{"id":1778,"date":"2009-05-12T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2011-10-01T07:48:54","modified_gmt":"2011-10-01T12:48:54","slug":"twitter-why-i-love-it-and-how-to-get-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/twitter-why-i-love-it-and-how-to-get-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter: Why I love it and how to get started"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of people talking about Twitter<\/a> right now. I can’t tell you why everyone else loves it, but I can share why I’m glad to have joined in all fun.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell (or a Twitter-sized, 140-characters-or-less post):<\/p>\n

I like Twitter’s short, sweet flow of information. And the way it allows me to choose what information to follow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here’s more about that:<\/p>\n

I love it when someone tweets about something and then includes a link for more information.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I want to learn more I can, and right away. Or I can follow the link and bookmark it for later enjoyment. I like it when the authors themselves tweet as well as when someone who just found the information valuable (or entertaining) tweets the link.<\/p>\n

Sure, some people use blog readers to keep up with their favorite blogs, but, although I subscribe to many, many blogs I intend to read, I rarely actually make it even to the reader to see what is available.\u00a0 It’s easier for me to follow my favorite bloggers and hope they tweet about their posts. Then I can decide immediately if I want to take a look. This is probably how I do the bulk of my blog reading: I jump in on the post tweeted and stay for awhile, meandering through other posts.<\/p>\n

That being said, please understand that I don’t see self-promotion as the sole purpose of Twitter. I think it is really a way to get conversations going and thoughts shared.<\/p>\n

Which takes me to the second reason why I love Twitter:<\/p>\n

I love listening in on other people’s conversations and sometimes taking part.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Twitter allows me take part in lots of mini-conversations throughout the day… if I choose to.<\/p>\n

I can listen in to a mom sharing her struggles or successful strategies. I can ask for advice or input. And I can get inspiration in whatever area I need\/ want it at the moment.<\/p>\n

By following people and organizations with interests similar to mine, I can keep my mind in the conversation, yet only speak when I want to. And at my own pace.<\/p>\n

No, I do not agree with all of the conversations I read and yes, there is a LOT of self-promotion that can get irritating. But I just tune those tweets out and move on to what I like. Or I stop following those I don’t want to hear from anymore.<\/p>\n

I have found Twitter to be a great sounding board and a great place to gather ideas. And it can also just simply be a lot of fun: Where else can you take part in real-time conversations with people all across the globe about any variety of topics at any time of day? Twitter sounds pretty good to me!<\/p>\n

Plus, I love all the new cyber-friends I’ve met in Twitterville! Although we may only communicate in short messages here and there, I still feel a connection and love keeping up.<\/p>\n

If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, you might be wondering how to get started.<\/strong> I am certainly not an expert, but I can give you a few pointers:<\/p>\n

First you need to create a free account and pick your Twitter name<\/strong>. If you use a mobile device, texting fees will apply as dictated by your provider. I just use Twitter via the internet, so it is free for me.<\/p>\n

Find some people or organizations to follow<\/strong> by typing in names you know or do a search using any words or phrases that might interest you and see what pops up. Then follow anyone that looks interesting.<\/p>\n

Consider a Twitter application<\/strong> like TweetDeck <\/a>that allows you to manage your lists and easily respond to tweets.\u00a0 You might also want to use Tweetchat<\/a> to have a specific conversation with a lot of other people. (You’ll use this to keep track of conversations with hashtags and a word at the end.) Or there is TweetGrid<\/a> to follow several conversations at once. There are several other Twitter applications, just do a little searching.<\/p>\n

Then, get in the conversation<\/strong> when you feel like it.<\/p>\n

You might ask about a specific birding spot, a long-lost recipe, school advice, restaurant reviews, movie suggestions, recycling how-to’s, inspiration or re-live shared childhood memories with strangers or even close friends.<\/p>\n

Step out of the conversation when you want to,<\/strong> as well. I have found Twitter to be pretty guilt-free. Sure I miss some conversations, but I cannot live my life online-there is too much to take in right in front of me as well! With Twitter I can jump in and out whenever I want to.<\/p>\n

Twitter can serve so many purposes other than just what I love about it. If you haven’t yet, give it a whirl and see what you think. Once you find your voice (either to listen to or share) I bet you’ll love it, too.<\/p>\n

And, please, let me know what you think about Twitter. I’d love to know!<\/p>\n

If you think I should follow you, leave me a note with your Twitter ‘handle’ and why I should.<\/p>\n

And please consider following MomsToolbox<\/a>, as well.<\/p>\n

This post is a linked to Works for Me Wednesday<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of people talking about Twitter right now. I can’t tell you why everyone else loves it, but I can share why I’m glad to have joined in all fun. In a nutshell (or a Twitter-sized, 140-characters-or-less post): I like Twitter’s short, sweet flow of information. And the way it allows me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-helping-others"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9247,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions\/9247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}