Special weekend greetings, little birdies! I’m slogging my way through yet another technology-based medium… Twitter. Some of you may have noticed that I’ve had a twitter account set up for quite some time (I’m pattythesnugbug) and at SOME point I managed to set up my Snug Bug Facebook page to talk to twitter… and that was it. I added the twitter feed to the sidebar of the blog, since I thought it was a good way to show my Facebook status updates here, but I never EVER actually went to twitter. Funny side note – also at some point, I managed to set up my twitter profile so I got texts of messages that were in response to one of MY twitter updates (that were actually Facebook updates.) So I would get texts out of the blue that started with an ‘@’ and I’d have NO idea where they came from. It’s true little birdies, I am occasionally befuddled by modern day communication….
A week or two ago, I decided to either figure out how to use Twitter more effectively than just reposting Facebook updates, or I’d deactivate my account. I downloaded a Twitter client for my iPod and started to play with it. I’m beginning to see the charm of Twitter – it’s more conversational than Facebook and I’ve been using it for more fun, transitional stuff than what I put on Facebook. But I don’t feel like I’m totally GETTING it, so I thought I’d ask all of you! Here are my main questions…
1. who should I follow? I click on people if I see them and recognize their names, but other than that….
2. What is the deal with the @ sign?
3. What is the deal with the # tag thing?
4. Is it a tweet? A twitter update? Something else? Lingo please!?
5. What are good ways to have facebook, twitter and blogger talk to each other? I currently have the Facebook app set up to publish Facebook status updates to Twitter. And I think that blog posts automatically publish to twitter, but that may be due to magic, as I’m not sure how I might have set that up. Sigh.
So c’mon birdies, share your Twitter lore – even if you don’t use it for your blog, all knowledge is worth having, right? Comment below or email me if you have super top secret information that is not appropriate for the general public…
That is all, please resume your weekend nest building!
[Gratuitous baby photo of Lucy when she was a 10-pound-hound]
Hey Patty! Welcome to the wonderful world of Twitter. I don't use Twitter for my sewing blog, but I do use it in my professional writing life. It's so great for keeping up with my author friends from around the world. You're exactly right – Twitter's ease of conversation is what makes it so wonderful! I *love* it.
Now onto your questions…
1. Follow whomever you like! First off, I'd start by following people you know or are a fan of. Over the course of time, you'll naturally start connecting with other people. You'll come across interesting people who reply to you (Example: @PattyTheSnugBug I love your skirt! So cute!) or whom others retweet (I'll talk about retweeting later on).
2. The @ sign (which literally means "at") is how you reply to, directly talk to, or mention someone. When you put the @ plus someone's Twitter name, it will show up in their stream as a "mention." Example: @MaryBDanielson Hello! You're awesome.
3. The # is called a "hash tag." If there's a conversation going on about something, people will often create a hash tag for it. When you click on that tag, Twitter will take you a stream of everyone who's mentioned it and what they've said. Example: Man, Prince Harry looked super swoon-worthy at the #RoyalWedding. People also use it ironically or to be funny. Example: Princess Beatrice has a pretzel on her head. #hatfail
4. It's a tweet! You are a tweeter and you tweet tweets at people.
5. I don't have my social networking accounts interact, since I use them for different things. My Facebook is personal, my Twitter and writing blog for professional stuff, and my sewing blog for my fashion world. I do know that all of these can interact, however, but I don't know the best way. I bet other people have awesome secrets about this! 😀
Here are some other tips and tricks about Twitter:
– A retweet is when you share someone else's tweet with your own followers. There's an official way to do this, by hitting the retweet button when you highlight a tweet, but there's also an unofficial way. The official one will show up just as it did in your own stream, whereas the unofficial one will show up as a tweet from you. To do an unofficial retweet, put RT and the person's @name in front of the copied tweet. Example: Loved this! RT @PattyTheSnugBug Check out my pretty new circle skirt!
-If you want to mention someone in your tweet, be sure not to start your tweet with @name. When you begin with an "at reply," only that person and people who follow both you and that person can see your tweet. If you want all of your followers to see the tweet, either put a . in front of it or just mention the @name later in the tweet.
– If you want to put a link in your tweet, use a tiny url. There are websites (like tinyurl.com) which will shorten a long web address into less characters, so it doesn't take over your 140 characters on Twitter.
-Most businesses, even local ones, will have a Twitter account. If you want to rave about a fabric store or restaurant, check and see if they have a Twitter account. Not only will mentioning their Twitter help business, they may post their own coupons or specials in their stream!
That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure I'll be back with more tips later. Twitter is fabulous and becomes a bit more intricate each day. There's a whole subculture of Tweeters out there! Good luck! 😀
-Mary
Idle Fancy
Wow, great info there Mary! I still haven't gotten the hang of twitter either :S I do want to start using it more though. I'm sure the above tips will help! 🙂
Ashley x
Only just beginning to think about tweeting…hehehehe Still need to get a sewing version of facebook account going!! Fabulous info Mary!
Mary's got all the info you need… I would say I'm pretty specific about those I follow – I prefer people with blogs or whom I know from other sources. I block any follower that's predominantly commercial – this is a social medium for me – microblogging at its best. I don't feel compelled to follow those who follow me. I may not block them, but I review all of my followers and unless they have a blog I can appreciate – or they're tweeting socially on a variety of topics I relate to, I'm not going to follow for the heck of it. I don't care about my number of followers but about the quality of my interactions.
You may want to review the followers of those you follow if you're interested in increasing your cache of tweets. At first it can be very quiet. I follow some gardening, sewing and knitting peeps or orgs that might interest you.
Also, periodically review your followers and those you follow. If the complement is getting stale, you can always switch it up.
This a great article about social media in general http://www.geekgirlsguide.com/blog/2010/11/12/194/social_media_for_humans_in_3_easy_steps, cultivated by two local girls I think you'd love, Nancy Lyons and Meghan Wilker.
Well, I see you got help. One thing to always remember is to search & find the twitter tip posts. Also, TweetDeck or another app is very helpful. I missed so many mentions & so on because I didn't have it. I do now ever since the uprisings in Mideast/NAfrica & Japan. Much easier to track. Cheers.
Another issue is whether to have your blog post directly to your Twitter account. I do this, but am thinking of switching it off. Twitter just pulls the blog title, the short link and the first few words of the post. Probably better to tweet it yourself, with whatever spin you want to put on it.
Great info, Mary! I like to think of Twitter as microblogging as KLine called it. Somewhere to put the random stuff that comes up.
, thanks very much for posting this! It is going to help when I fly to the casino next time! So Awesome!