I'm a twitter baby. I constantly feel lost in the whirlwind of these different technologies. You might not guess that I majored in video production in college. I'm actually not very technically savvy. But oh well.
So here I am: On facebook. Instagram. Blogging (again). And now twitter.
It took me a looong time to work up the nerve to create an account and then to actually use the account. I'm still figuring a lot of it out. For instance, why are people using hash tags in their blogs? I can't click them to take me anywhere...Should I be doing this?!?!
I have been getting a lot of practice in the art of tweeting through this season of American Idol (if I understood the purpose of a hash tag in a blog I would totally be hash tagging right now). Twitter has given me the desire to watch American Idol live. Commercials and all. I don't like commercials because I don't need any convincing to purchase anything. I'm already desiring it people. But now I'm watching one of my favorite shows live. I thought I would be incredibly bored and pause it halfway through so I could fast forward later.
This, my friends, is just not the case.
This past hour of (hash tag) idol results has flown by as I've been engrossed with twitter and attempting to check my blog comments. In fact, American Idol, the actual American Idol twitter account has mentioned me in a comment TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW!!! And I have gained TWO TWITTER FOLLOWERS. I feel famous people. See? This is how much of a twitter baby I actually am.
Regardless of how inept I feel with all this I am having a lot of fun experimenting with how much I want to tweet and what I want to tweet about. Just my blog posts? Only personal things? Or is it okay for my account to blow up during a favorite tv show, sporting event or a major event in my life? I don't want to be annoying or anything. Or rude. This is a balance I find difficult in all my internet conversations whether it's my blog, facebook or a text (yes I realize texting doesn't involve the internet).
Last night someone replied to one of my tweets making a negative comment about an American Idol contestant that I tweeted about who I thought did very well. This stranger's tweet wasn't overly aggressive or over the top rude or anything that someone would normally take offense at. As a twitter baby, however, I am soaking up all I can.
I did feel a bit taken aback by the stranger's negativity. It would have been very easy for me to hit reply and begin a discussion. Or an argument. Who knows. Is there even a delete button for tweets or for people who mention you in a tweet? I hope they come up with one. I love being able to delete unwanted comments on facebook.
Over a year ago now a person I did not know -bloggily or personally - found an old post of mine, she did not like it and she raised hell in my life. I didn't have a twitter account back then...It makes me nervous to think about how quickly nastiness will spread through twitter shout outs.
I often feel like I'm talking to nobody when I'm putting content out to the masses. Or I feel like there are so many people that no one will notice my one comment or blog post.
I have no end to this post. I'm still trying to figure this out in hopes of becoming a twitter toddler soon.
Bottom line: Twitter is awesome. But it's also scary.
You can delete your own tweets -- but not those of another. The only thing you can do is report them for inappropriate or spam. And Twitter is usually pretty good about getting rid of bad stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe hashtags can be tracked on Twitter --but if you have a link up in your blog, say like my coffee chat; if I am also tweeting out a link to that blog post and using the hash tag #coffeechat --- I would also use it in my blog post as way of letting people know they can also track it on twitter. you can make the hashtag a clickable link in your blog post too. Just assign the appropriate URL to the hashtag. It could take you directly to the twitter search results for that hashtag.
It's is very confusing and overwhelming at first. I cannot keep up with my feed, or with conversations, so I am a lurker and just mainly use it to share my posts and others that I like. If you are going to live tweet during a show, it is considered polite to let your followers know that you will be doing that. Because you are going to spam their feed with a ton of tweets that they might not be interested in.
Oh - one important tip. If you are replying to something - it will automatically start your reply tweet with the "@name" of whoever you are replying to. But if you start a tweet with the "@" -- only you and that person can see the tweet. Unless someone is following BOTH of you -- they will not see the tweet in their feed. So if you meant to reply in a manner that it is shared with all your followers: put a period before the name mention (.@name)
Happy tweeting!
I've been on Twitter for a whole now and have tweeted thousands of times (mostly giveaway and blog post mentions). I'm still a Twitter baby and don't understand it all. I wish you all the best in Twitterland.
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