Monday, August 15, 2011

Twitter!

Ah, twitter. How I both loathe and love you.

I thought I'd share a few things I've learned since starting twitter (dare I say two years ago?). Half of these things I didn't know until more recently, which means I am not very observant or I don't like to read directions. Both are true. You probably know all these because you are both more observant and like to read directions, but I'll share them anyway.


-If you're responding to a tweet, push the 'reply' button right underneath that tweet (it appears when you hover over the tweet). That way the person you're responding to knows what you're responding to. Especially if the response is hours later.

-Also, if you hover over the tweet, did you know a little arrow appears to the right of the tweet? If you click on it, all the responses to that tweet or the conversation that led up to that tweet will appear to the right. So cool.

-If you start a tweet with the @ sign, only that person and anyone following you and that person can see that tweet. Your other followers will not be able to see it unless they decide to go to your profile and spy on you.

-Following someone and then waiting for that person to follow you back and then unfollowing them=mean. It makes baby seals cry. And me. It makes me cry. This is why I signed up for who.unfollowed.me so I can know who you are. Then I yell at your picture (oh, and I unfollow you. So unless you really want to follow a person, don't. Following people just so you can improve your followers/following "ratio" is not cool).

-You can put people you're following into lists and then only view that list if you want. For example, most of the time, I look at my main feed with everyone on it, but sometimes, I want to see what my agency sisters are up to and don't want to have to wade through hours of tweets just to get to theirs. So I have them all in my 'wolfpack' list and when I click on that, I only see their tweets. It's a pretty awesome feature.

-Want to link a person to your blog post, but the link ends up being a hundred characters long and you wanted to include a message with it as well? Did you know you can go to www.tinyurl.com and make your link smaller? You probably knew this. Someone had to tell me this.

Okay, now it's your turn. I want to know more twitter stuff. Tell me something I didn't include on my list that is either twitter etiquette or a feature of twitter that you discovered. Because I probably don't know and I want to.

20 comments:

  1. You can also put people you're NOT following onto lists! When I hit Twitter's new follow limit, I unfollowed celebrities and put them on one "celebs" list and made a column for them on Tweetdeck. Same with news organizations. That way I can follow more writing people and others I interact with, but still keep up with others I'm interested in. People I'm not following but have on a list show up just the same as those I am following.

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  3. GREAT Twitter tips, Kasie! Some of those things took me a while to figure out -- it would have been wonderful to know these things right off the bat. :)

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  4. Lynne, I did not know twitter had follow limit! What is the follow limit? That's cool that you can put people you're not following into lists. I like that. Again, did not know this. This is why I like to ask people smarter than me to tell me things. :) Thanks for the tip.

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  5. The limit is a fairly recent thing, but I can't follow more than 2000 people until I have that many followers myself.

    I wrote about putting people on lists here, in "How to Follow a Buttload of People on Twitter If You Want To:"
    http://lynnekelly.blogspot.com/2011/06/twitter-lists-how-to-follow-buttload-of.html

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  6. I've found that people really, really hate if all you do is plug your work in your Twitter feed. You CAN plug stuff, but if you don't also engage on a personal level or post stuff that is halfway interesting and nothing to do with your hustle, then you lose people. I have new content on my site almost every day and finding that balance of telling people about it while still not looking like an opportunistic sonuvagun is something I'm still working on.

    Great post, Kasie. I learned a few things and I've been on Twitter longer than you!

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  7. I owe you for introducing me to who.unfollowed.me.com! I'm a magnet for those sneaky follow-then-unfollow types. Now I have a weapon against them. :)

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  8. Linda, yeah, they only took me two years to figure out. Ha! I know, they would've been nice to know sooner.

    Lynne, lol I like the name of your post. Funny.

    Brock, Yes! It is annoying when people only promote. But you're right, it can be done. It's all about the right mix.

    Renee, Yes, you do owe me. I will think of my payment soon. :) I do love that site. I'm a magnet for those types as well, it would seem.

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  9. Great tips by all! I'm a big fan of tweet deck!

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  10. I love the Who.unfollowed.me. It's awesome. I've caught a few sneaky people that way. ;) I didn't know about the list thing! I need to do that...

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  11. This is quite helpful. I didn't know about the putting @ at the beginning only goes to that person and followers. Thanks for the Twitter tips!

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  12. Love this! A couple things that I would add/correct - first is that if you start with the @ sign, anyone following BOTH of you can see it. Only direct messages are privet between parties.

    Also if you want to type more than 140 characters you can simply update in TweetDeck (a serious life saver)and click the long update check-box. It condenses the latter end of your tweet to a link that people can click to see the rest of.

    One more thing about Tweet Deck, you can put all your lists, hashtags, or just plain search words into columns and use it like a chat room. Say I want to see what's going on in #amwriting, I just search the hash tag, then I can see every one's posts and chat with whomever I want.

    Sorry to go off there, I guess I'm a social Media nerd, lol. Great post!

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  13. Kimberly, yes, I have heard of this tweet deck. I was wondering how many people used it.

    Chantele, yes, you do. It's nice. :)

    Leah, yes, it's good to know, huh? You don't want to write something thinking everyone can see it and only have some people see it.

    J.A. Yes, exactly, if people are following both of you they can see it. I think a lot of people think that their whole list of followers can see something if they start with @ and they can't. But you're definitely right, it is by no means private. And great tips about Tweetdeck. I haven't tried Tweetdeck but I've heard great things about it. Maybe I should break down and try it. (the problem? I just barely learned the ins and outs of twitter. It will take me another two years to figure out tweetdeck). lol :)

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  14. It makes it so much easier to manage your lists and watch them. Our fearless leader uses it, I believe. :o)

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  15. Oh I didn't know you couldn't follow so many people before you have as many followers too!

    And yeah, I've caught people who unfollow me the second I hit follow. It's MEAN!!
    (Dunno about the baby seals tho, lol!)

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  16. Oh, how I love Twitters, especially the deep fried ones they make at the fair. They might make me fat someday, but it's totally worth it. Oh, wait-that's Twinkies. What's a Twitter? Is it like a Twizzler? I like those too.

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  17. great tweetinfo! okay, that's a very lame word, but anyway...

    i kind of really abhor this following/unfollowing business. firstly, i don't use twitter much, and i barely gain much out of it even when i do. so that's why i just follow people who's blogs i read and/or are interesting, if you follow me, that's great! but just don't expect me to follow you back because of it. my twitter feed is clogged up enough as it is!

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  18. Oh, my, except for lists, I knew none of these things.

    Do not fret. When you think you are taking too long to master something, think of me. We should have a system: you don't know something and ask your smarter friends, then pass it on to me.

    Oh, wait, you already do that. Well keep up the good work.

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  19. Monica, Yes, baby seals everywhere are crying. Mark my words. :)

    Donna, thanks. And that was a very inspiring blog post indeed.

    Jared, ew. No deep fried twinkies. They are an assault against nature and goodness.

    Aleeza, Yes, I'm not a fan of the following/unfollowing thing either. I think your approach to it is perfect.

    Tricia, lol Oh please, you pick up on things pretty fast. Look at you all blogging like a pro now. :)

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