I was on my way to being a Twitter aficionado. I say that–really I was just on my way to using it a lot. I kept TweetDeck open most of the day, tried to remember to tweet about what I was reading, stuff I did (within reason), and re-tweet (RT) things that captured my attention. I was on everyday. And every day I was on, I saw power tweeters, no matter what time of day I was on. It was amazing to see this.

These guys weren’t auto-tweeters either. Well, if they were, it was a very sophisticated application they were running. At one point, I followed back an account that followed me. He would auto tweet the same tweets in a cycle and all were related to his site. I let this go on for a week before I finally unfollowed his account. So, I have an idea what cheesy auto-tweeters can look like.

The people I follow are creative writers, poets, news personalities, IT, marketing, and social media gurus, and more. They are people who want to share what they read, write and are busy doing. Sounds reasonable, right? So, what pushed me away?

It’s not About Multitasking: Rhythm and Courage

These people and organizations I follow are reading and tweeting and doing whatever else they do. So am I. Only they have this rhythm that just didn’t sing to me. Not enough to overpower my hesitations.

When TweetDeck loaded, it was in the background until I found something I was brave enough to Tweet. It took me a while to get the hang of what I wanted to say and when. It took me longer to push the button. Even after having loaded a comment with my bit.ly link, I would pause for long minutes before I pressed ENTER.

Sometimes it was a matter of sheer nerve that got me to send my tweets into the cyber-sphere. Sometimes I just changed my mind and decided to do it later.

Who am I Following Really?

I pushed through it all and got my tweets in there. In the space of a year, I managed a thousand tweets with a very small community including all the perks, a little conversation, link sharing, re-tweeting and very few direct messages (DM), (mostly in response to a received DM). I got with the program as it were, even though it wasn’t what I expected. When I signed up to Twitter, the main site sported Lee LeFever’s video about Twitter being a great way to say what you’re doing and how things are going in your day. Talking to friends and family, though.

I have over 300 people I follow and who follow me. Most of them are not my friends and family. In my immediate family, I have one brother on Twitter. I hardly ever see him on Twitter. My group consists of new friends I met from blogging, some just through Twitter, and business. Business is the overarching theme and it took a bit of getting used to.

Changing My Game Plan

You see, the only commodity I have is me and my services. I can write articles for companies, and blog posts, and design websites. But telling people what I can do is difficult because I’m somewhat shy about that.

If I’m doing it to promote a friend or a company, that’s a whole different thing. But it’s important to be established. I actually saw a job lead that said writers were expected to tweet daily. It brought up a whole lot of other questions, like whether or not I wanted to give my name to the product. But that’s for another post.

So, I decided, while I can, to tweet less. I’ve dropped down to a day or two a week. And, I’ll build back up to three or four days and go with that until it’s time to change something again. It’s important that I stay in the habit of tweeting, so I’ll have frequency to be my variables.

People ask me about Twitter because I’m doing it. I would love to tell them something insightful, wise and born of my months of tweeting. But really it’s something that you have to do to learn how to do it. And relax on demanding that you understand it.

I can share with confidence, some of the good connections I’ve made through participating. Inspired by the fun I’ve had on Twitter, I waxed a little poetical and what came of it is my #FollowFriday submission. #FollowFriday is a Twitter way to share your community with each others and those beyond your community.

How to Have Fun with Twitter

I read a formula for participating in Twitter. It was a good one, so I to follow it and write my tweets with the following in mind:

• Tweets should included almost equal parts: statements, replies and linking to others
• Links to personal work should number the least in your tweets
• Always be polite

If you’re still thinking about trying Twitter, do it. Have fun with it. And let me know what you think of it.

If you’re already tweeting, message me @sharils to let me know of your positive expriences.

I’d love to link to a Twitter post you write about it.

Why Social Media?

Social media is the environment in which communities can blossom. This is far different from websites which are largely one-sided.

Websites are great. It takes a lot of work to pull together the wealth of information to sustain an informative and current website. When done well, they can be great repositories to which readers will return, and refer others. And generally websites list ways that you can contact them, although some make it really hard to find.

What difference does social media offer? The major important difference I see is that social media provides the opportunity to connect with the authors quickly and have a dialogue right on the site. And social media is by definition informal–you know the social aspect. Social media presents fresh usually stamping the posting date.

Some people fudge the dates. But there are also those who completely disable the date function on their blogs. I think it’s an important distinction between blogs and websites, and I think many people look for that. If I want to know how current something is on the internet, I’m going to check for date and/or version.

Dates can creates a measure of urgency to generate more content. When I look at my calendar and see I’ve not posted in a while I start to get antsy. Regular posting means your blog has a pulse, and I want mine to live. And of course the definition of regular is relative to what your goals are.

What the Personal Draw of Social Media?

When I first learned the term social media, my question was what is that. Media designed to let users be social, right? Yes but the internet extends your reach globally. You can call a person to connect over the phone. Or, you can write to friends anywhere in the world, simultaneously, and connect for a conversation.

My first introduction to social media was through a work setting. Before that, I had tried my hand at blogging by setting up one at Yahoo, then later in MySpace. I didn’t do much with them, and never thought about them as social media. What drew me to it were some of the same things I’ve read and heard from many bloggers:

• Social media people believe they have something helpful to share with others.
• Most of us have a need to be seen, to be open, and this inspires a lot of good, authentic content.
• People who participate in social media have the desire to dialogue in a larger community; they seek the exchanges that are possible.
• Business owners may or may not understand, but they respect the fact that their public responds to personal connections.

Connecting and having something to share are reasons I embrace the practice of blogging and social media. I recognize and accept the fact that I need to be seen from time to time.

