A thought about your Twitter "audience". When you tweet, it's a good idea to think who you are writing to. Do you use Twitter to share all your thoughts with whoever might listen? What about being more precise? Can you be? Should you be?
For example, if you are a JW, and you want to tweet a witness to non-JWs, you may write a tweet referring followers to a specific page on watchtower.org, such as "What is the Bible's view of Death?". However, fellow JWs may well already know this information. So, if most of your followers are brothers, they might want to hear something about how well you got on in the ministry instead.
There is a way to write tweets for both witnessesing AND for fellow JWs. Have two separate Twitter accounts. This is allowed, it doesn't break any rules!
You could have one account for witnessing-type tweets and you would try and get followers from non-JWs.
You could have a second account which you use for exchanging news, encouragement, etc., with JWs and you wouldn't witness using this account.
How can you manage this form of tweeting? Well, a lot of Twitter helper software will easily support multiple accounts, with THIS SORT OF USE in mind. I personally use Tweetdeck to manage several Twitter accounts, including some for business use. There are numerous software tools that can do the same, and an internet search will soon give you a list to work with until you find one you like the most.
So, onward and upwards! Enjoy tweeting, and remember your "audience".
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
01 August 2010
09 July 2009
A Twitter Twibe
Many know about Twitter, the web 2.0 app designed for people to post short status messages (yeah, right, status messages?) about themselves for the world and their friends to read. But what about a "twibe"?
A twibe, or twitter tribe, is based on a website separate to Twitter called twibes.com. Essentially, a twibe is a group of twitter users. By ensuring their tweets contain a keyword, tweets by twibe members can be read by everyone in the twibe.
As an example, I have created a twibe http://twibes.com/JWs for twitter users who are Jehovah's Witnesses. By tweeting this URL, a tweeter joins the twibe. Thereafter, by including the letters JWs in a tweet, the tweet appears in the twibe tweet history, or timeline.
Once part of the twibe, a person can enter a tweet directly into the twibe timeline and have it appear only in that timeline, or have it ALSO included in their normal timeline, where it becomes visible to their normal followers as well.
So why use a twibe instead of just using normal Twitter hashtags? A hashtag is simply where a tweet includes a word or an abbreviation preceded by a # symbol, such as #JWs. Whilst it is possible to search Twitter by hashtags, a twibe offers a few more benefits.
A twibe, or twitter tribe, is based on a website separate to Twitter called twibes.com. Essentially, a twibe is a group of twitter users. By ensuring their tweets contain a keyword, tweets by twibe members can be read by everyone in the twibe.
As an example, I have created a twibe http://twibes.com/JWs for twitter users who are Jehovah's Witnesses. By tweeting this URL, a tweeter joins the twibe. Thereafter, by including the letters JWs in a tweet, the tweet appears in the twibe tweet history, or timeline.
Once part of the twibe, a person can enter a tweet directly into the twibe timeline and have it appear only in that timeline, or have it ALSO included in their normal timeline, where it becomes visible to their normal followers as well.
So why use a twibe instead of just using normal Twitter hashtags? A hashtag is simply where a tweet includes a word or an abbreviation preceded by a # symbol, such as #JWs. Whilst it is possible to search Twitter by hashtags, a twibe offers a few more benefits.
- Tweets shown in the twibe timeline are limited to those made by twibe members, whereas a search by hashtag will show tweets by anyone using the tag.
- Some use a hashtag inappropriately and so skew search results, maybe filling the search results page with rubbish. Twibe tweets are deliberately aimed at the twibe and are normally all relevant.
- A twibe founder can remove a twibe member's tweets from the twibe timeline if they turn out to be off-topic or otherwise unacceptable.
- It is possible to post a tweet onto the twibe timeline by tweeting from the twibe homepage and not have the tweet appear in your own Twitter timeline. This can be useful in sharing information to the twibe in a private way.
- You do not have to follow someone to see their tweets in the twibe timeline. You just have to join the twibe to see all twibe members' tweets.
03 June 2009
Tweeting from my phone
So what is it about Twitter that makes it SO addictive?
I've been tweeting (sending messages to my Twitter account) for a few months now. I follow the tweets of a number of people and have over 200 people who follow me, which is truly amazing. Especially considering I never say anything much; how can you in 140 characters (the maximum length of a tweet). Go and see http://twitter.com/ColinEnglish to see what I mean.
