Twists of Twitter -

A Twitter Journey -

A-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ of Twitter Twists!

A. You hear about other people using Twitter - and you say thanks but no thanks.

B. Then serious programmes on the telly start to say things like - you can tweet us @XXXX - you wonder what is wrong with text and email - why are these things not enough?

C. People like Susan Boyle become an overnight success because Demi Moore sends out a tweet and her Xfactor audition has so many downloads the system nearly crashes - you begin to ask  yourself it there more to this tweeting than you might have thought.

D. All the kids start doing it - a sure sign that something is afoot - then political programmes like Tonight with Vincent Browne has a special section just on tweets and twitter.

E. You think about facebook and blogging and email, worrying about how much more time Twitter will take up, but already you are hooked because after all, wondering about something is the first step to crossing the line.

F. You continue to resist - think about setting up an anti-twitter campaign - you know you hate being one of a crowd and there is all this jargon about followers - as if this Twitter thing could be the beginning of a commune - who is following who and why?

G. Then you decide definitely, it is not for you.

H. Someone then says - 'It's all very well you blogging, but tweeting is where it is at - if you are not on Twitter, well you are simply not on.'

I. You decide to give it a go - after all what can be the harm of it.

J. Registered-you think long and hard about your first tweet - you want to put your best foot/tweet forward.

K. You send out a deep and meaningful quote conscious that someone you do not know could read it and have a life changing experience.

L. No one notices - so you wait and wait - nothing happens.

M. You decide to give up, become one of the millions who has treaded this path before and dismissed the idea.

N. Then you get a follower, you are not really sure how or why but you start thinking about it again - you send out another tweet.

O. You contact everyone you know to see if they are on Twitter - you follow them.

P. You send out bulk emails to all the people in your email address book, your followers increase.

Q. Every morning you wonder, do I have another follower?

R. You discover tweeting is all about mentions and RT's - and thanking people - because thanking people does more than just say thanks, it spreads the word.

S. Your tweets increase, you start to make 'friends' on Twitter, you have personal conversations with pictures which might not even be of those you are tweeting with.

T. You decide that your children should NOT tweet - after all what if that nice granny turns out to be an axe murderer.

U. Then you dig deeper because suddenly you are up and really running, you follow @stranger @interesting picture @newslink @thingstodoinyourcity.

V. You tell all your friends about how great Twitter is - raise your eyebrows in surprise when someone is not on it and say, 'It's all very well you blogging, but tweeting is where it is at - if you are not on Twitter, well you are simply not on.'

W. You give tutorials on your blog about 'Lists' because so many people don't understand them.

X. You start getting up extra early so that you can send out your #FF - follow fridays.

Y. Then start wondering about doing a blog post about controlling your time on twitter.

Z.  You stop talking to your actual friends because well this tweeting is important stuff.

ZZ. You stop and think - decide to ease up a bit.

ZZZ. Your followers are not increasing the way they did before, you think about how you liked all those gold star stickers at school.

ZZZZ. You set up autotweets - saves time - makes sense.

ZZZZZ.  By now you have everyone in lists - but your list of blog pals is so long you rarely get to visit @stranger @interesting picture @newslink @thingstodoinyourcity.

ZZZZZZ. Your son tells you -'Mam I think you might have a Twitter problem.'

ZZZZZZZ. You deny this, but secretly wonder - and as you know wondering is the beginning of crossing the line.

ZZZZZZZZ. So you ease up again - limit your time - hope you have got the balance right.

ZZZZZZZZZ. You do a blog post about your A-Z Twitter journey.

ZZZZZZZZZZ. And wonder where it will all end up?

ZZZZZZZZZZZ. You shut down the computer - tell yourself you can do this.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. You switch the computer back on again.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Wonder if you are the only one hooked.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. After blogging about this, you tweet about it.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Start to get excited about Twitter all over again.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. And so the journey continues!!!!!!

Let me know how you are all getting on......................

Why I use favourites on Twitter!