My Social Media Perspectives

I find that people who maintain blogs and participate in social media really want to be in touch. And that’s why I joined them.

1. Twitter: @sharils
Twitter is the most work-oriented group I’ve joined. It feels like work, in part because that’s how I was introduced to it. Like anything else, you get from it what you bring to it. It’s networking with a relaxed twist. You don’t have to dress up to meet the group. In fact, you don’t have to dress at all. I’ve often tweeted in my pj’s and felt very much on top of my game.

2. StumbleUpon: njw-ss
StumbleUpon is for bookmarking sites that were of interest. It takes some of the pressure off my bookmarks and allows me to share them with other people. A quick review (you have a space for that) reminds me what I liked about the site/post when I first came across it.

3. Facebook: Shari Smothers
My brother made me do this. I’d heard about it for yeas for college students, (not old people like me), so I ignored it. A week after my brother told me about it and to do it, I was amazed. And it feels just like what I brought to it, it’s full of family and friends, who just want to be in touch.

4. MySpace: Shari Smothers
MySpace has largely run its course for me. It was one of the first places I joined and it’s now one of the last places I visit. I don’t keep up with that blog anymore, since I have this one and Telling Stories. It seems to lend itself to musicians and such, and has a large number of musicians who post their work for all to hear. Artists can put up their music easily for sharing and selling. I visit because I have friends and family there.

How to Choose Your Social Media Sites

There are a lot of social media sites today. The above four are some of the most popular. But take a look at Digg, Mixx and other social bookmarking sites. You can try them on and see which one(s) best meet your needs.

Mashable: The Social Media Guide is another great resource for details and insights about social media. It answers questions and provides other resources to get answers you may be in search of.

Social Media: Learn by Doing

Do your research, and then join a few to see how they work for you. You can only get so much theory before you do it. Besides applied theories yield the best and fullest information.

You can’t feasibly join everything. But you can join a few. It’s how you learn their inner workings, and what works for you and your goals. Social media is the current big thing in networking, promoting, and marketing. And there is a definite sense of community if you want that.

There are many reasons you may want to connect. Remember  that, like all things, what you bring to social media, informs what you get out if it. You can be conspicuously you, using your name and face, so that you can be identified easily.

However, if you prefer to be anonymous, these platforms make it easy to do so. Whatever identity you choose, always remain true to yourself. Authenticity is what will keep your community viable. And have fun with it.

If you should join any of the sites I’m on, by all means, look me up and connect with me.

Tell me about your connections on social media. Which are your favorites and why? Leave a comment or link to mine in your post.

Related Post:
twitter: you have to use it to learn it

Remember how you first heard of Twitter? Did you have all sorts of ideas of what to expect? And when you read blog posts in which people referred to Twitter, did your expectations take on more detail?

Mine didn’t.

I first heard about Twitter from a Social Media expert. I’d joined StumbleUpon at his direction. That’s a social bookmarking site. And I’d had a fun time learning how that works. He suggested Digg too, but I’ve taken a pass on that one—for now.

Twitter is a great way to network he told me. I researched it a little more online, and checked out a few people’s profiles once I learned how. I watched the Twitter intro video at the site and it was still rather nebulous. Did people actually stop while mowing the lawn to tweet that they were doing it? Hmmmm.

Deciding When to Join

Then the social media guru said the magic words, “You really have to jump in and do it to learn it.” So I decided to join, with a few prerequisites:

• An internet-ready cell phone with a full qwerty keyboard
• Have three people to follow, including the man I was learning from
• Determine how I wanted to present myself to the Twitter world (name, site, etc.)
• Figure out what in the world to tweet

What I Figured Out Quickly

It’s been a little over six months and I’ve picked up a few things. Like, now I know people tweet about mowing the lawn before they actually start. Some of my early ideas were validated. Some things I learned the hard way.

1. Text messaging is best left off. You can’t really turn off Twitter if you still have notifications coming through text messages. And, if you’re like me and don’t have or want unlimited text messaging, keep your device notifications off.
2. Twittering from you cell phone demands a client application. Having a client application eliminates the need for text messaging. If you really need to know whenever any of your friends tweet, then this may not hold true for you.
3. Auto-following doesn’t really save time. There’s no need to follow every single person that follows you. Being selective can save time by sparing you tweets of no or negative value to you, and the subsequent need to unfollow. This leads into the next point.
4. I don’t follow people who offer things that I find offensive. One example: I will automatically skip the girls who want to pedal their suggestive photos. Duh!
5. Think of unfollowing as self-preservation. I unfollowed a guy who had a set twenty tweets (it looked like less than twenty really) that he cycled through including the one for his break. He shared only about his site, asked one question (the same question each cycle), and the set played for the four days I followed him. Definitely not my cup of tea.
6. Use http://search.twitter.com to find what interests you. Search for your subjects of interest and explore the profiles of people writing to them. It’s a good option in addition to exploring your friends’ followers.
7. I read about how to get the best from Twitter. Great resources are available on the web to give you insight into good ways to interact on Twitter, whether you want to know about twitter etiquette or running Twitter applications.
8. What to say gets easier to decide. There’s no hard fast rule, no matter what people say. I love weather tweets because it gives me further insight into the tweeter’s life on a particular day, even at a particular time. Some people say that’s on their list of things to definitely not tweet.

Eve though there’s lots you can read about it, as my friend said, the best way to learn Twitter it is to jump in and do it. You’ll see first hand what works for you.

Did your first days using Twitter work the way you expected? Did you discover anything that surprised you? I’d love to hear about your experiences.