Twitter is Becoming Even More of a Force

(Thanks to The Dutiee Blog)

Many people follow Twitter to keep up on the lives of some of their favourite celebrities, or to network with others in their chosen field. I maintain a Twitter account for our office that is becoming well-known in the field of educational technology. It's a great way to stay informed on a whole variety of subjects.

It really came into its own during the Iranian Green Revolution of 2009, where the Iranian government blocked mobile phone feeds and other avenues of access to try and restrict what got out of the country. But they couldn't block Twitter without blocking the Internet totally, and Twitter became the place to get a lot of information out about the protests, the violence, the government crack-down, and all of that. I think a lot of people gained a new respect for Twitter after that.

There have been other examples of Twitter becoming prominent in the news cycle, of course. Just ask former Congressman Anthony Weiner.

However, it was only recently where an example came up that showed Twitter to be not only an outlet for the news, but also as a driving force behind some of it. In this case, if you don't follow Twitter, or the blogs that referenced it, you probably didn't hear about it.

I'm not going to get into a political debate in this post, but the example does involve politics. The Obama campaign has been making hay with a Mitt Romney family trip many years ago where the carrier containing the family dog was tied to the roof of the car. The campaign has noticed that whenever this story is brought up, Romney's negative ratings go up. It's pure gold, baby!

But Jim Treacher from the Daily Caller actually read The Audacity of Hope, one of Obama's memoirs, and noticed a line in there that struck him. It was about a time as a child when Obama was living with his stepfather in Indonesia.

"With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy)."

Yes, you read that right. Obama ate dog meat. And didn't seem to mind it.

The Perils of the "Automatic Follow"

You're innocently reading the tweets from those you follow on Twitter. Oh look, Christina Aguilera just said something really interesting! And she mentioned somebody else too.

You look at this person's timeline, see that she also posts interesting stuff, and you decide to follow her too. You click that follow button.

And a few minutes later, you get a notice that she's following you back! Wow, she must have seen that I was following her, come to my timeline and read what I had to say, and decided I was interesting enough to follow as well! Even though she's busy 23 hours a day doing shows and attempting to entertain the masses. I'm so special!!!

Actually, you're not, though it's a nice thought.

Hootsuite Complaint - Resolved!

Back in November, I had a complaint about Hootsuite, that wonderful web-based social media platform that will let you keep track of a lot of things all in one place.

It was the retweeting (RT) function. While I loved the fact that it let users both use the old RT function where you can type your own comment in addition to what you're retweeting as well as the new one.

(I'm not going to explain retweeting again, for those of you who don't know, I did in my original complaint).

The original Hootsuite problem was that, while they allowed you to use both RT functions, you had to go into your preferences and choose one. Sometimes, you want to RT something without comment, and sometimes you do want to comment.

Why should I have to go into my Preferences and change it each time I want to do one or the other?

Taking Twitter Too Seriously

In honour of my good friend Evette's return to Twitter today after a very long absence, a Twitter post!

Ok, actually, I was considering doing this one anyway, but it's posted today to honour her...

Remember yesterday's post about the Robocop statue in Detroit?

It turns out that it's very possible that this started out as a joke that took off. The mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing, as asked on Twitter about the Robocop statue. Was it a joke? I've heard differing reports on this.

Whatever the case may be, Mayor Bing took it seriously, and denied that Detroit public funds would be used for this statue.

(that just sounds so weird, especially if this were the Mayor Bing in question)

The whole thing took off from there, resulting in the news story that my post was about.

Hootsuite Complaint: Re-tweeting

This post is going to be kind of an "inside baseball" post for those who are active in the Twitterverse. But I'll try and make it entertaining enough that even if you're not into Twitter, you'll enjoy it.

At the recommendation of some friends, way back a few months ago (I barely remember yesterday, so don't expect me to remember when), some friends were raving about Hootsuite, a social media web-based platform that lets you control many of your social media outlets: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and many others. It really is a marvel, and so handy! Since it's web-based, you can access it anywhere, which makes it even better.

But there's one problem with it right now. An annoyance that I rant about on Twitter once a week or so.

It's Re-tweeting.

And no, that doesn't sound as dirty as it sounds (or as scatological).

Should Journalists Engage on Twitter?

One of the cool things about Twitter is the back and forth that can develop between parties, short and punchy discussions about various issues. It can also be a valuable way for companies or organizations to respond to public input and inquiries.

