As a lot of you may know, I was lucky enough to be a student of Caren Kenney. She is one busy lady – the creator of a television series currently in pre-production with Warner Bros TV, co-author of the book Fake Alibis, guest blogger for writing.ie, screenwriting tutor with INKwell Writers’ Workshops, and a freelance researcher, proofreader / editor to boot.
I loved studying with Caren. But do you want to know how I met her? It was my 3rd week on Twitter and her 2nd day! There I was tweeting a published writer and she tweeting me back. Out circle of friends grew, and as we tweeted, we shared links to our blogs and the blogs we liked. I learnt so much about teaching, writing and social media.
I could see how blogging was leading to new opportunities, so I decided to do a writing course. When I saw that Caren was running one, I was delirha!
As I am a primary school teacher who uses lesson plans on a daily basis, nothing pleased me more than Caren’s lessons, which were laid out in a comprehensive and detailed manner. Her feedback was honest, succinct and got to the heart of any problems. My writing and articulation of ideas has improved beyond imagining and I was amazed by this. Since the day I first started getting feedback from Caren, my blog has almost quadrupled its readership following. My only gripe was that I didn’t get on Twitter earlier.
Through the use of social media, my blog has now been read twenty-seven thousand times (calculated on the 30.11.11). Great for me, great for future book deals for me (!) and it has even been great for teaching. I have actually gotten teaching jobs from my blog and as I have 9 nominations for an Education Blog Award I can update my teaching CV with my new badge of honour.
Caren had a website and now, she’s a blogger. Why? Have you any idea of how satisfying it is to hit that publish button? You get feedback via twitter and comments. You share your blog list (blogs you follow and admire) with the public and the best part….using social media you can go anywhere! But coolest of all, your tweet-friends will always give you a great response!
I gotta go guys, I am going to send Caren a Tweet and leave her a comment on her brand new and fabulous blog.
Latersss
M
Michelle Moloney King 
Thank you Michelle. I will re-read everything you have written on this subject and this time I will try to do so with a more open mind! Thanks for being so patient. 🙂
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HI Xavier,
Twitter is about sharing what interests you most and engagement.
I wrote about how Twitter here, it might help – http://teachermoloneyking.com/search/label/Twitter
Best
Michelle
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Thank you for another great post. I feel I am missing out in some way because I still haven't gotten my head around Twitter. I always tweet what I write but find it hard to build up any kind of relationship with anyone because it seems so vast and so fast. Maybe someday you will write about Twitter for people like me. I actually am following Caren and maybe one of you could tell me what I am doing wrong.
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Hi Fleurman,
Thanks for the lovely comment. I hope that you follow Caren on Twitter too, you will love the tweets.
Hi Krystal,
Aww that is such a sweet thing to say. I love your #blogtaxi and your stories from the USA. You are great tweep.
Best
M
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Michelle, I love you and Caren both! You have become huge parts of my writing life. You inspire and humble me. Make me laugh, and sometimes make me wish I lived in Ireland. 🙂
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Michelle, natural, fresh, honest, human, uplifting are just some if the words I would use to describe your blog posts. Thank you and good luck with the Awards.
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