Twitter how-to (misfit style).

by

Ive been yammering about it for ages and it’s finally the week.

I’m off to fitbloggin on Thursday & shall be tweeting like the proverbial mofo frequent updates.

The thing is, whenever I travel & leave you with the Ill be on Twitter if you need me!, I invariably receive a flurry of emails about the odd social media experience which is Twitter.

Why do you like it? Don’t you find it awkward? Isn’t it overwhelming to have *another* place people can find you?  I don’t get it. Whats the value??

As a result, Im here today to give you my Misfit Twitter Tips & the reasons behind why I adore my community there.

Indeed it took me months to find the aforementioned love— Id never have joined were it not a brand contractual obligation a few years ago–but love I found & at Twitter I stay.

Here’s why:

 

  • It is IMMEDIATE! Speaking of quotes, one of my all time faves is this one from the movie Grand Canyon: All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.  Since discovering Twitter Ive changed that quote.  Every single query can be answered on Twitter in a matter of moments. Im consistently amazed at how helpful (& speedy) people across the globe really are.
  • Twitter is the great equalizer. Celebrity? Meet MizNoOne.  Remember this post with the then CEO of Zappos Tony Hsieh? ‘Nuff said.

 

Of course, as with all things in life, there are pieces of the Twitter world I do not adore.

 

  • Relationships on Twitter can be quickly built—and just as swiftly disappear. Unlike even, say, blogger-relationships people seem to show up on twitter full-tilt & never return.  Im not a fan of that.
  • It can be a time-suck (technical term).  Ive not struggled with this much yet heart it lamented often.  I’m not really one to be online in any fashion and *completely* lose track of time…
  • As with blog comments, people can be rude can hide behind the keyboard. Im grateful never to have experienced this in either medium —but Ive seen it happen.   That said, it is very easy to BLOCK tweeters you dont want in your stream/view.

 

And finally, what you always ask of me, the tips I WISH I’d known when I first got Twitter-started:

  • Be sure to upload a photo immediately. I didnt realize the importance of this initially.   Now I rarely follow back Tweeters who have no image with their profile for me to ‘connect’ with.  Make your avatar fun, creative and YOU.  Anything goes!  (Heres an easy way to create an avatar)
  • Have fun with your bio, too! Sure if you are tweeting a brand (we are all brands, remember!) you want to include some serious, pertinent information—but toss in some frivolity.  Let people know who you are, what your brand is and throw in some stuff they might never have guessed about you!
  • Keep at it! Good LORD Twitter felt awkward when I started.  It was like being at a cocktail party where everyone was BFFs and no one answered my tweets payed me any nevermind.  Stick with it.  Just like blogging, you cant tweet once a month & truly get into the swing of the TWEETversation or, if you care, gain followers.
  • Dont be me. I was clueless when I started and did not know there was an “@” or reply column.  I had no idea people were talking to me—-so I was, essentially, merely shouting at them. Now that I know I take great care to make twitter less about me and more about the conversation.  Some call it the 80/20 rule (only 20% of tweets about you).  I like to remember that to Twitter I may be one person-–but to one Tweeter I could be the world. The potential to turn around someone’s day with 140 characters is amazing.
  • Tweet same time per day–at least starting out. Twitter can feel HUGE.  One way to immediately make it feel more like a small town is to tweet at the same time each day.  No matter when that time is!  You will quickly find you see the same avatars in your stream—-and twitter swiftly becomes more home’y.
  • There is a delete button! Seriously.  I had no clue.  That typo-filled tweet which just left your fingertips & you *wish* you could summon back? you can.

There you have it.

All my thoughts on the medium called Twitter & most likely more than you ever wanted to know.

And YOU?

Do you Tweet? (Have any additional tips to share?)

Are you an avowed NON-TWEETER? (Has has my little rant encouraged you to change your status?)

Please to tweet me hit us all up in the comments below…

 

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Comments

  1. I am probably the world’s worst twitter user. While this post was definitely helpful, there are still some things about it that just do not click with my brain despite my best efforts.

    Alas, I will keep working at it!

  3. I am really intimidated by Twitter but do not have the time to blog either.

    I may give it a shot now 🙂
    I want to see your Fitbloggin tweets!!!

  4. I didn’t know there was a delete either.

    I started on twtter around a year ago and quoit pretty much because no one tweeted me back.

  5. I love and use the delete option often, darn typos, especially from my phone! Twitter, and all social media apps, can be a time drain. Tweeting the same time each day is a great tip to manage your time involvement.

    So glad we connected on Twitter, sorry to miss fitbloggin this year but I will be there next year for certain.