Anyway, I mostly tweet from my Dell Mininote 9 netbook when at home as it is so convenient to use. It runs Ubuntu Linux and I access Twitter via the Tweetdeck application. You can also run Tweetdeck on Windows, so we have it loaded on our home (Tiny PC) computer and the home (Acer) laptop. Truly a cross-platform approach. More on Tweetdeck another time...
HOWEVER, when it comes to my PDA phone, which runs Windows Mobile 6, it is a different story. I normally use two applications, PockeTwit and Twikini. Now both have good and not-so-good features. I don't really intend to write a review of each application, there will be links to their websites below.
Confession time. Not only do I tweet as me, Colin English, but I also tweet under pseudonyms. I started doing this as a joke, but got a bit carried away... PockeTwit allows me to send tweets from any of my Twitter accounts and also merges the "timelines" of all the accounts into one whole one, so I can see tweets from the people followed by all accounts and tweets to all accounts in one place. Occasionally, I find this overwhelming, which is why I have been using Twikini with my main account mostly (or I did until the beta test period expired). I find Twikini easier to use, and I think this is primarily because it only looks at one Twitter account at a time.
[This does NOT mean that having multiple Twitter accounts is a BAD idea - far from it. It is recommended that you keep your personal life and work life separate if you intend to tweet about both, simply to keep your sanity and the sanity of the people who follow each side of your life. People interested in what you say about, for example, your hobbies may NOT be interested in your comments about the interesting C## algorithm you stumbled across in a developer's blog (yawn)].
So horses for courses. I really do like both Twikini AND PockeTwit.
Links:
Twikini = http://www.trinketsoftware.com/twikini/
PockeTwit = http://code.google.com/p/pocketwit/
Tweetdeck = http:/tweetdeck.com
Have fun!
Disclaimer: Other software to enhance your Twitter experience is available for Windows, Linux, Windows Mobile, Palm, Blackberry, iPhone, Symbian, etc. I an not saying that my choices are what YOU should follow.
Twkiki screen example:
PockeTwit screen example:
I've been tweeting (sending messages to my Twitter account) for a few months now. I follow the tweets of a number of people and have over 200 people who follow me, which is truly amazing. Especially considering I never say anything much; how can you in 140 characters (the maximum length of a tweet). Go and see http://twitter.com/ColinEnglish to see what I mean.
Anyway, I mostly tweet from my Dell Mininote 9 netbook when at home as it is so convenient to use. It runs Ubuntu Linux and I access Twitter via the Tweetdeck application. You can also run Tweetdeck on Windows, so we have it loaded on our home (Tiny PC) computer and the home (Acer) laptop. Truly a cross-platform approach. More on Tweetdeck another time...
HOWEVER, when it comes to my PDA phone, which runs Windows Mobile 6, it is a different story. I normally use two applications, PockeTwit and Twikini. Now both have good and not-so-good features. I don't really intend to write a review of each application, there will be links to their websites below.
Confession time. Not only do I tweet as me, Colin English, but I also tweet under pseudonyms. I started doing this as a joke, but got a bit carried away... PockeTwit allows me to send tweets from any of my Twitter accounts and also merges the "timelines" of all the accounts into one whole one, so I can see tweets from the people followed by all accounts and tweets to all accounts in one place. Occasionally, I find this overwhelming, which is why I have been using Twikini with my main account mostly (or I did until the beta test period expired). I find Twikini easier to use, and I think this is primarily because it only looks at one Twitter account at a time.
[This does NOT mean that having multiple Twitter accounts is a BAD idea - far from it. It is recommended that you keep your personal life and work life separate if you intend to tweet about both, simply to keep your sanity and the sanity of the people who follow each side of your life. People interested in what you say about, for example, your hobbies may NOT be interested in your comments about the interesting C## algorithm you stumbled across in a developer's blog (yawn)].
So horses for courses. I really do like both Twikini AND PockeTwit.
Links:
Twikini = http://www.trinketsoftware.com/twikini/
PockeTwit = http://code.google.com/p/pocketwit/
Tweetdeck = http:/tweetdeck.com
Have fun!
Disclaimer: Other software to enhance your Twitter experience is available for Windows, Linux, Windows Mobile, Palm, Blackberry, iPhone, Symbian, etc. I an not saying that my choices are what YOU should follow.
Twkiki screen example:
PockeTwit screen example:
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