Twittiquette
I am loving Twitter. I am an unabashed Twaddict. I play with my Twitter daily. And I Twinkle on my iPhone occasionally.
Twitter users will know what I'm talking about. Others will be ready to censor Notes from their RSS feeds. However, I was recently recommended a site by another Twaddict - AJ Huffman - that I think is a must sub for all Twitter users and those considering it. It's called TwiTip.com.
Essentially, Twitter is like a mass status update. But it's so much more. Organizations are using it to keep people updated. Barack Obama used Twitter in the election. Sure, there's Twitabuse. But that's no reason not to step into this world of microblogging to make new friends, extend your network, and leverage your influence.
Twittiquette Anecdote
Most newbies on Twitter, including myself, forget to use the "@" symbol to indicate a response to another user. In addition, there is simply too much conversational Twitter when a direct message or a direct text would suffice.
In addition to these, here are some fantastic entries for Twitt-ed:
A Crazy Example
As an example of how confusing conversational Twitter can be to the Twitterverse... What would you assume the following Twits are talking about? These are verbatim Tweets on Monday, December 1...
seaarkaj: @journeyguy I know what it is, and I can't do it. Why you ask?
deltarazorback: I seem to at the most awkward moments. I can't do it on command however.
arniewvw: @journeyguyyeah I can do it. Don't make a habit of it. Nowdays it's usually on accident. Back in high school did it a lot
dheagle93: @journeyguynope...not among the tools in my toolbox.
dheagle93:that was not a skill valued at Mid-America Seminary...maybe if we were Methodists...it would be like a portable baptism...
And these are some parts of the same conversation from Facebook:
only when i dont want to, or I am talking to someone, and then when I do it, I try for the next 20 minute to do it again!!!LOL
i have a friend who actually poked holes in his tongue or cheeks or something when we were kids to be able to do that better on demand..
It has always amazed me, but i have never been able to. one of those mighty mysteries. Maybe the 10th wonder of the world
Yep. But not on demand.
Now you have me trying to do it. Thanks a lot....I had stuff I wanted to accomplish today.
I can sort of simulate it, but not with the tongue- it's a uvula thing. Explains my hate for the French language. That, and it's spoken by, well, the French.
I had no idea what it was so I looked it up! And, yep, I can do it! Often it happens when I am singing! But I can't do it on demand.
What it's all about...
I sent out an update through Ping.fm (which updates my Facebook and Twitter simultaneously) that said:
Just curious. How many of you can gleek? (If you don't know what it is, that answers the question.)
Gleeking is defined by Wikipedia as "the projection ofsalivafrom thesubmandibular glandupon compression by thetongue." I've always wanted to be able to gleek on command, and the reason I sent out this Tweet earlier today was because I shocked myself with a completely unintentional spray of saliva across my desk this morning. I spent several moments in euphoria, wondering if I had suddenly been given this gift by God. It was with great disappointment that I learned that I could not reproduce it. It was an accidental gleek. Darnit.
But back to the power of microblogging... I'm still getting responses on Facebook from this morning's update. It's amazing how a simple microblog can connect and involve folks from all over the world in a moment. It's a new day.
And here's a nice new site to help you chart your Twitter activity: TweetStats. It produced the graph below. You can see the rest of my stats here.