  6. I’m printing this out MizFit and bringing to the office.

    My company has recently launched a twitter page and these tips are what we need.

    Thank you.

  7. It always normalized for me when you share that you feel weird, too.

    I tried twitter and felt too uncomfortable and quit.

    Maybe I will try again 🙂

  8. Have a great trip! I haven’t gotten into facebook or twitter…I know, I’m a trader to my generation. I just find my blog is more than enough work! Maybe someday 😉

  9. There are Twitter “chats” that occur at specific times and/or that are ongoing, or that are both (with set times plus on going), such as #fitblog, #runchat, #mamavation, #fitstudio, etc. You just add that term to your Tweet. Then you and others can search for all Tweets with that hashtag and chat with each other about a common topic, etc. These are good ways to find a “communitiy” within the larger Twitterverse.

    Programs like Tweetdeck (for PC and phone) made it all more comfortable and managable for me. I’ve created columns for direct messages, @CocosFight2BFit Tweets, and each of the hashtag groups I am most active in.

    One other thing about Twitter that was hard for me to get used to is that it is about “now.” If you Tweet something and someone doesn’t reply, it may not mean they are ignoring you. They may have missed your Tweet, and it may be buried in their stream (one thing I don’t like about Tweetdeck is that it only will go back so far). They best way to make sure a certain person sees your Tweet is to tag them with an @—- in your Tweet.

  11. I am still feeling my way around on there, after months. Honestly, I forget about it most of the time:) And it can feel a bit strange to tweet at people I don’t know. And I don’t understand all the twittiquette. Yep, I had no idea how to check for tweets to me for the longest time!!! I’d tweet this post, Miz, if you had a button for that!

  12. OOOH SNAP Oh WaistingTime. Youre right. Im kickin’ it old school with the cut and paste 🙂

  14. There’s a delete???? Man, I sincerely wish I’d known that a time or two!

    I love Twitter — it’s like hanging out with my friends, something that doesn’t happen often for me given my geographical locale. Thanks for the great tips 🙂

  15. I only relelented and got onto Twitter because of blogging. I am wed to blogging but oh my how I love my fling with Twitter – we are long term lovers.

    I posted a week or two back – My 15 top Twitter Tips for Bloggers…

    And I love the tweets from across the globe. I love the time difference. Twitter brings the world in close. It’s nice.

    xx

  17. I still don’t Tweet/Titter, whatever is the right way to say it. In my mind, it still feels like more time sucked away & I spend enough on the blog as it is… the one thing that does not make me say never is that I think you can develop some good work relationships there if you do it right & want that but I am just not sure that is the real case or just in my mind. I am not computer savvy & I can see myself screwing up royally! 😉

    I will keep this for future reference. THX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  19. great post!! I SO can relate to some of your twitter mistakes…I TOO learned the hard way and am STILL learning …and have SO much more to learn! thanks for sharing – All good stuff!! 🙂

  20. Excellent post. Of course if it weren’t for twitter, I don’t think I would have ever had the opportunity to meet MizIncredibleOnline (aka MizFit), nor would I be hanging with all the wonderful peeps of fitBloggin!

    About the delete… It WILL delete the tweet from your twitter stream, but it WILL NOT delete it from the public twitter stream (where literally ALL tweets go). The general public can still see it, but it will most likely get lost among the background noise of twitter.

    Miz, can’t wait to see you later this week. Party on, Garth!

  23. I don’t even know how to text, yet. BUT, it hasn’t really been on my mind. My husband twitters (tweeters? is a twit?) and says it’s a useful tool.

  26. This is such a great post for newbies and for those that have been on there for a while. I am fully in love with twitter and find it can sometimes be the biggest time suck of my day. I need to go back to being more focused with my time tweeting. Thanks for the reminder!

  27. Best intro guide to Twitter ever! I wish I’d had this when I started Twitter. Heck I still need it. So glad you’ve figured it out!

  28. I’ve been on twitter for a while and it hadn’t occurred to me to stay breif for retweets!

  29. Great article.

    I’d also recommend using some of the various tools that are out there to help automate your efforts.

    For a good list, check this article that was on Social Media Today:

    http://bit.ly/iXksmb

    In particular, be sure to look at Pluggio and Tweet Adder type tools.

    thanks…

  30. It’s not exaggeration to say that Twitter has changed my life in a hundred ways. Starting with YOU! and then many many others. oxoxoxo

  31. I am an rapt follower of your tweets, and although I’ve fallen off the wagon lately, I used to be a avid tweeter too. I may need to start tweeting again…you’ve reminded me about what I <3 about tweeting!

  33. I could never see the value in twitter since it is just another way (I thought) people announce “I’m at the grocery now!”

