I am a very big fan of Twitter. I have been using it for quite sometime now and I think it is a very convenient way to stay connected with friends, families, and even the world. You can share or connect with them in real-time and tell them what you are doing currently.
The best part about it is micro-blogging; you are not required to type a whole blog but just a statement of not more than 140 characters. Another advantage is that if you want to put a link then Twitter truncates the url to a tinyurl.com link, thus you can link a large url while saving space for typing more characters. Undoubtedly, Twitter is shrinking our world!
My twitter username is pinaldave.
There are already plenty of guides easily available about how twitter should be used and what are the advantages and disadvantages. You can find plenty of related information on the various sites, so we will not cover them today. In this post we will just see how I use it and what I exactly use it for.
I primarily use it for two reasons 1) to stay connected with my friends by reading their timeline 2) to post important news from my side or this blog on twitter. I use currently as my twitter client as it provides me multiple columns of timelines for all necessary groups. I can make my own personal group here as well.
Twitter Keywords
When I have to reply to someone I use @username for the person and that twit shows up on the person’s timeline as well as on my timeline. People who are following both of us will be able to view that reply as well. E.g. @pinaldave you love twitter.
When I have to inform everyone that someone has twitted me and I liked it, I simply prefix it with the word RT and that is broadcast to everyone following me. It will also show up as reply/mention of anybody’s name I mentioned in my message. E.g. RT @pinaldave you love twitter.
When I have to send direct email that can be viewed by only two people, I prefix it with the word D before my message to make it visible to those two; however, for this feature the other person has to follow you first. D pinaldave you love twitter.
I often use # for important searchable keywords. Many times, people search those hash tags using twitter search. E.g. Pinal Dave, you love #twitter.
Follow and Followers
I currently follow only people whom I genuinely want to follow. I do not follow everyone who comes across me. I think it is unfair to follow people if I am not interested in reading them. I keep my timeline open to let people follow me as they prefer and learn about exactly what is happening in my world.
A common adage we have often listened is – Quality is more important than Quantity. In Twitter this applies perfectly. It really does not matter to have a large number of people following you when they are not really reading your twits. When I follow someone, I give my 100% attention and read everything they write.
Twitter is Personal Choice
I am not here to advocate the use of twitter. I would rather suggest that it is completely your choice. More importantly, overuse of twitter can for sure damage your online reputation.
I love twittering but when I am at work, I make sure that I do not leave the client open till I finish my work. It is not fair to my employer if I am twitting during my work time. I do not even respond to emails when I am at my consultancy work.
General Twitter Guidelines
There are numerous specialized guidelines for Twitter. Just treat this as your regular conversation. In regular conversation, we do not always repeat what other person suggests. Same way, one should control their RT (re-twitting). Also remember, no one will talk to us if we keep boasting about ourselves too much. Keep this in mind while twittering. I can go on writing about Twitter here, but I am sure you are pretty smart and can assume other rules by yourself.
The person from whom I learn tricks about twitter is Brent Ozar (@BrentO), I like his articles on twitter.
You are welcome to follow me on twitter here : pinaldave
Reference : Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)
3 Comments. Leave new
Glad you liked the articles! :-D
Hey Pinal, I notice you have not listed your twitter id in either your contact me page or on the right navbar for your site. Just wanted to bring that to your attention.
I was trying to find it to reference you in a tweet (recommending one of your blog entries) but couldn’t find it. I knew I’d seen this entry earlier in the month so searched and found it. You may want to add the id in places people may more typically reference it. I’m sure many will want to follow you. :-)