12 Days of Twitter
Posted on: July 1, 2009Author: Cali Lewis
37 comments so far
If you haven’t noticed already, I’m a huge Twitter advocate. However, I was one of the folks who just didn’t get it. I struggled to understand how a little post about my life would be worth anyone’s time. I skipped jumping on board as an early adopter.
Twitter’s homepage says “What are you doing?”. This is the question you’re supposed to answer. I kept asking “why the heck would I want to tell the world what I’m doing right this very minute?” I hear it again and again directly from people who watch GeekBrief.TV and from people talking about Twitter on TV and radio. Why would I want to tell everyone that I’m about to jump in the shower, or eating macaroni and cheese, or putting on my shoes in the morning? Even if I wanted to tell the world these things, why would anyone even care? What good could possibly come out of tweeting?
It was friends of Geek Brief that converted me. Viewers would email me and ask me to sign up, and I kept replying “No way! I don’t want the responsibility of having to come up with something clever every day. I know I won’t use it very much, so what’s the point?”. Then, someone said they’d like to know via Twitter when I’ve posted a new episode of the show. That sounded reasonable. I could understand using Twitter to do that. I slowly began to see the value of Twitter, and one day soon after beginning to use it, I fell in love.
My best advice? Ignore the question. Twitter isn’t about describing your lunch (unless it’s funny or interesting enough to share). It’s about participating in a community that could be good for either your business or your social life.
How?
If you use Twitter with your heart in the right place (i.e. no spamming), it can be an extremely valuable resource for you and/or your business. I get asked all the time about how to get the most out of Twitter, so I decided to do a series of blog posts to answer all the questions I get, and share what I’ve learned. I’m calling the series 12 Days of Twitter, and I’ll start tomorrow. The series will include tips, tricks, rules and tools. I hope it helps to fill in some of the gaps about why there is all this fuss about Twitter!
Read More
Day 1: The Secret Twitter Code
Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations
Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny
Day 4: Follow Responsibly
Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters
Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find
Day 7: Twitter Mobile
Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter
Day 9: Mix it Up!
Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic
Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit
Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance
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July 1st, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Merry Twitmas, Cali!!
July 1st, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Am I being stupid? I can’t find an RSS feed for your blog!??
July 1st, 2009 at 5:36 pm
No, of course not!
It’s the icon above “Shiny, Happy Geek Girl”. Here’s the feed:
http://calilewis.me/feed
July 1st, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Cali,
I’m not the least bit interested in your mac and cheese. That said, if you learn of a new way to enjoy bacon, I want to be one of the first to hear, so please tweet!
On a more technical/practical note… I know you’re a big fan of TweetDeck. Any thoughts on twhirl?
Looking forward to the next 12 days…
@BlueHeronTrail
July 1st, 2009 at 5:48 pm
LOL! If nothing else, I will always tweet my experiences with bacon.
I’ll be sure to include my thoughts on the different desktop/iPhone apps when I get to that day. I’ve set aside an entire post for it.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Bacon, well I remember seeing a bacon weave on a geek brief and I believe it was called “southern sushi”, but What I want to do is weave some bacon, fry it, roll in some cheesy scrambled eggs, cut it and serve like California rolls and call it “breakfast sushi”.
July 1st, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Really looking forward to this!
July 1st, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I have a non-tech friend who is completely baffled why ANYONE would ever use Twitter. I’ve tried to explain it to him, but have come nowhere near convincing him to try it. I’m going to send him this link and see if your posts can show him a purpose to what he finds an extremely odd phenomenon.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:07 pm
I hope that you can help explain twitter. I get it and use it, I just cannot figure out how to tell someone that cannot figure it out at all (my Dad).
July 1st, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Why’d ya have to mention bacon? Now i’m thinking about chicken fried bacon! LOL
July 1st, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Nice !
i use tweeter to get new from blogs and web sites, but i never post/send tweet anything myself.. So year ! i’m glad you decided to do that..
