Twitter Tips & My Agenda

by Dahni

© Copyright 6/7/09

all rights reserved

It is believed, like opinions, everyone has an agenda. What is my agenda in using Twitter.com in connecting with others?

To understand my Twitter Agenda, one must first understand the stated purpose of Twitter.

“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers

to communicate and stay connected through the exchanges of

quick, frequent answers to one simple question:

What are you doing?”

www. Twitter.com

Limited to posting just 140 maximum characters, Twitter forces one to be brief, which I find to be a great feature. Time is important to all of us. Important content can be suggested as a link to that content. Two FREE services: www.TinyUrl.com & http://bit.ly/ are to shorten the URL, which allow users to condense long Web addresses that may exceed the maximum character allowance per post or ‘Tweet.’ Both services condense these long URLS to around 25 characters. However, if either service is ‘down’ for any reason, it would not be possible to condense the URLS or the condensed URLS might not work for others that click on them. One could use both services, for their ‘tweets,’  but this would mean about 50 characters out of the 140 allowed would be spent. Twitter would be well advised to host their own URL shorten service.

One’s profile is important as it allows one to upload a picture and key in information about themselves for others. It allows one to show their web site or blog URLS for others to click on IF they so desire.

While on the subject of uploading pictures, what is this , other than your default picture on Twitter, because you are new or you are trying to hide who you are? Get a real picture of yourself or your business logo uploaded ASAP or ask someone to help. And just who are you anyway?  There are all kinds of strange profile pictures, user names, web sites, blogs and email addresses shown, not just on Twitter, but all over the Internet. Some of this is to hide one’s true identity and some is for some misguided idea of protecting one’s privacy. I really don’t get this whole privacy thing, I REALLY, REALLY DON’T!

If one is so concerned about privacy, what are they doing on the Internet in the first place, other than to disguise their true intentions or identities, for so-called good reasons or not so good? There is no such thing as security on the Internet, despite any claims that this exists. Sooner or later, hackers can find a way to hack and spammers can find a way to spam. If we do not want to take the risks, then don’t take the risks of placing your stuff on the Internet. Block people, ‘follow’ people you know or trust based on some experience with them. Do not list your email or post your updates publicly (for all eyes to see).

If privacy is really an issue, speak or write to the person personally. If it is possible, go see them or simply put, go-see-um.’ Use the telephone, snail mail, email or tin cans and string.

Just make sure you are not in earshot, being picked up by satellite, zoom camera with long distance microphone, smart carrier pigeons or someone has tapped into your string with an alligator clip and extra string to their can. Privacy though important and should be protected, it kind of gets ridiculous when we are in public.

There is nothing in life for FREE. Someone or something pays for everything we get for FREE and it will always cost us something in return like spam, wasting your time or actually spending time engaging the brain, if the content is beneficial or important to us.

Some do not have web sites or blogs and that’s OKEY DOKEY by me, but I take exception to those that use the URL shorten web sites mentioned above, to mask their true intentions. One could click on these condensed URLS given by TinyUrl.com or bt.ly, only to find some adult site, something you have no interest in or something that has nothing to do with the profile of the member. Twitter should not allow URL condensers to mask or hide the true identity of a  web location.

For those that would like to custom design their own Twitter background, the process is quite easy. Most computer users view a page size of 768 X 1024 pixels. Make your background image this size. Twitter uses a fixed overlay which is nearly center of the background images, so most of the background will not be seen. If you would like something visible and/or readable (text), to the viewer, the open space on the left side and the right are each 120 pixels wide by the height of your page or 768 pixels.

So position your image/text so that it is 120 X 768 of your 768 X 1024 background image.

Another great feature of Twitter is the ability to automatically update other social networks and web sites when you post or ‘tweet’ from your Twitter account. Instructions are pretty clear in the help sections and other tips can be found by Googling Twitter helps, tips etc. Also look for twitter widgets or little apps (applications) that can be used to show your latest Twitter ‘tweets’ on your web sites, blogs and other social networks like LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook etc. For examples of how I use these apps and java script, see:

http://www.dahni.com/ContactUs.htm

Access to twitter by the Internet or through the use of cell phones is really cool and a time saver. With the right setup and apps (applications), you can post or tweet to your Twitter account and have it update to your other stuff and that’s pretty neat! We all are busy or get busy at times and may not have the time to update all our other stuff directly, so this fills our absence until we like Larry the Cable Guy says can, “Git-er-done!”

I sincerely hope these tips are beneficial to you!  🙂

My Twitter Agenda is perhaps no different than that of anyone else and our reasons for connecting to others may be as old as when people first started populating the earth. We want to connect with others and know the latest stuff. We want to find stuff and share stuff. We want to connect with others that share similar goals and dreams as we do. We want others to know about our stuff. We want our own voice and place in the world. That’s pretty much it; what we always wanted throughout history and in the present time.

I am no different than most people. Most people want to get paid for what they love to do. So do I, but rather than constantly trying to sell you something or bug you, I have placed links in my profile on Twitter and all my web sites and blogs. I would hope that I have something to offer almost anyone and that you would check out the links I have provided.

What I am into’ or interested in is pretty plain and clear to see on my profile, the background image on my Twitter page; other web sites and the several blogs I write. Notice I wrote the words “I write.” I do NOT write for anyone as in I am paid to write. I know I said nothing is free, but these blogs only cost you your time if you stay there for any length of time.

The possibility exists that it might be a waste of your time. And then again, it might be useful, beneficial, cause a smile or some other ‘good’ emotional feeling. The time spent on my content just might cause one to engage their brain and mind and to THINK. It just might pop a neuron and get someone inspired to DO something beneficial for others. Did you catch the words, “DO something…?”

Do NOT just follow, join another group and never get involved. How is one supposed to know whether you like their stuff or not? Oh, we can use counters to see how many people follow or show up, but counters are limited. Consider these examples: Counters cannot show how long one stayed or if ALL the content was read or if they looked at all the ‘purty pit-chures.’  Counters cannot show if the content inspired you to take out the trash, walk the dog, throw stuff or leave a comment and things like that?

Here are a few lines from some poem; its title and the person who wrote it, I cannot recall.

“If some praise is due em,’ now is the time to slip it to them,

for they cannot read their tombstone when they’re gone.”

-unknown-

The point being, if you like someone or something they do, let them know. Even if it is an honest critique without being critical or I hate your guts negative, it would be appreciated. Why not pay me to do what I love, but then again, why buy the milk when you can get the cow for free?

I am all over the world so to speak, as I am interested in many things and in many people. My profile reads that I am an artist (multiple mediums), an entrepreneur (I have several businesses), and that I am an I-Magineer (an engineer of imagination). I am a light writer which is what photography literally means and what a photographer does, they write with light. What a poet is, is pretty self-explanatory. A word weaver is simply one that weaves with words, a writer.

All that I do or try to do, centers on these things. Lastly, I am an AMER–I–CAN.  It is a self-professed title, indicative of the potential of each of, WE the people of the United States of America. Each of us can say, I-CAN! Each of us can affect change in our individual lives, in the lives of our families, friends, and associates and to the whole of our country and the peoples of the world. WE are not WE without freedom and without freedom, there can be no more WE. Lets us commit or recommit ourselves to this cause, forsaking all parties, our particular sex, our race, color, beliefs, opinions, intellect, and economic status. WE are a nation of individuals, but we were united as one people, for FREEDOM. WE can be connected or reconnect on Twitter. This is, my Twitter agenda. I have no others!

Dahni

~ by Dahni on June 7, 2009.