TO TWEET OR NOT TO TWEET:That is the question by Tweetle DUMB

byMarkMarkets

217 followers

11 years ago

Ok I guess I should start by apologizing for the cheesy title where I refer to MYSELF as Tweetle Dumb. Sorry. It was the first thing that popped into my head as I started to put this post together and honestly, it does reflect the way I feel, so there it is, unfiltered straight from my brain.

The whole Twitter craze had left me completely mystified, so I've really not done much in that area at all. By not much I mean nothing. :)

Maybe the problem was that when Twitter first started going strong someone told me it was a way to tell your friends and the world what you were doing during the day. Really? I couldn't imagine they cared to read I was getting my car’s oil changed or that I was dreading my root canal later that day, stuff like that. Looking back, I think my initial information was erroneous, but my initial reaction was… ZZZZZZZ (insert crickets chirping sound here). Recently however, I’ve begun to rethink that reaction.

It seems the more I learn about internet marketing the more interest I have in not just Twitter, but the other social media platforms as well(Facebook, Google+, Pinterest etc.) because I have begun to see how being connected to others and their ideas can be a powerful method of transforming one's own mindset. For example, I've benefited greatly by being part of the community here at WA. Reading and sharing thoughts with you wonderful people has opened up my thinking in ways impossible to foresee. Hearing that some of the things I've shared have helped others has also been a real blessing to me.

I've been on Facebook for a while now, as I live in California but have family on the East coast and it helps me stay connected with them. I’m terrible at calling or emailing (which they've reminded me of NUMEROUS times) but facebook seems to make the connection easier to maintain regularly. So I've decided to stop resisting (resistance is futile as any self-respecting Star Trek:TNG fan can tell you) and let the tweeting commence! Lol

That decision of course led to ANOTHER whole new thing to learn about, as if there weren't enough things I felt dumb about already! I’m a firm believer that you’re never too old to learn though, so I dove in and have to say so far it’s been fine. I understand it more as micro blogging now. Though even blogging itself is new to me, that helps me wrap my head around the concept more easily. It forces you to be concise in your thoughts, as you've only got 140 characters to use per tweet, but I think most of the time that‘s a good thing. I tend to be rather verbose as you can tell by this post (anyone still with me? [reinsert crickets chirping sound here]…yea that’s what I thought) so it can’t hurt!

In closing, let me share a couple of tips I've found helpful in using Twitter, in case any of you find yourselves in the same place I was.

·Follow those who follow you!

Unlike the real world, in the virtual world this is not considered creepy or threatening (who is that guy over there?) but actually GOOD manners! It’s really quite simple – if someone follows you, then you follow them.

·Don’t tweet just anything, provide VALUE

Posting just for the sake of posting is usually not a good idea. Most of your friends don’t care that you’re waiting at a red light or having a moustache wax, so think of how boring that is for people who only know you through Twitter! Try entertaining with a story, something interesting you've read online and can share a link to, or that may motivate or bring a smile to someone’s face. It should bring some form of value to those following you.

Following just those two rules will have you power tweeting away in no time!

Hope you enjoyed this post and if you’d like to say hi or follow me on Twitter I’d love to hear from you. You can find me by searching:

Mark Gardner@altincomestream. Take care!

[Reinsert crickets chirping sound here] Yea I KNEW it was too long. Darn it! ;)