Fun with Twitter through curated accounts #rocur

It’s no secret that I have a bit of a love for Twitter. It hasn’t always been that way but I’ve written about the fun of Twitter and how to fall in love with Twitter again and I have been using it more and more over the last few months, again.

So I have a more bite-sized suggestion this time round than my previous posts, and another kind of “gateway” into learning to enjoy Twitter that might work for some of you. And this is: have a look for some good #rocur accounts and interact with them.

Um … but what is a #rocur account?

Excellent question! You might have seen these accounts without realising what they were called (that was the case with me until recently). #rocur is short for rotated curation and they are Twitter accounts which get managed by a different person every week. They’re really interactive and great to get involved with.

For example, earlier this month I managed the @WeAreAustralia Twitter account for a week. This account, so to speak, “represents” typical Australians, and different people run it each week to ask and answer questions to people around the world, getting to know other Twitter users and being a bit of a spokesperson for Australia for a short time.

It was enormous fun to “be Australia” for the week. Before my week started I wrote a list of all the many (and varied) things I wanted to talk about, from social media to Iceland to autism to books – all kinds of stuff that piques my interest. And I managed to talk about all of it, and meet all kinds of interesting people both in Australia and across the world who I’ve now continued the conversations with back at my own Twitter profile.

And so what should I do about a #rocur account??

I’m not suggesting, necessarily, you go off and volunteer to be a #rocur Twitter person for a week, but what I am suggesting is that you go and follow some interesting #rocur accounts and interact with them. These people are there very specifically to talk to others so it’s such a great way to get into the habit of interacting on Twitter, not just posting your own tweets “to nowhere” – because interaction is the most fabulous part of Twitter, and how it helps you to build relationships with all kinds of interesting and, let’s face it, useful people!

A great start is this list of country #rocur accounts. There are also #rocur accounts for different parts of Australia, like @WeAreADL for Adelaide or @WeAreBrisbane for, obviously, Brisbane! There are also #rocur accounts for different interest groups – like @We_Love_Aural for music-lovers, and a newish but good account for ex-pats around the world called @WeAreXpats.

Over to you (get over to Twitter!)

So my challenge to you is: look up a few #rocur accounts that intrigue you and get involved in the conversation. It’s one of the best entry-ways into getting used to interacting on Twitter and you might find that once you start, you can’t stop. But I’m not responsible for that!!