A couple of weeks back I did a post on 'Twitter Lists' and it proved to be very popular.  At the time I was really amazed at how many people didn't use 'Lists', because I know I could not survive Twitter without them - Check it out HERE

The way I look on Twitter is, it is something that in order to maximise it's value without it eating into tons of your day, you have to use as many available functions designed to help manage your time. 

Which is why along with 'Twitter Lists', I use 'Favourites'.

Here are some of my reasons:-

1.
They are a great means of storing information which you know you will want to come back to and review.  For example, if you see details of a competition you are interested in, just store it in favourites, then check out the details nearer the deadline dates etc.

2.
As I said above, they make for better time management - let's suppose you see a tweet with a link that you are interested in reading, but you're rushing out the door - just pop it in favourites and you can check it out at your leisure later on.

3.
Same goes for links to blog post that are too long to read on the spot - put them in favourites, then review and leave your blog comment later when you have a longer period of time available to enjoy them.

4.
They are also a good place to keep great advice - for example tips on writing, tools which you will read and reread to improve your writing skills, or whatever pieces of information are helpful to further your own aims and ambitions.

5.
If you have a blog, they are also a great place to store ideas - A fab image, a brill quote, a discussion topic which you might want to feature on a future blog post - pop them in favs, and they are there waiting for you to pick up whenever you are ready.

Everyone will have their own reasons for keeping favourites, above are a few of mine.  Important to remember however, is that favourites are a bit like clothes hanging in a wardrobe, they are there waiting for you, but you must make regular checks to make sure they are still things you need/want, or you will end up with unnecessary bulk gathering dust.

Do a regular check of your favourites, and whenever you are finished with one, just click 'unfavourite' and like magic it is gone. 

Add your own reason/comment regarding favourites below - you know I always love to hear your thoughts.

What I know about Twitter Lists

Firstly, I'll put my hand up and admit that I love lists, I use them all the time, not just for shopping, but for planning, prioritising, the list of lists is endless! 

This inclination means that when it came to lists on twitter, I figured they might be something I would be interested in.

In my humble opinion everyone on twitter should use lists and here's what I've learned to date, and why people should use them:

Firstly they lend themselves to the divide and conquer idea, because if you put someone in a list, instead of browsing through miles of tweets everyday, you can read them in a logical format.  For example, if you follow a number of News sites, you can put all of them in a list called 'News', this makes looking through the news tweets easier than when they are mixed in with other tweets.

You can also read your tweets in a manner of their importance to you - lets say you put all your blogpals or friends in one list, or have a number of favourite writers, again you can create 2 more lists marked, 'blogpals/friends' & 'favourite writers' list.  This means that if time is short you can log in, and in an instant see what people in these two lists have tweeted over let's say the last 24 hours.

A note of importance here, when you create your lists, you can have them as public lists, or private lists.  At the moment, I have all my lists as private, but this will probably change.  Like for example, if I change my list marked 'Irish Writers' to a public list, then others can follow it.

The other thing that I have decided about lists, is that it is better to allocate followers to a list from the get go, because it sorts out having to do a lot of housekeeping later.

You can also have someone in more than one list, they can be in a list called 'thriller writers' and also in a list called 'writers who blog'.

You can also have someone on a list and not be a follower.  Once you put them on a list, their tweets will appear, whether you follow them or not.

You can change your listings at any point, so a follower could start off in one list, for example 'Art' and end up being in 'pals/friends'.

So finally, this is how you can create a list, and place your followers/people you follow in them.

If you click on a follower, then you will see their profile etc on the right. To the right of the 'Following Button' you will see a link button with an envelope on it, and to the right of that, a link button with the top of a person, (head and shoulders) - click the dropdown arrow and click on 'Add to list'.  If you have a list created already and you want to place this follower in it, just tick the box beside your list title.  If you haven't got a list created, or if you are only starting to create lists, after you click 'Add to list' - then click on 'Create a list'.  Once you choose this, type in the name you want applied to this list, type in a description if you want one.  Your list will automatically be created as a public list, but if you want it to stay private for now, under privacy, just click on the 'private' option, then save list.

All very easy.  Just to note here, this is not an extensive post on all about lists, because there is a lot about them, I still havn't figured out yet, but when I do, I'll let you know all about it.