    I might check it out.

  34. Twitter seems to separate the old faux-geez (me) from the young whipper snappers. Still haven’t learned to put links or photos on my blog. I know… Me cave woman. Me try. But someday. Some. Day. There’s always Hope! 🙂

  35. You make me want to try it lol but I’m so not the smart phone person I still pay per minute lol. So probably not for me but it sure sounds fun.

  36. Mad love for Twitter.
    Speaking of fitbloggin, I was one sitting home last year hanging on every tweet, post, video, so this year I hope to tweet, post, video like crazy.

  37. Ha! I was a late twitter adopter and once I sort of dabbled I was AMAZED at the lovely community – I plugged into the “fitness” community (not sure how) and just loved the support and convo’s. The thing about FB is that you have to mutually agree to be friends – so it can be limiting…. Twitter is a one way street, so I connected with folks that I didn’t even know existed. And immediate? AMEN! I often need help in the kitchen and VOILA I get it! Right when the salmon is on the grill – like Shazam! Now I’m a total twitter convert… Mwah!

  38. I am just not a big twitter fan. The screen only shows so many tweets and sometimes they will be all from the same person responding to other things or putting too many tweets right in a row so I miss ‘important’ things. Plus, with my job I can’t stick around on a page very long. That’s why I like FB, because I can see updates from a while ago.

  39. I love twitter. I have time to say 140 characters or less. And as a SAHM/student, it’s nice to be able to converse with people even when I’m just sitting at home waiting for the dryer to buzz.

  40. First of all – have an awesome time at Fitbloggin! I’m so bummed we won’t meet and that I won’t be able to compete in the plank-athon! *grin*

    Secondly, I just favorited this and will be pointing people who are new to Twitter and don’t quite ‘get it’ just yet!

    ~ Jan

  41. I be so sad that I cannot bombard you at Fitbloggin’ with my awkward blabbering this year 🙁 I will be with you in spirit via Twitter – where I am equally awkward 😉

    Have a great time, Carla! Next year… I am THERE!

  42. I just don’t get twitter. Of course I just finally broke down and got a cell, (with no internet) so I’m not really set up for this – ack! scary future! 🙂
    I’m such a time waster with the internet and my laptop that I’m sure I’d waste even more time. Plus I get enough texts from friends now about pointless thoughts…I can’t get over thinking that twitter would be just my friends talking about their lunches or random thoughts…I have such little free time I think I’d resent the contact rather than welcome it…altho I’m sure eventually I’d adjust.
    Boy this reply has made me feel old! He heh.

  43. Bah! Thanks for reminding me that my real life job does NOT have a water cooler. They decided to let the water cooler go. And just when I was finally getting over it.

  46. I think I actually joined Twitter to follow you and Kath when you guys went to the Quaker blogger’s event. So funny – forgot all about that until now. Downloading TweetDeck changed my Twittering life for the better. Love how I can see who is tweeting as well as who is tweeting to me or about me. Much better than just shouting at everyone. 🙂

    P.S. I am so sore…I can’t believe in just 20 minutes, I am this worn out. These cards are going to kick my booty into shape, and I love them.

  48. I’m horrible at Twitter. Honestly I don’t know how (and feel really intimidated) to join a conversation on Twitter so I just use it as a way to think out loud. I suppose most of my tweets are about myself. It’s not that I’m self-absorb it’s that I have a REALLY hard time jumping in. The other day I read a post where someone was upset about “claiming tweets”. I had no idea that people did that, what it means, and why someone would be upset…argh…it was just something else to worry about doing wrong.

  50. I am still fairly new to twitter and still trying to get the hang of it. Even newer to blogging. I love that I have been able to connect with so many great new people with similar interests using twitter. However, I do find it a time suck for me. I like the idea of tweeting at the same time every day, however, then I feel I miss a lot of tweets and information from others the rest of the day since the stream is constantly moving on and I feel my tweets are not going to be seen unless I retweet them often. So, I end up getting on twitter more than I should just so I can keep in touch and find new people to chat with. But this is impossible to maintain, especially now that I am trying to work on blogging as well. Really hard to find time to do both unless I manage my time on social media more effectively. In fact, I was just asking this very questions about how others manage their social media time on my last blog post.

    I also still have no clue about the features of twitter such as hashtags, searches, and the like. I did see Cocos mention of hashtags and that helps me a little but I still don’t fully understand their use and how to use them effectively. I wish I could join in some of those chats but alas, I am PST and most of them are right during our dinner time.

    I use hootsuite as well as tweetdeck. Hootsuite allows me to schedule some tweets more effectively to all my social media accounts and you can go much further back in the twitter stream than tweetdeck.

