Don't be shy! blog@ohtwitter.com - @dacort - @MarinaMartin
Still trying to explain Twitter to someone? Here’s a creative video that might help:
(first seen at Cranking Widgets)
The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a very creative way to use Twitter to keep track of your phone’s location.
Link: TUAW Responds: iPhone LoJack
With protected updates, it can help you locate a lost (or stolen) phone, and with a public Twitter account, you can keep your followers abreast of where you are at any given moment. This could be especially useful if you’re on a road trip.
Joshua L. Konkle over at the DCIG Blog reminds us that anything written in a live-tweet of an event would be considered evidence, not hearsay, in a court of law.
Once you understand the basic premise, it’s simple to see that all sorts of information can be posted to twitter about internal activities or personal matters, in the case of civil litigation. For example, several cases related to health insurance, child custody, etc have been fought or are being fought based on information found in My Space and Facebook. Consequences of twitting on twitter should be similar to existing social media, but twitter won’t be subject to hearsay based on FRCP 803(1) and 803(2).
In other words, be careful when you live-tweet your next Board of Directors meeting — unless questionable things are going on that you want to expose.
Original article here.
(I am not an attorney. From the sounds of his bio, Joshua isn’t an attorney. Even if we were both attorneys, you shouldn’t take anything we write or link to as legal advice. If the above information makes you go “Hmm,” you should definitely consult your own attorney.)
There’s a great audio interview with Laura Fitton over at Tech PR War Stories full of advice on how anybody — especially PR/Marketing people — can use Twitter effectively.
Twitter Magic (Runtime: 23:27)
Laura’s a great resource on Twitter and I always enjoy interacting with her.
One of the great challenges of Twitter is how to use it effectively once you start following upwards of 100 people. I’ll explain my personal methodology and while it may not work for you, you might be able to pick and choose to make dealing with your Twitter stream easier.
Before I get started, there is one thing that you must remember once you start following a significant number of people: you will miss tweets. With that in mind, here’s how I use Twitter.
1. Make use of notifications
Twitter began for me as a way to keep in touch with my friends scattered in different locations. To this day, I still have a limited set of people for who I want to see all of their Tweets. I turn on notifications for these people to ensure that I don’t miss communication from them.
2. Utilize Twitter via Instant Messenger (Settings -> Phone & IM) to receive notifications - I’ve found twitter@twitter.com (Jabber) to be more reliable.
This goes hand-in-hand with the previous recommendation. Twitter via IM can help centralize replies and direct messages in one location allowing you to address them there. If you also set up your mobile phone, Twitter will send notifications there when your IM is offline. However, too many tweets via SMS can be over-stimulating and I tend to use SMS messages for important or personal messages. Fortunately, most of the people I have notifications turned on for are not heavy Tweeters and I can use SMS notifications when I’m away from my computer to keep in touch. If it gets to be too much, I just send an “off” to Twitter and turn it back on later.
3. Download a client application
There are many third-party client applications out there, each with their own set of features. Just shoot out a tweet and see which one your friends like. The applications can help with the Twitter stream, as most of them display tweets as they are made. I usually have mine running throughout the day and I’ll glance at tweets as they pop up and reply accordingly if anything catches my eye. Most applications also highlight direct message or replies, making it easier to identify conversations that pertain directly to you.
In this way, it doesn’t affect my normal workflow but I can keep up with the Twittersphere fairly easily and tweets that pertain to me are highlighted. The web application remains the most popular way people tweet, but it doesn’t provide a good way to keep an eye on a large volume of activity.
Rumor also has it that one or more of the applications might be implementing something akin to groups in the near future, a much-desired feature on Twitter.
That’s it for now - go forth and follow!
Robert Scoble sat down with Linda Stone (best known for coining the term “continuous partial attention”) and learned something new: people stop breathing when they tweet.
The article includes some suggestions to reverse your Twitter-induced oxygen deprivation, including:
1. Change your posture. She said that people who compute while standing up breath more often.
2. Get exercise. She said that those who exercise seem to breath better in stressful situations.
3. Be aware and check in with yourself to see if you’re breathing normally. She said there are some devices coming soon where you can play a game with yourself to keep your breathing up to a normal rate.
Do you stop breathing when you tweet? I’m going to try to pay attention to this over the next few days. (I assure you that I am breathing now as I blog and Tweet simultaneously!)
Jason put together a concise, attractive “cheat sheet” of all available Twitter commands. This is a great resource for anyone learning the Twitter ropes.
Access the high-resolution Twitter cheat sheet here.
The last thing you want to do when connecting with others on Twitter is alienate the community. Twitter is easy to use, but there are a few basic things to keep in mind.
Self-promotion should be a very small percentage of your overall tweets, and should still be shared in the spirit of being useful to the general Twitter community.
It’s commonplace and perfectly acceptable to reply to someone if your answer could also be of interest to other people. However, if your response would only be of interest to the recipient, that’s better left to a direct message.
Along these lines … it can be annoying to read or receive replies that just say “Hi!” If you want to contact someone casually, direct message them and ask for their IM name or email address.
Twitter is an amazing resource, but it takes some time and effort to get to know the community — and for the community to get to know you.
Here are some easy ways to start finding people to follow on Twitter:
Be sure to read our post on Twitter Etiquette so you can start tweeting on the right foot!
Twitter is simple to use, but difficult to explain.
Twitter is NOT just a place to send the boring details of your day out into the universe — unless you want it to be that, at least.
Generally speaking, Twitter is:
Over time, certain names on Twitter will become more familiar to you, and you will build trust in their opinion. Different people on Twitter are known for their expertise in different areas.
This is what differentiates Twitter from Google — I can search for 10,000 different green smoothie recipes, but if a chef I know through Twitter suggests I add wheat grass and an orange, that’s what I’m going to try first.
Collectively, this makes for a powerful, supportive Twitter community that can make a lot happen very quickly. Sound far-fetched? Check out the Frozen Pea Fund, a non-profit built entirely by a group of Twitterers that’s raised well over $10,000 to fight cancer in support of a fellow Twitterer who has been bravely live-tweeting her battle with cancer.
If Twitter sounds like something you want to be a part of, signup — and be sure to check out our articles on how to find people to connect with and Twitter etiquette.