For Twitter and Blog Beginners Only -- Some Basics and Tools For You

First off, I am no twitter expert. Just got on it myself a couple of weeks ago with a bunch of writer friends. But hang with me and at the end of this post, I'll link to some articles that have helped me get started, and can help you too.
If you came here from a tweet of mine promoting this blog post, Welcome! That's what this blog is about... getting started on something new, and celebrating your successes. Good Karma is good to spread for any endeavor, discovery, or achievement, whether it's starting out on weight loss, hitting your writing goal, or getting your first tweets on.

That's what twitter is all about really... if you are a writer, a weight loss coach, a vintage button collector, or a shoe designer,  you want all the followers possible for your blog . Tweet your blogpost, share with the Twitter button app, and hopefully others will 'hit' it (aka read it), and RT it (aka re-tweet). Even better, maybe new visitors will click on your Twitter Share button, your Facebook Like button, and spread your blog and your writing throughout all of our worlds.
And even even better, they'll follow you on twitter , follow your blog, post comments and keep coming back for more because they like what you say and how you say it.

The @symbol is for 'Dear', so @Liz is DearLiz.
Hashtags? LizSchulte, ruler of cubicle one and parts of France, says it too well:

Hashtags are the "Community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. A way to mark topic of your tweet when participating in a group discussion. Example #amwriting If you do a search for #amwriting it will pull up every tweet with this hashtag and you can find other writers on twitter to connect with.  [Pamela here: Connect is the operative word. Participate in a conversation, make friends, connect with new people and get to know them, let them get to know you. Be social. Tweet.]

Definitions:

#FF- Follow Friday used to recommend people to follow

#WW- Writer Wednesday used to recommend other writers to follow

#SS Sample Sunday used when tweeting a link to a sample of your work. "

But Twitter's about so much more: Yesterday GalleyCat, a book publishing site on Twitter, started a Twitter list of writers living, surviving, and tweeting in Japan:  http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/
Plus, ways to aid Japan's survivors are all over: Try a hashtag in the search bar for the Red Cross, or your favorite charitable organization, like this: #RedCross


On a lighter note, if you have a scattering of interests like me, you can learn the latest in trends and see fabulous, utterly outrageous, wonderful things. Like this waterslide that starts in a bedroom closet to the coolest bathtub in the world : http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/03/14/whats-that-in-your-closet-oh-a-water-slide/

Yes. Twitter can be a time suck. Beware.

And remember:  the world sees all of it. Let me be a mama and drive that point home: The WORLD sees ALL of your tweets!! Only Direct Messages are private. So be positive...  Tweet nice.
Because as easy as it is to follow, it is just as easy to UNfollow.
And if we want to get ourselves out there and get started on our new beginnings, we want Followers.

Now, those are basic beginner tips from me. You're all very smart Nikes, and you can take it from there, but  here are my go-to's for learning how to get started with twitter, and two handy-dandy twitter tools I love.

A Bientot!

http://enteringbatcountry.blogspot.com/2011/03/marketing-monster.html?showComment=1300208132395#c1295578017679957887   LizSchulte, ruler of cubicle one and parts of France, quoted above. Go read her blog and tweet. She doesn't bite.

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?s=Twitter+Tuesday+%231  The first of a series by Kristen Lamb. Read them all and keep going back for more!

http://www.novelpublicity.com/category/advice-2/social-media-2/twitter/  This is the step by step instruction guide for those of us out there who need help getting started ... with anything.

http://twuffer.com/   This app schedules your tweets... which is good if you're promoting your book while you're on that research cruise trip.

 http://thenextweb.com/TwitterKeys/keys.php?noui=1&jump=doclose  This is a pop-up you put in your browser bar. Abbreviations and symbols for when 140characters just isn't enough.