Journalists on Twitter can have it tough sometimes, but most of them do a wonderful job of mixing the personal and the professional.

But is there a grey area when it comes to responding to the public regarding stuff that you've reported or written?

The Washington Post seems to think so.

Do you live-tweet?

You're watching a hockey game on TV, or Glee on television. Maybe you're watching your favourite soap opera. And you have a Twitter account.

Do your readers find tweet after tweet of you talking about what you're watching? When the Canucks/Cubs/Giants/Patriots are playing on television, do your followers get to know what's going on in the game and how pissed off you are about it?

I admit that I do that often during Canucks games. During Game #3 on Monday night, my Twitter feed was full of stuff like this:

"The #Canucks had better get their act together, or our season tickets will be paid for next year!"

Of course, since I follow a lot of Canucks fans, I was getting a lot of tweets like that too.

Other people aren't sports fans, but they do tweet during their favourite shows:

"I can't believe Grissom came back to CSI dressed like a duck! That was just weird."

This behaviour is not uncommon, though I don't know if I would call it "normal" or not. It can be a lot of fun, almost like you're watching it in a room full of your friends. You're experiencing the event along with a group of like-minded people and gives you a sense of camaraderie with them. Even if none of them are actually reading your stuff.

Oh, one word of warning if you're on the West Coast. If you're following somebody on the East Coast who is live-tweeting a TV show (or something else that's tape-delayed by time zones), you might want to ignore their tweets for a little while, unless you want to get spoiled.

It's very common to do this with one-time events, like speeches, conventions/presentations, and the like. It can also give those people who can't be there but who want to be an opportunity to follow along.

What happens if you're watching something on DVR? Well, some would say you're a loser if you live-tweet something that's not live anymore. However, I would not go so far. I would say, however, that you're probably pretty doomed to have a one-sided conversation. Then again, maybe somebody who has already seen what you're live-tweeting about will want to comment on it?

After thinking about this, I decided "hey, why not do a poll?" This Blogpolls thing is just sitting there unused after my first poll, so why not?

And those of you who are so inclined, follow me on Twitter and we can watch Game 4 of the Canucks/Kings game tonight. Together. I'll bring the beer, but you have to bring the chips.

Tweetie 2 - The Best iPhone Twitter App I've Seen

A couple of weeks ago, I did a long post comparing the three Twitter clients I was using, trying to determine which one would be the one I used for good.  The three in question were Twitterific, Echofon, and Hootsuite.  It was hard to decide, because all of them were great but had one major deficiency.  The others were great for that deficiency but then had their own problem.

Also, after I came back from vacation, I decided to give Tweetdeck another try.  After a couple of uses, it became the one I used the most.  It was remarkably easy to use and I fell in love with it all over again.  However, it started crashing on me more often than it should, which became really annoying.

That was when, as so often happens, I read one of Sheamus' articles over on Twittercism, namely, his February review of Tweetie 2.  After reading his review, and seeing how his initial skepticism evolved to a good old-fashioned "like" then becoming total devotion, I had to try it for myself.

Yes, you can fall in love again.

Twitter apps for the iPhone

I love my iPhone. I love Twitter. So it stands to reason that I do a lot of Twitter stuff on my iPhone.  I follow so many people that I always have something to read whenever I have some time.

I spent last night, while watching the NCAA basketball games with my mom, exploring the three Twitter apps that I currently have on my iPhone (I don't use Tweetdeck, though I do have it installed, so maybe I'll explore that one next).  The three apps I was experimenting with are:  Twitterific, Echofon, and Hootsuite.  Here's my opinions on these very versatile apps.

Are you a Twitter user or just a follower?

Question for all of you who have Twitter accounts.  Do you actually use the damned things?

Having single-handedly been responsible for at least a couple of people picking up Twitter, I'm actually kind of interested in this story from a personal standpoint as well.  CNN/Money has a story today that says only 27% of Twitter users are actually active.  The article cites a study from Barracuda Networks, a security company, that states the other 73% of Twitter accounts actually do nothing but follow other people.  They don't interact at all.  I think it could possibly be said that included in that number are those who tried it and gave it up quickly, like Ricky Gervais, as it determines an "active" user as following at least 10 people, being followed by at least 10 people, and having at least 10 tweets.  Gervais certainly didn't tweet more than ten times, stopping at six.

Journalists on Twitter - should they post just news?