Thanks
July 1st, 2009 at 7:48 pm
You might want to mention, Twitter is not all about Tweeting. You don’t have to Tweet anything, I signed up for the sole purpose to follow you so I know when you post a new Geek Brief and found that you do Tweet a lot of useful information, such as this. Hope this helps.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Cali, I look forward to your take and seeing how it varies or enlightens me.
My take on twitter is that its a mix of notifications (new-age RSS?), cool-links and funny stuff that happened to people.
The emphasis though should be on social networking. Too many times people ignore followers comments or don’t want to friend. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not … well very social. It turns twitter into a one-way soap box; that I hate.
The *key* to twitter however is the variety of different clients available on different platforms. Without that diversity to twit via hand held, PC or Phone it just wouldn’t have the same effect.
Throw in essential ancillary services like twitpic and you’ve got all the elements you need to a great social experience.
I just wish twitter could spot Miners better. I always block the bots I can stop so they spike and twitter will suspend them, but surely if *I* can spot them, why can’t they? Too many I guess.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Twitter totally needs to change the “What are you doing?” question.. or maybe they do it on purpose so the news will keep buzzing about it.
Either way, Twitter is awesome!
Here’s a video with a few Dallasites (and WordCamp Dallas attendees) explaining why they use/like Twitter: http://bit.ly/iyouwe
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:36 am
[...] tweet the other day to inform everybody about a series of blog posts she is going to do called the 12 Days of Twitter. Click on that link to take you there. I am interested to see what she posts as I have been using [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:02 am
Thanks for that, totally feel a bit silly missing the icon!
I only use Twitter to up date all the social “status” at once and following other people updates, so looking forward to this! Tho it does have it’s uses to find the latest events when something kicks off in the world due to it’s speed!
On a side note, you are making your second appearance on UK TV tonight, in a documentary covering The Best Job in the World!
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:35 am
I can’t wait to read these posts! I love Twitter, it has taken me a while to ‘get’ it but finally got my head around it and love everything it’s good for. The “What are you doing?” is a little misleading to new users because its not just limited to that!
I have a heap of friends who can’t understand why I like Twitter so much, this will be perfect to show them the many uses, while I learn a few things along the way I’m sure.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:09 am
[...] Lewis is going to do a “12 Days of Twitter” series with tips, tricks, and [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:58 pm
[...] (learn more about the 12 days of Twitter) [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
will you edit/update this post to include the links to each subsequent day’s post in order to make them easier to find? it’d be nice to refer people to just one page instead of all 12 (er.. 13).
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:39 pm
[...] (learn more about the 12 days of Twitter) [...]
July 4th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
[...] (What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?) [...]
July 5th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
[...] (What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?) [...]
July 6th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
[...] (What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?) [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
[...] (What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?) [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I was expecting this to have been posted sometime in December. Amazing what the mind will do when associations are involved. Moving right along I wanted to say nice post with some great info. I think I have read up to day 5 not sure if you are posting them every day or you are trying to catch up… (like most of us) Always nice to see other people’s perspective when it comes to Twitter. We still get the occasional client asking us why they should use twitter, I have stopped trying to sell them the idea, now I simply recommend it in the analysis we do for them and then “voila” their choice to make.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
PS I would love to see Bookmarks or a “add” this button on your blog. Makes it easier to send my clients to your content if I can Bookmark it or FF, FB etc. Something to consider
July 8th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
[...] (What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?) [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
[...] (What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?) [...]
July 10th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
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July 11th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
[...] (What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?) [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
[...] (What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?) [...]
July 13th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Cali you have a problem at your http://www.gbtvtalk.com/ site seems MySQL related, tried to let you know via twitter but I guess it did not work.
Cheers
Sam
July 14th, 2009 at 5:54 am
[...] (What the heck are the 12 days of Twitter?) [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 7:36 am
[...] 12 Days of Twitter Wrapped Up Posted on: July 15, 2009 [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 10:04 am
[...] Introduction to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny Day 4: Follow Responsibly Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix It Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance [...]
August 12th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
[...] Introduction to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny Day 4: Follow Responsibly Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find Day 7: Twitter Mobile Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter Day 9: Mix It Up! Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance [...]