Twitip

The following is Part 4 of a series of posts by Crystal N. Woods, from
Conscious Evolution, Success and Self Esteem (Follow her @CrystalsQuest) You can also read Part 1 – Journaling and Part 2 – Link Lists or Part 3 – Conversations.

As blogging went mainstream, and more newcomers started flooding the market, the earliest bloggers were given a bit of momentum forward into the online equivalent of celebrity status – they were the trend-setters.

Not all of them took advantage of this push, though, while some of the newcomers rapidly adapted to blogging and took it by storm, getting their own place high up in the heirarchy with amazing speed.

The difference between these thought leaders and the majority of bloggers is the same difference we see affecting who gets promotions at work, makes it as a ’star’ in Hollywood, or even gets nominated to run the local Rotary Club.  It’s simply this: in order to lead others, you have to be willing to get out the front and lead others. (more…)

The following is Part 3 of a series of posts by Crystal N. Woods, from
Conscious Evolution, Success and Self Esteem (Follow Crystal @CrystalsQuest) You can read Part 1 of Lessons From The Evolution of Blogging – Journaling and Part 2 – Link Lists here.

The Blogging community grew bigger as more blogs were started, and existing blogs shared the love by linking to them.  Of course if you know SEO, you’d know that this meant the search engines started paying attention to these, and more people started discovering blogs. The community stopped being small, but started to distinguish between the well known and established bloggers, and the newcomers who were still learning the ropes.

This is where conversations come in.  Bloggers would read a new post by someone, with their editorial comments on it, and write an answering post on their own blogs. Naturally, this added fuel to the SEO fire, as cross linking gave blog sites some serious weight.  As the art took off and gained momentum, and more people wanted to start blogging themselves, software started making it easier to create and update your blogs, and eventually the ability to comment was born.

Enter the era of interactivity. (Don’t try saying that after a few drinks, ok?) (more…)

The following is Part 2 of a series of posts by Crystal N. Woods, from
Conscious Evolution, Success and Self Esteem (Follow Crystal @CrystalsQuest) You can read Part 1 of Lessons From The Evolution of Blogging here.

Since my last post, I hope you’ve had fun playing around with your storyline.  This time, we’re going to look at how blogs shifted away from journaling, and started becoming lists of links.

Initially blogs were few and far between so, having shared themselves by journaling in this new medium, there was a sense of being part of a small community.  Bloggers weren’t all that common still, so when a new blog was found other bloggers would link back to it, providing a way to follow other blogs for people who’d discovered (and liked) reading blogs.

These list posts over time evolved to include linking to other sites the blogger found interesting – creating a kind of filter for all the information on the web, through the lens of someone’s interests.  If you shared those interests, you had a quick way to find things you’d probably like, without having to hunt them all down yourself.  That meant people that weren’t bloggers, friends or family, started coming to visit these blogs, and their popularity grew. (more…)

Well, TwiTip readers… I’ve got one heckuva treat for you! Crystal N. Woods, from
Conscious Evolution, Success and Self Esteem has SO kindly taken the time to write a series of posts for TwiTip for beginners, that I’m honored to share with you over the next week or so. Take it not only as a series for Twitter newbies though… it’s something we should all read as a reminder of Twitiquette! (Follow Crystal @CrystalsQuest)

Lessons from the Evolution of Blogging Part 1: Journaling

Twitter is called “micro-blogging” because, even though it’s limited to only 140 characters, it’s evolved out of, and is still similar to, blogging.  That’s great, because while Twitter may be new, blogging has developed over time, transforming from early personal journals to where they are now, and every stage has grown it a bit closer to an art form, until it’s now recognised as a fully-fledged profession. (more…)

By Nathan Hangen, follow him @nhangen.

Once upon a time, Twitter was an innocent and casual place to hang out. Everyone was positive and was nearly over-interested in what everyone had to say. However, now that the initial “buzz has worn off and people are realizing how difficult it can be to manage thousands of follows and followers, the interaction has been reduced to tightly knit groups of key players and in turn leaves many people without the friends they once had. Sure, everyone has a base of friends, followers, and fans that they can rely on to spur conversation and reply to their requests, but overall it has become increasingly difficult to stand out in the crowd. Since getting noticed is one of the crucial aspects of getting more “legit” followers and building a following that converts into blog readers, buyers, and fans, finding ways to get noticed is extremely important.

