You can use Twitter too

You might have noticed at the top of the right-column of this blog is a section titled "twitterings." That's my made up name for my twitter update. I think I first became conscious of twitter late last summer. I had probably seen twitter updates on others' blogs, but ignored them for a while. I looked into starting an account for myself around that time, but was completely intimidated by it--but now I don't remember why--maybe the thought of keeping it updated? I finally decided I was going to do this thing at the start of 2009. It's totally not scary, just sign up.

I'm going to the WPPI convention (that's Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) on Sunday, and I'll be back late on Thursday. It's in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand--sweet. I'm not going to try to blog while I'm there, but you'll be able to follow what I'm doing through twitter. Which is the whole point of this post--you can use twitter too.

So what is Twitter?
Twitter is real-time micro-blogging. Users update and share whatever they are doing in 140 characters or less. You could share what you are doing, your plans, your thoughts, the music you're listening to, what you're eating, who you're meeting, ask questions. . . It's good to join in conversations too. You can respond to what others are talking about. This is one of the times where your two cents (in 140 characters or less) is always welcome! Since I know a lot of my blog audience is facebook users, I can compare twitter to the facebook status update; not exactly, but it's similar.

Once you're signed up, you find people to follow. You'll receive their twitter updates. And people will follow you. They'll receive your twitter updates. You can choose to follow people you know, people you know of, lots of businesses use twitter, follow people that are interested in the same things as you. I follow wedding photographers, wedding planners, and other wedding vendors; people I know in real life, people that are very wise about marketing, and a few businesses I like. My friend Lisa is one of the trainers at my gym--it seems that she is networking through twitter with others interested in health and fitness throughout the US and Canada. You could get hooked up with others in your industry, your hobbies, your family, your friends. . .

People will follow you. I'm much more of a one-on-one friend person, not so much someone who has lots and lots and lots of girl friends, so when I signed up for twitter I only found a few people I knew in real life. But since I've been using twitter, I've developed a network or twitter community of people I can learn from and talk to.

You can update as frequently as you like. Some people post updates throughout the day, everyday. Some update once or twice a day. Some people update once a week or so, or less. And I think some people use twitter just to update friends and family about whats going on when they are out of town or during a big event. So you can use it however you like.

I hope this info has been helpful for you. Let me know if you have any questions about twitter; I'm happy to help.



Amanda Dengler