A Twitter crash course for Newbies and a little for the more advanced user
If you have ever seen this before...
...you may be more likely to enjoy this post and you have been using Twitter, maybe too much (this is the image received when Twitter is overloaded). It is happening more and more frequently these days, in fact as I write Twitter is down. If I could tweet about it I would ;)
Twitter is both overwhelming and underwhelming. The simplicity of the interface and the first screen that appears when you login for the first time can be disheartening. Twitter doesn't give all users integrated search capability. There is no search tutorial to explain how you should go here and let your hands do the searching. Start by searching for @yourtwittername and you will find all the public messages Tweeters have sent you!
@______: This is called an at reply. It a message with another user's name in it. Why even have it? The @ reply is a public conversation between the individuals involved. The other option is a DM or Direct Message which is like a twitter email, private and between two users.
#_______: This is called a hashtag. It represents a thread and can searched for using Twitterfall, Twitter Search or Tweetgrid. Each of these methods caters to different uses for # or hashtags. Try them all and you will see.
Recently I've been reading a large number of blog posts from Tweeple (=Twitter+People) who found the Tworld (=Twitter+World) to be over the top in terms of Twitter tweeting (tweeting about Twitter). This is the nature and effect of a new communications medium it builds on itself and appears obviously self-obsessed. Enjoy!
Twitter's self-obsession can be seen by the number of tweets about Twitter and the sheer number of blog posts talking about Twitter. Some blog posts even bag on it knowing full well people will Stumble on their post because it's about Twitter. Just google it and be astonished. Everyone is connecting and communicating. People are monitoring the tweet stream and clicking stories of interest and reading what's going on.
ADVANCED TWITTER TIP: Twitter search only goes back 50-55 days, so Twitter research about your brand(s), product(s), company, clients or competitors should be done frequently. -http://ow.ly/198K
I recommend using TweetGrid is let's you track up to nine words at once on Twitter in real time.
The only thing that everyone on Twitter has in common is that we use Twitter and therefore any post, blog or article about Twitter will be able to connect in some way to all. What makes my experience different is that yeah I dabbled in blogging in the past; but I was driven to blog through my love and use of Twitter and I have therefore decided to turn this blog into a full-time account of Twitter trends and topics. Please follow me on Twitter.
Although almost all of the traffic to this blog comes from Twitter, let me know if you found this blog from a different source, thanks.
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BREWING NEXT TWITTER POST: The Following - Twitter's Black Hat OR TweetDeck VS. Twirl OR Bit.ly VS. Hootsuite
Comment below with your choice and thanks for reading