Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘DM’

Twitter Can Give You the Warm Fuzzies

Posted by terrepruitt on July 29, 2010

I often find myself defending Twitter when I meet new people.  In this world of multiple social media networks, the subject of FaceBook, Twitter, and Yelp often come up.  We start talking then usually someone says, “I’ve never gotten into Twitter.  I mean, really (!?!?) who wants to know what I had for lunch?  And I certainly don’t care about what others had for lunch?!?!”  That is not the only thing Twitter is about.

First of all, that is a Twitter stereo-type.  Not ALL tweeple tweet about what they had for lunch.  But those that do often get a lot of responses.  If you are in a circle of people that are foodies they LOVE tweets about food!  ANY MEAL AT ALL.  My hubby (@JohnPruitt) used to tweet and Facebook pictures of his lunch every day.  Now he actually takes lunch from home and people miss his pictures.  They ask him if he is on a diet, if he is sick, they miss it.  EVERYONE eats.  Not everyone has the opportunity to eat what is available to us in San Jose and the Bay Area and they enjoy seeing all the different things.  Food really brings people together.

What I was thinking about the other day was when someone tweets me out of the blue and says, “I thought about you . . . .”  WOW!  People I know only through Twitter THINK about ME!  How cool is that?  I love that someone out there is thinking about me.  I love it when it is silly, “I was thinking about you because I was wearing blue.”  I love it when it is related to healthy eating, “I was thinking about you as I ate my salad.”  I love when it is about kitties, “I saw a cat and thought about you and your cat.”  I love when it is about Nia, “I went to a Nia class today and I thought about you.”

Yes, I started using Twitter to promote Nia and my business.  I have made business connections and friends.  I have actually made some connections.  Funny enough, with this post half written (up to this very point – no lie!) I had a DM* conversation with a friend today.  She was asking if I thought it were possible to have “real” friends on Twitter.  Ones that you only knew through Twitter.  My thinking on that is “you betcha!”

Maybe the definition of “real” is different, I don’t know.  But I know that I know more about a lot of my friends on Twitter than I know about my friends I have in person.  I talk more to some of my Twitter friends than I do my “in person friends”.  So . . . . . to me, as I always say . . . Twitter is what you make it.  Connections are out there to be made.  Either you know because you are on it, or you will see when you get there.  It is soooooo AWESOME (inspiring, and humbling) to have someone tweet, “I was thinking about you today!”  Gives me the warm fuzzies.

*DM = Direct Message

(Oh, and puleeeaase!  You think I am going to write a post about Twitter warm fuzzies and not put this most excellent tweet that I received one day in my post.  Ha! That would be unacceptable.  Thanks, Dani!)

Posted in Twitter | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

More Of MY Twitter

Posted by terrepruitt on June 23, 2009

Again, I say:  I am going to share a few things that I have learned so that I can just point some of my new friends at this blog instead of typing it all out individually.  Now, here is the catch, this is my opinion and my perception of how it works.  If you have a different opinion or you know that it works differently please kindly share.  That would be very appreciated and helpful.

The @ is considered a reply.  Most programs I have seen have a reply button/option.  When you select it, it is like e-mail, it addresses your tweet to that person.  So if you are reading a tweet and you “reply” to it your tweet will go to that person.  Most programs will start the tweet like this:  “@person” then you type your message after.

@1

@1 (this is a tweet to @HelpYouWell)

Not too long ago twitter changed the way @ functions**.  I believe now if you leave the “@person” as the first word in the tweet (see @1) only the person you are replying to and that person’s followers will see it.  Your followers will be left out of the conversation.  If you type something before the @person (see @2) then your followers will see it too.  Since Twitter is a social network where people are freely sharing information it makes sense to me to take that extra second and type something in front of the @ so “everyone” can see it.  Also it helps demonstrate that you are replying to people.  If you reply but your followers don’t see it they might think that you are not engaging with others.

