Posts Tagged ‘ideas about Twitter’

A guide for people new to using Twitter

Friday, July 17th, 2009

This is my outline for a meeting on the why and how of Twitter. I pair it with a screencast of my computer as I move around the page.

Why social media is important and useful

  • Why numbers are not important, involvement is

Who’s on twitter? A few key examples

Terminology and functions

  • Using @
  • @ to your account to see who is talking about/with you
  • Direct messages (DMs)
  • # (hashtags: in general and popular ones to note)
  • Retweets (RTs)
  • Topic trending
  • Favorites
  • Each tweet is a url, forever and searchable (more…)

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Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »

The AP Stylebook is on Twitter! Rejoice!

Monday, June 29th, 2009

And they say a mobile app is in the near future! Double rejoice! I so enjoy being a nerd.

AP!twitter.com/APStylebook

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Twettiquete and netiquette. You’re going to get followers: Don’t be creeped out, reciprocate.

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

A note to friends: I have realized that people are presenting themselves as social media experts who the things I know, and they’re getting editorial jobs because of it. Or, at least, most editorial jobs these days have some social media savvy requirement. This is a practice in explaining the things I know, to be transferred to my online portfolio to show that I’m fancy with the internet. I’d appreciate your feedback here if you have any.

twitter-followWhenever people are new to Twitter, they talk about how weird it is that people are following them. “I haven’t written anything!” or “I don’t even know who they are!” they cry, weirded out and slightly thrilled.

Anytime you are putting something on the internet, you have to assume people are reading it, and they have their own wacky and varied reasons for doing so. A formal follow on Twitter just lets you know who they are, and that’s a courtesy, not a threat. Sure, there’s someone (or a bandstand of someones) staring in your virtual window, but when they follow you it’s like a tap on the glass to let you know they’re there.

follower For people who aren’t bloggers, this is an understandably strange idea, but an important lesson. People put things on their Facebook and Flickr pages all the time that make me gasp. That drunken bday photo? Once it’s out there, you can’t assume that you control who sees it, and taking it down doesn’t prevent someone from copying and re-hosting it somewhere else. Using Twitter on your phone makes this even easier: beware the flippant tweet. (more…)

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Posted in Netiquette, Social Media, Twettiquete | 2 Comments »

Summer shoe sale! Woot! It’s Piperlime.com

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

leiaFriends, remember how much I wanted those Camper Leia sandals in turquoise? These little guys:

But they were $140, plus shipping, boo. However! Weirdly, Gap to the rescue! The mega corp that is Gap/Old Navy/Banana Republic/Athleta now has a website called Piperlime that looks like an attempt to give Zappos a run for its money. And the Leia is on sale for $89.50, with free shipping.

Who has a new pair of kicks? That’s right.

They’re having a 30% off sale this week, and it looks like sales are frequent. Piperlime, check it out. Guys and kids, too.

Somewhat related: The CEO of Zappos has a really good blog. He nails why Twitter is good for business and people, and many of the comments are from presidents/founders/CEOs etc. of companies you’ll recognize. Friendly, enjoyable business blogs are hard to find. Well done, Tony Hsieh. I learned from it that all Zappos employees are given the same 4 week culture training, offered 2k to leave in those first 4 weeks (1% do), and are made to answer the customer service phones for 2 weeks. Every single employee, regardless of position, goes through that. Wow.

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Amazon delists GLBT books, bloggers respond with Google bombing, #amazonfail on Twitter

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

Wow, I spent the day petting bunnies, and Amazon spent the day getting nailed to the wall by bloggers and Twitter users who took over Google results for “Amazon ranking” within an afternoon. Why? Books categorized as GLBT and  Romance were being blocked in Amazon searches and top selling lists. Here’s the quick story from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, a blog I’m excited to start reading. Follow the whole story there on their site.

peeps are getting chomped on“Amazon seems to be stripping the sales figures and accompanying rankings from GLBTQ books, erotica, and romance novels, particularly those with what they term “adult content.”

FlickrCC/Murray?

They they got Amazon’s response:

“In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.”

Amazon ranking and sales being stripped means these books, as they say, don’t appear in best seller lists and major pages, which is obviously going to be murder on sales. Publishers Weekly cites Brokeback Mountain as one book that is now hidden in searches. Playboy books remain.

Smart Bitches posted at 11:22am this morning calling for readers to Google bomb the term “Amazon Rank.” I had never heard of Google bombing, but the premise is familiar to us all: Use a term enough times, and you’ll become the number one search result for that term. They also added an Urban Dictionary posting.

By 6:15 pm Smart Bitches was number one in results. By 9:13 Amazon had issued a few “we’re not sure, we’ll get back to you” type statements and then declared the whole thing a computer glych.

Twitter users, disemmenating information and links fast and furious like they do, came up with a host of responses, which you can search for with #amazonfail. (Hashes [#] are a way of creating a tag, or keyword, in Twitter. Go to the bottom of your Twitter page, click Search, and enter #amazonfail. You can also search for anything else of interest, such as #iPhone or # any major event.) I like this Amazon Fail logo and Dear Author post on how to contact Amazon.

As a lover of books, I’m always ticked to see censorship of any kind. Huzzah for a strong internet reaction.

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Cat Lazy Sez: I probably need a twittering cat door

Friday, April 10th, 2009

twweeeeeet

Oh lordy, it’s a marriage of two things I love: Cats and Twitter (I am a Twitter expert, after all). Twitcat, I shall call it. Happy Friday, ya’ll.

It’s too bad you can’t use it to feed your cat. That’s what I need, a contraption that dumps food in the bowl when I tell it to because I’m out dancing late and forgot to feed the furballs. The obvious flaw here is that you’d have to know the status of your cat to begin with: In, or out. Unless it tells you which way the door swings, which would be handy. If I had an open cat door, though, I would have an apartment full of neighbor cats and racoons in no time.

On Gizmodo. Thanks Bjamin, for sending it my way.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »