My Twexperience on Twitter - When I Grow Up

My Twexperience on Twitter - When I Grow Up Print by Angela Hogan; you can purchase it here. If Luke didnt find me, he might have married his iPhone. If I didnt find Luke, I might have married Twitter. But, if youre like Luke, youre bound to be asking right now, Twitter is stupid! OK, thats not a question, but I can see that youre confused. You might want to better communicate by saying, Whats so special about Twitter? You can keep the whininess in your voice if youd like. I get it. Well, Ill tell you whats so special about Twitter, besides the fact that Punky Brewster, MC Hammer, Wil Wheaton are on it. Forget them. This is about you. You posting links that you want to share with others, and getting links that would be of value to you. You connecting with not only your friends and people you dont know (thats what your friend The Whiner would say), but your friends, potential clients, experts in your field (or other fields), your peers, etc. You taking 140 characters and making them mean something, forming a connection to both others as well as creating a more well-rounded picture of yourself. My Coach (@intandem) said it best: Use it to get others to know, like trust you; you get to know, like trust others. I tweet on a mixture of personal, business and marketing topics so ppl can get a 360 view of me. Also offer answers to be helpful. Wil Wheaton also sums it up by saying: Twitter didnt have to be about What are you doing? but could be about Whats on your mind right now? It was, as the saying goes, a light bulb moment for me, and I started using Twitter for off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts that didnt warrant their own post here on my blog. In order to both give receive some value out of this weird thing, I make sure to tweet about: my personal stuff (Feeling really overwhelmed by all the things I have to do. Seems like a big, fat, juicy, oily, cheesy, crunchy list is in order) links that I find personally interesting (Anyone have over $100 to hear Carol Brady sing?: http://tinyurl.com/57nmtn) links that I find professionally interesting (My word for 2009 is FOCUS. Whats yours? http://is.gd/f0r6) responding to others tweets (@sweetblogomine Whats sriracha? Sounds like someone that wears fancy pants would eat that.) promoting my blog (My 30th Year, reflected upon on my 31st birthday: http://is.gd/fRzX One of my most personal posts, for sure) promoting my business (Updated my site! You can now find packages pricing (Services), an updated landing FAQ page, a new Testimonials page! http://is.gd/becg) retweeting others tweets that I find interesting (RT @problogger Post by @Jimconnolly about affects of highly photoshopping avatars: http://tinyurl.com/97xhxv via @LyricalVenus) Here are some Twitter Basics Tips that I got from my friend who got me to join: If you want to put a short link in your post, you can make it small through is.gd. I have it on my toolbar, so I just click it when Im on a page, and it makes a very short link to that page. To search for types of people you might want to follow, you can use: Twellow Mr Tweet Twitter Grader (enter your own name itll bring up people like you on the bottom of the page. You can also use the Twitter Elite in the site to find The Big Guys) Twitter Search (you can also use this to check  your own name   see if youve missed any @s as well as using it to find specific search terms) I also found these posts to be helpful: Twitter Tips Tools for your Tweets Twitter Tips for 35 Twitter Users Ten Top Twitter Tips Twictionary a dictionary for Twitter (although in all honesty, you just have to know what @, RT, #, tweet, follow mean/do) Just know this: Whatever you do, do not answer the question, What are you doing?, which is what Twitter asks above the box that you post your tweet in (yes, your 140-character Twitter post is called a tweet). Nobody cares unless youre someplace, or doing something,  awesome. There is nothing worse that a profile whose tweets consist of Eating a turkey sandwich, Watching Baywatch and Going to bed. Night twiends! The only thing thats worse is a profile of an obvious spammer, who only tweets links to www.makemoneyquickyoulazyschmuck.com. Twitter is really there to connect with other people, if I dont see any @s or any links or any questions I would think youre just there to promote yourself (=spam) or hear yourself talk. Now that youre a twexpert (see how this affects you? Its a disease) please make sure that you follow me, and leave me a comment below (or @ me if you got the hang of things) so that I can make sure that I follow ya back! May the tweet be with you!* *That was for Luke. I figured a Star Wars quote would stop him from making fun of Twitter again. Its also a dis back to him because Star Wars is for nerds. Thankfully, he likes when I make fun of him.