Just to let you know that when ItalyChronicles.com is not being updated, @newsfromitaly – ItalyChronicles.com’s Twitter account most probably is.  Via @newsfromitaly on Twitter you’ll hear the latest Italian news items, travel information, bits and bobs about Italian food and wine, as well as many other nuggets of Italy flavour information.

@newsfromitaly is often updated while I, Alex Roe ItalyChronicles.com’s publisher and principal writer, am on my travels, either as part of my day in Milan, or when I venture farther afield to places like Venice, Siena or Genoa. When a new article appears here on ItalyChronicles.com, its ‘birth’ is announced via @newsfromitaly on Twitter.

If I try a good Italian wine, or some Italian food, either a recipe or something else, which is new to me, it’ll be broadcast via @newsfromitaly on Twitter. Italy flavour photographs courtesy of either my BlackBerry Bold or iPhone 4 mobiles also end up on Twitter if I come across anything interesting while I’m out ‘in the field’.

Indeed, everything which is not really long enough to justify a full blown blog post often finds its way onto Twitter.  Then again, I may Tweet breaking news via Twitter and if there is enough interest or the story becomes significant, it may become a blog post here on ItalyChronicles.com.

Twitter Followers

@newsfromitaly has over 2,800 Twitter followers ranging from those interested in Italy to the odd journalist, radio presenter and one or two Italian politicians, just for good measure.

In some respects, Twitter acts as a sort of verbal radio news channel, broadcasting headlines. I’m told that those who follow ItalyChronicles.com’s @newsfromitaly tweets find them a handy way of keeping up with what is going on in Italy – especially when their Italian is not yet too hot.  This is often the case with newly arrived expats, as many of us, including myself, will know.

Twitter Comments

As an added bonus those using Twitter can communicate with me via Twitter by sending a tweet to @newsfromitaly to comment or ask a question.  If I cannot answer, then someone else probably can.

Twitter Answers and Twitter Business

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Twitter is a great place to find answers and to ask questions – and can sometimes help generate business via new contacts or as a result of finding new products or services.

Twitter Hashtags

The downside of Twitter?  – Information overload, but with handy little things like hashtags; this is a hashtag ‘#’; you can search for specific information or via clever applications like TweetDeck and HootSuite you can monitor specific Twitter communications  – provided that everybody participating is using the same hashtag.

One hashtag I use a lot is #ITL and this indicates that the link used in a Tweet goes to an article in Italian.

Twitter Eats Time

Another slight disadvantage of Twitter is that it tends to take up a lot of time.  Time which should be used more productively – to try to offset this ‘cost’, ItalyChronicles.com does broadcast information about offers and products from time to time and if somebody buys something as a result, BlogfromItaly.com will receive a small cut – this helps keep ItalyChronicles.com and @newsfromitaly keep going.  Indeed, if ItalyChronicles.com does not generate some income, then it might not be able to continue – running this site and the @newsfromitaly add-on service is starting to take over my life!

Still, if at all possible, I’d like to keep this site and @newsfromitaly running and you can help if you like – simply click on links which appear on ItalyChronicles.com and if there is a possibility, then purchase something – but you don’t have to.

Why I Like Twitter

If you hadn’t guessed, and despite its time consuming nature, I’m a big fan of Twitter – it’s quick and easy to update, concise and allows interaction.  Twitter is also a great place to find people with interests similar to your own and with a little fiddling around you can just about create your very own custom news channel by combining the Twitter people you want to follow into a group via Twitter’s handy List function.

Here is ItalyChronicles.com on Twitter: @newsfromitaly

You will also find that @newsfromitaly has got some interesting Twitter followers too – so don’t forget to check them out!