1px-down 1px-left 1px-right 1px-up 2px-right 2px-left 3px-left block-l circle-down 3px-right pointy-l pointy-r circle-up sarg-left sarg-right tall-l tall-r thick-left block-r thick-right
contact hamiltro for the best website design contact@hamwebs.com

I opened my Twitter account in February 2009 not because I was dying to become a Tweeter (I wasn’t) but because, being a web designer/developer, I thought I ought to know how it works. For my clients. I didn’t honestly know what I might end up doing with the account but I knew I needed to understand it.

Getting started using Twitter

I recall at the very beginning I found Andy Borowitz, somehow. Back then, he was tweeting frequently and he was very, very funny. I didn’t open Twitter often but as he was practically the only person I was following, I’d open it up occasionally when I needed a break from work and he provided all the light relief I could wish for. He stopped tweeting in 2012 but if you never enjoyed his tweets you can still find them here: BorowitzReport

If any of the other people I was following started breaking up my steady stream of Andy Borowitz tweets, I’d unfollow them unless they were extremely interesting — so mostly I followed inactive Tweeters and Andy Borowitz.

That was fine for me but what was I going to tweet? Obviously no one was paying attention to my account, so I began just using it as a personal archive of interesting articles that I found useful and might want to refer to someday; a personal timeline of mostly tech-news as it piqued my interest. I took my time and, paying attention to what I don’t like about some other peoples’ Twitter habits, I made tweets that shared helpful information. Even if I was just sharing that information to myself at that point, I think it was a good foundation.

I noticed that I instinctively refrained from following anyone who had the habit of making cryptic tweets, too many self-promoting tweets, or who posted the same tweet over and over (an annoying practice, in my opinion, whatever Guy Kawasaki thinks). Tweets I liked were those that gave me paths of information to follow and learn from, mostly — though I’ve still got room for people who amuse me on Twitter.

Things began to evolve for me this year as my partner and I began concept development for an app. I set up a Google filter for news on “innovative apps” and began getting emails every day with about three news articles about innovative apps. Some were really good, so I tweeted them. I have also been deluged for a while with information on content marketing and sometimes the articles I get on that are good, so I’ve tweeted the best of those.

My own Twitter account content has accordingly morphed into being more about app development and content marketing than about web design. It just happened; it’s where my curiosity took me. I began to follow a few people who tweet on these subjects (especially content marketing) and before I knew it, I was finding Twitter to be a favorite way to get new content of interest. Search for a hashtag and immediately there was an outpouring of highly up-to-date offerings.

I recently began doing more of the things you’re supposed to do: using hashtags, mentioning people by Twitter-handle, retweeting, following more people. Suddenly, pretty much every time I tweet, there are responses: someone follows me, someone favorites something I tweeted, etc. And my (admittedly tiny) following doubled in a matter of a few weeks.

We’ll see where this goes. What I’ve learned, though, is that it’s really not hard to compose a useful tweet for people on your topic of interest or expertise — and if you follow people who tweet in this information-sharing way, Twitter is a good tool for staying on top of the curve in your field.

«
LEAVE A COMMENT +

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Author: Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe
I design websites and write about things people might like to know about websites and digital marketing.

More topics to explore

image

2021 still had its share of Covid-related slowdown but we’ve all become somewhat better at accommodating an uncertain future, so let’s salute every highlight from 2021 and…

Read More

image

So 2020 is leaving us. Just before it does, I want to give a shout-out to the people who’ve worked with us this year who’ve taken the opportunity to create work, to have websites designed and built, and to keep…

Read More

image

Nicholas Kristof, writing of Jo Piazza’s book If Nuns Ruled the World in today’s New York Times, says he has become a huge fan of nuns because “I see them so often risking their lives around the world, confronting warlords,…

Read More

Need a bespoke website for better outreach?

Contact us