does your town tweet?

My name is Mom2Amara. And I used to laugh at Twitter.

Sure it annoyed me when people would question why I blogged.

But to tweet what I'm doing in 140 characters? My blog posts are just short of novel length. How could I simply type a short sentence on my whereabouts?

Then I opened an account on Facebook. And while I enjoyed catching up with old classmates or former co-workers, I became addicted to reading my friends' status updates.

My friends were running 10K's. Doing laundry. Taking the kids to Disney World. Or they would be watching 24. Drinking a beer. Planning a wedding.

Whatever it was, I couldn't wait to read all about it.

Then I began to use Twitter for work. And I found it to be exhilarating.

I have two girlfriends that I communicate with primarily by Twitter. (Hi @elauer and @ReneeDeLuca!)

And now that most news agencies have a Twitter account, I can stay up-to-date with breaking stories. It's an occupational hazard. I always have to know what's going on.

I've come full circle with social media. It was once purely for entertainment. Now, I see it as a valuable resource.

So now I'm left to ask why my school district doesn't tweet. And why don't the officials at City Hall?

If there was an emergency at Amara's school, the district could easily communicate with parents in 140 characters.

Parents, due to a fire at Village School, students are being taken to Location X. Please meet your child there.

Or maybe they can tweet reminders to certain moms who tend to forget when purple-and-gold pride day is... In fact, two school districts in Florida are testing the microblogging site out.

I'd love to know when City Council has a big vote ahead of them. Or how about just telling me what's on tap for this year's Fourth of July bash. you guessed it, some cities do have Twitter and Facebook sites. Check out this Ohio town's Twitter feed.

Do you embrace social media? Does your town?

cross posted on Being Mom2Amara