1 post tagged “john edwards”

I've been thinking a lot about how I became so instantaneously obsessed with Twitter and how I use the tool.

All I can say is that the idea of getting little updates from folks throughout the day about the ephemera of their days is kind of delightful. Twitter is like passing notes in class. When I was in junior high and high school, that was my constant means of staying connected and making it through the day. Sure, I loved school (i'm a goodie two shoes nerd, what do you want from me?) much like I love my job but I often get lost in the bell jar when I'm working. Twitter keeps me connected. In the midst of discussing site launch calendars and budgets and recruitment, I twitter to talk about what happened on the bus or skinny jeans or blipster culture or presidential politics.

Damnit, I want to know what my friends are having for lunch and listening to on their iPods.

Twitter gives me that.

Mau asked, though, what should I be twittering?

Here's how I twitter:

1. To answer the mantra question: what are you doing?
2. To announce work and personal launches (like this post).
3. To ask questions.
4. To answer questions.
5. To crack wise.
6. To make note of something too small to blog but that mattered enough to give me pause.

Here's also how I twitter:

• When I'm at the computer, I turn text messages off.
• As soon as I walk away for an extended period of time, I turn them on.
• I made my updates private. You gotta friend me to see me and I gotta know you (or know of you) to give you access.
• I try not to post too many times too often. If a long term or more private convo breaks out , I take it to direct message or IM.
• I don't follow all my friends all the time. Some of y'all get twitter happy and need a small case of pianissimo.
• I'm becoming the master of the 140 character sentence.
• I use the @<username> often and use the correct name. Twitter then tracks who you're talking at correctly. It's dangerous to use @<notquitetheusername>  because there could be other twitterers with that name and twitter will think you're replying to them.
  

Also, while I still haven't memorized all of these and the Twitter IM bot never wants to work anymore, here is some twitter lingo courtesy of the site itself:
Bonus: Buzzfeed is all over Twitter this week.

Double Bonus: While I'm not committed to any candidate yet, John Edwards is my friend. That's going right for the web hipster's heart, innit?