@2

@2

**Exactly how Twitter changed it, I am not sure.  I just know that it does not function as it used to, so you want to type something before that @ so it can be seen by more people.

You can also just use the @ to send a message to someone, it does not necessarily have to be a reply to a message.  It is just called “reply” sometimes.  I call them at-messages.

RT or retweet is something you do when you like what you have read and want to share it with your followers.  Again, most programs that I have seen have a retweet options so it will take the tweet and copy it into the tweet box with a “RT @person” in front of it.  So, it is doing several things:

1:  by putting RT it is indicating that the tweet is a “retweet”
2:  it is “addressing” the tweet to the person that sent it (with the @person) allowing them to see that you liked their information enough to share it AND at the same time giving them “credit” for having tweeted
3:  it is allowing you to share the information with your followers.

Often when I RT I type in something front to give an idea as to why I am retweeting.  (I didn’t in the example above, but, I often do.)

The DM is a direct message so when you “DM” someone it goes only to them.  BUT you might still want to think of it as a publicly viewed tweet so you remember to watch you Ps and Qs.  In order for you to DM someone, they have to be following you.  If you are following them, but they are not following you, it won’t go through.  TweetDeck will tell you that they are not following you.

I might do another post about TweetDeck.  I don’t know too much about it, but I use it.

Please share your thoughts with me.

Posted in Twitter | Tagged: , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

My Twitter

Posted by terrepruitt on June 20, 2009

I am not a Twitter expert. But . . . I have picked up a few things from a lot of people who could be considered experts. Plus I have picked up some things from just doing it.

Recently I have connected with a bunch of wonderful people who have less time than I do to spend learning about this.  So, I am going to share a few things that I have learned so that I can just point them at this blog instead of typing it all out individually (on my iPhone, mind you).   Now, here is the catch, this is my opinion and my perception of how it works.  If you have a different opinion or you know that it works differently please kindly share. That would be very appreciated and helpful.

 

For my friends, here is my advice:

-Put a picture up.    Anything, doesn’t have to be you if you don’t want, but don’t leave that twitter box up.  That is not good.  I actually have to be really convinced to follow people that have that (or I have to know them personally and understand that they just haven’t gotten around to putting a picture up).

-Fill out your bio.    Put something there.  If you are Nia person, tell them about Nia, if you can’t think of anything else.  If you have to, read OTHER people’s bios to get ideas.  I have followed people just because their bio has made me laugh.  Make up something funny.  List your likes or dislikes, list what you will be tweeting about, share that you like to work out, share that you loathe exercise . . . .who cares what you write, just put something there.

-Put your web address up.    C’mon, you have a website because you want people to go to it.  Put it out there.  MAKE SURE YOUR LINK WORKS! (Ya, that is a big deal.)

-Tweet.    Oh my, this is the most difficult thing, but the most important.  I am still challenged by it.  But do it.  If you are like me it is kind of intimidating.  If you are following some major people (like I am, and I mean “major” as in they are “celebs” on Twitter) their useful information can make me wonder, “What do I have to add?”  So I started by retweeting other people’s stuff.  Then people would retweet my tweets and start talking to me.  And then I would think of something to share and bam . . . . so it goes.  I still retweet a lot because there is a lot of good stuff out there that I like to share, but I also share my own stuff.  I also like to tweet about stuff happening in the area of San Jose (Willow Glen) in which I teach classes.

The following is easier said than done: don’t worry so much (I still do, sometimes, but I try not to).  The people that you want following you are the ones that want to see what you have to say. Right?  So say what you want and you will get people following you.  People will come and people will go.  That’s ok.

Ok, I will continue this on Tuesday because right now, my word counter is saying that I am way over my self-imposed word limit.  Tuesday I will tell you what I understand about @, RT, and DM.  And of course, if you don’t want to wait, I am sure you can find all of this information out there somewhere else.

Posted in Twitter | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments »