth the follow!), tweeted this:
Yayy!! He likes his present!!
I drove to work. (Meanwhile another 20 people on the bandwagon!)
I arrived at school.
I went straight up to Daniel! He looked rather shocked:
You can see from his account that he's keen to engage with his new buddies...
ALL THREE HUNDRED AND FOUR OF THEM!
A Warm Welcome:
In the last 24 hours he's received well over 90 welcome messages, including plenty of warm welcomes:
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And some wit:
And some advice too:
I've copied all of the replies at the bottom of this post. Many thanks to everyone!!
Not Too Late To Join The Free Teacher Conference That Never Sleeps
And as I said in my last post, if you're not on Twitter yet, it's not too late.
These warm welcomes to Dan... it's what's waiting for you if you decide you want to get on board.
You won't get a network of 300 followers overnight like Dan, but you don't need to either. I remember very fondly hovering around 30 or 40 for many weeks... it was plenty enough for a rocking great conversation and genuine connection with like-minded teachers.
Join Twitter, and grow your network slowly, like an indoor plant!
Thanks for joining in everyone!
Appendix (!) Dan's deluge of welcome tweets:
