NCPH Consultants' TweetChats

Yesterday evening, the NCPH Consultants' Committee sponsored our second monthly TweetChat using the hashtag #phconchat. Since last year, the Consultants' Committee has been experimenting with our social media presence using the Twitter handle @NCPHConsultants, and attempting to engage public historians and historical consultants around the world through this medium, as well as through the Consultants' Corner on the History@Work blog.

Sounds great, right?  Overall, I think we're making some solid progress toward serving our core constituents, but I am continually struck by the necessity of getting our message out in multiple places. To serve a diverse audience, we need to maintain a presence both online and in print. Online, we need to exist on a traditional website, through Twitter, and in the more informal, but engaged, world of the Public History Commons. This begs the question, in what ways is the information environment better with all of these media, and in what ways is it more confusing or overwhelming? Do we risk redundancy, or do we risk tune-out?  I suppose that, given enough time, history will tell.