When I heard about Twitter and started using it I though it was stupid. I didn’t understand it and I was ignorant towards it. Since then my bias has swung the other way drastically. I think Twitter is one of the greatest Social Media outlets available. It’s so freaking simple.
I currently operate two Twitter accounts, one for this site (and for me) and one for Swim University. If you use Twitter feel free to follow me (@swimuniversity.com – @overnightsite)
What is Twitter?
The way I explain Twitter to folks is, it’s like microblogging mixed with AIM. It’s an instant messaging system that you can talk directly to people or just say anything you want, like a blog. But instead of writing really long post, you write mini ones. Twitter only allows you to type 140 characters at a time. Sometimes I post a link to a website I’m looking at or what I’m doing or writing about. Sometimes I just post jokes or say dumb things to get a rise out of people, but mostly I use it for promotion.
Auto Tweet
There are two websites that I currently use to post Tweets with. I use TwitterFeed.com and TweetLater.com.
What TwitterFeed.com does is allow me to submit my RSS feeds so that every time I update my blog it sends out a tweet on my Twitter account with a link to my new post AUTOMATICALLY!
With Tweetlater.com I can type a bunch of tweets and time them to go out at different times of the day. I can also automatically follow anyone who decides to follow me and send all my new followers a welcome message.
These are great tools but it doesn’t mean that’s all you should do. Some people hate broadcasters, you know people who just self promote on twitter. You need to engage in conversations with others, be personal. So I mix the two together. I auto-tweet and manual-tweet all damn day. And now it’s my 3 highest referer site to TheOvernightSite.com and SwimUniversity.com’s Blog.
What next?
3 Responses
Twitter is no doubt, awesome. I, as well as many of the other twitter users, just like youself, thought it was dumb, but it is quite useful to get to know people and such.
agreed. I like to use it to find new links to interesting blogs about SEO and web design. And if I come across any cool websites about the same thing I am sure to return the favor by sharing them or re-tweeting good ones to my followers
I didn’t get Twitter at all when I first started using it a year ago. I didn’t really get it until 6 months later. Now I love it. For example, I didn’t find your blog – we started following each other on Twitter, you sent through a link to your article and I followed that here. I’ve also been able to interact with people from all over the world that I probably wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.
I’m glad that you mix automatically sending your feed and interacting. Only broadcasting is not the best way to use Twitter.