The simple methods, like RT’ing, offering contests, quoting, and recommending friends for #followfriday no longer have the power they once did. Although those staples are still great ways to increase your influence, if you really want to get noticed on Twitter you’ll have to find other ways to create buzz and show up on the radar. (more…)

by Jon Reid – follow him @jonmreid

Photo by SanFranAnnie

The Cocktail Party Effect: We’ve all experienced it, and cocktails are not required. All it takes is a room full of people, with many conversations taking place at the same time. This creates a noisy environment of simultaneous talktalktalk, yet somehow amidst the hubbub, we are able to pick out interesting conversations nearby, ignoring the rest as background noise.

This “cocktail party” of simultaneous talking is a near-perfect description of Twitter: just replace “talk” with “tweet.” It is what makes Twitter such a fascinating place, giving you the chance to meet interesting people you’ve never encountered before.

It can also be overwhelming. Most people can naturally focus on individual conversations in a crowded room, but this involves auditory processing, where our brains process what we hear. To do the same in a textual environment is not an innate ability but a learned skill. And the more people you follow, or the more prolific they are, the more important it is to develop this skill — because if you try to read each and every tweet, you will eventually drown.

When I got started on Twitter, I initially followed 10 people. 10 became 20, and 20 became 40. Everything was new, and I eagerly read every tweet in my timeline. Then 40 became 80, and around then I found that I could no longer keep up with everything. So let me share with you some tips for coping with your growing “cocktail party.”

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By Brad Shorr of Word Sell, Inc. – follow him @bradshorr

Trying to explain Twitter to the uninitiated can be a challenge. Twitter is so new, so different, and used in so many ways, it’s difficult to wrap your arms around it. I’ve come up with a couple of metaphors that seem to get the point across pretty well – I’ll share them in a sec.

But I’m betting the collective wisdom of TwiTips can come up many more, so maybe this post can help lots of people get a handle on a tool they really need to understand if they’re involved in any kind of business at all. (more…)

by James Mallinson of Organize IT – Follow him @jmallinson

Now that Twitter has several million active users, it’s no surprise to see such a variety of people discussing a wide range of topics. But while the content of all those tweets may be so different, they ultimately fall roughly into five categories.

Now, before you all go off and close your browsers, saying you’ve read it all before, consider the following. All the most popular people on Twitter (excluding celebrities who largely get by due to their fame) are very effective at balancing these five categories to create an interesting and engaging conversation with their followers. They’re not all about retweets or replies and they don’t just talk about their personal life all the time.

I’ll go more into this later in this post, but firstly let’s look at what exactly those five categories are. (more…)

by Eric Stoffle – Follow him @topicturtle

For new Twitter users, understanding Twitter and how to use it may change in those first few days after signing up. It could mean working through the learning curve or it could mean too much frustration to continue. Some people stay, others move on, realizing Twitter wasn’t for them. I know of some people, including me, who stopped using Twitter but came back and tried it again to find out they really enjoyed it. The problem is, as with many things in life, there is a learning curve. I want to offer three important steps to surviving the Twitter learning curve.

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by Surya S – Follow @suryasnair

I Twitter. A lot. I am from a country where you form social connections with half the population in your town, and are related to the other half. I now live in a country which values solitude and privacy to a premium. Twitter was the only cheat code I had to find my way into the Helsinki geek/techie social circle. And I started meeting people, making friends and suddenly life was not that monochromatic any more. And I owe it, along with the amazing kindness of people who took me under their wings, to Twitter. And these are the biggest gifts of Twitter, according to me.

Twitter is where you meet your future friends.

This was said by one of my twitter friends, and truer words were never spoken. One of the most amazing things that happened to me after twittering is meeting many of those I follow in real life. It is always a good idea to suggest a tweetup and organize one, and Twtvite is a great way to organize events. Twitter is very viral, the news will spread fast and you will meet an amazing bunch of people.

(more…)