    I do wish people would find me on facebook more as well, though, because if I spend only a certain amt of time or a certain time of day on twitter, I find it easier to stay connected on fb where I can catch up with anyone on my time and use more than 140 characters. The problem is, how do you effectively get people to come over to fb without sounding pushy or salesy?

  51. Id love other people’s thoughts on your FB question as well!For me it does always sound salesy when people tweet ARE WE FRIENDS ON FB? for two reasons:
    1. Make me fall in love with you on twitter and Ill follow you everywhere 🙂 and make the effort to find you! 2. Im on twitter at that moment. If I wanted to be on FB I would be.

    Yes Im being a bit hyperbolic—but…

    anyone else?

  52. I love your equalizer comment. My husband thought I was making up stories the other night when I told him I’d be at the dinner table in just a minute, because I was busy tweeting with (author) Margaret Attwood.

    I find that there’s always something going on there, and the fact that folks all over the world are using it means there’s ALWAYS someone to talk to, no matter how late or early it is in your neck of the woods.

    I love the challenge of the 140 characters too… 🙂

  53. I’m a Twitter client of many, many fitness bloggers and trainers (same for FB, it’s all the same folk on both) Just my two cents worth as the potential client of such people.

    At last count I follow about 30 fitness bloggers who train. Some just work out and want to meet like minded folk. Most are actual trainers. They all use their twitter/fb as a professional site-cum-blog-cum-comm, so the boundaries are very blurred.

    Of course many do use their twitter presence to sell their bikini workout, just padding it with the odd feature so it’s not a blatant plug for their service. I don’t mind that, we all have to make a living.

    But here’s the thing. I have only ever followed three or four trainers/bloggers.

    The rest found me. The rest decided that i needed their product or presence in my and friended me. I decided that 25 other people who I don’t know from Eve were worth following (And we won’t mention the 100 or so who I wouldn’t see in my road.)

    I swear you friend one and 20 come out the wood work…

    So why did I click 25 or so strangers? Most are whom pushing a business on me? (I’m in Scotland and they’re all in the US or Aus, so I have no clue what they were hoping for) Or why would YOU, Trainer Person go friend ME?

    The ones i stayed with didn’t make it obvious they were selling me something nor claimed a false friendship. I’m not stupid, I know when people are trying to flog me rubbish.

    Blunt as it is, I’m not here for Trainer Girl’s benefit. She’s here for mine, she called me. If she doesn’t have something for me, I’m not staying.

    The ones I stayed for never put any sales talk for their brand or blog on me. Some trainers’ first message to me was “Hey, BetsyBunneh!” (on twitter, my feed is private) or “How’s it going, Hakirby?” on youtube and then they left it from that.

    Maybe they weren’t sure what they were going to do with sites and feeds, but none of them pushed a sales pitch on me, even if they had a diet or a beach body workout. They all just left it as a place where people could hang and discuss stuff and meet more like minded people. I don’t think that in this twitter age, marketing in as simple as it used to be. We’re both interacting with and on each other more than we thought we would and the boundaries between business and client is a lot more blurred now. it’s networking rather than selling and like all contacts, some will become business contacts, some will become friends and you don’t know where that casual “Hey, Hakirby!” will lead you.

    We’re not so much selling our expertise now, as selling ourselves and at some point when the information you’re tweeting is nothing to do with your core business you’ve gone beyond business into a brave new world.(Many ladies tweet about their children’s school show or which house should they pick)

    That’s great, but what happenes if you fall out with some of your friends/clients/contacts…well, what are they? If the lines are blurred, how are you going to deal with breakdowns and problems? It’s got the potential to blow up far harder than if you owned a shop or gym. People get more intensely involved with happenings online than in meatspace and that works both ways.

  54. I’m in the camp who just didn’t get it at all until a few months ago. I found it interesting that you could get help with almost anything and found a few streams I enjoyed following. However, I agree with your “time suck” point, and I haven’t touched twitter for a few weeks now. I’d like to get back into but I have such limited time on the computer that it’s tough to use much of that precious time on Twitter. I’m usually creating my blog posts or reading other blogs.

  55. All great tips. I hate when I interact with someone on Twitter and they don’t respond. Unless they’re huge, it’s a total turn-off. It’s kind of like saying, “You’re not worth my response.” I mean, even in real life, we wouldn’t completely ignore a stranger who talks to us. When that happens enough times in a row I unfollow. Twitter is about conversation.

  56. I must say, the busier my life gets, the less time I have for Facebook and blogging and it’s then that Twitter really comes into its own for me. I love it!

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