Somebody was criticizing @jaketapper, a reporter for ABC News (and one of the best, I think) for posting stuff about Jersey Shore and other pop culture items along with his news tweets.  I'm not going to give the woman the publicity of pointing you to her, but if you go to Jake's feed, you'll see her.

Here's one of her tweets:

"Wonder if I should take @jaketapper seriously w tweets about jerseyshore followed by Haiti. Really?"

I'm interested in all of your opinions, but here's mine.  I actually like it, and prefer it as well.  Here's why.

Ricky Gervais drops Twitter - did he even give it a chance?

Yes, I know.  Some of you may be saying "Who?" in response to this.  And even more of you might be saying "Why should I care?"  Good questions, both of you.  After providing the answer, you may still have the same questions.

I was just reading Sheamus' blog, Twittercism (and if you're on Twitter and not reading this blog, why aren't you?  There will be a test later.), and I saw his post about Ricky Gervais quitting Twitter after only 29 days and 6 tweets.  This is actually pretty pathetic, and his parting statement is kind of a slam against Twitter and its users as well.  Gervais, just like many celebrities, just doesn't "get" Twitter.

Just getting started on Twitter?

If so, then Twittercism is a great blog, especially today's post,"Have Friends That Are New To Twitter? Five Tips To Help Them Hit The Ground Running"

I've posted some posts trying to encourage my friends to at least give Twitter a try (here, here, and here), but Shea Bennett really gives you a good idea of how things work on Twitter and some good tips on how to begin and make your Twitter experience much more of a success.

If you are a current twitter user, I encourage you to explore Shea's blog and get some good tips for maximizing the experience. I know he's been a great resource for me (and also a wonderfully nice guy when I've badgered him with a couple of questions on Facebook).

Also, of course, don't forget to follow me! On the left side of this blog is a section with my last five tweets, and a "follow me on twitter" link. And follow Shea on Twitter here.

Twitter Bleg - Historians on Twitter?

I'm wondering if anybody can point me to some interesting historians who are active on Twitter? I've found a couple that I've newly followed, but I'm looking for more. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Military history and Medieval European history are main areas of focus, but I've love any historian suggestions. Thanks!

And for those of you who don't know, "bleg" is basically a blog beg, or a request for help/information. It may not be in the dictionary, but it is a word.

Twitterfeed Working Normally Again?

Over the last few days, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, and possibly a few others have been under a DDOS attack (that's Distributed Denial of Service) caused by huge numbers of computers trying to access their pages at the same time. It's designed to take down sites, and Twitter itself was down for a large part of Thursday (or Friday, can't remember) morning.

Because of this, Twitter has been restricting its API and this has affected many programs and applications that use its API to function. For me, the only thing that's been affected is Twitterfeed, which is how I get these blog posts automatically posted on to Twitter and Facebook. I've been doing them manually since this all started.

Now, according to Twitterfeed, this problem may be easing. Kudos to Twitter for even managing to stay up after their outage despite the attacks continuing, and kudos to the rest of them for never really going down (though Facebook and Blogger were having some problems during that time period).

This post is partially to spread the news and partially to test and see if Twitterfeed is actually working now.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Technological Oddities

I'm wondering if this is just me, but technology has been acting weird for me this morning.

1) Selective Twitter on Facebook neglected to post a blog post to my status despite the #fb tag being on the end of the tweet. Thought it was originally a Twitterfeed problem, but then discovered that it had been tweeted. Just not forwarded to Facebook. It was the one about comments now working, so it wasn't *that* important, but it's nice when things work right.

2) The reason I wasn't sure is because the Twitter search engine has been wonkier than normal this morning. I've got Seesmic Desktop set up with search columns for the following searches: "histerin," "@histerin" (to catch replies to me or mentions of me that the first search might not catch), "ubcmet" and "@ubcmet"

So far, some of my tweets have not shown up in the appropriate search column. I've missed a couple of replies because the "@histerin" search doesn't appear to be catching them. I also missed that the above-mentioned post had been tweeted.

3) That damned Twitviewer spam thing that got me and a bunch of other people I follow. I don't know if it's a true phish or not, but when you go to the page and log in to your Twitter account, it immediately causes you to tweet some Twitviewer spam. And then when you are logged in it doesn't even give you anything useful! If you see a tweet mentioning Twitviewer, do not click on the link.

The above problems were also happening with the @UBCMET, our office's twitter feed. It's all very unreal.

Wonder if there is a general Internet problem going on?

#edit: Apparently, that Twitviewer was a phish. I keep on getting locked out of my Twitter account because of too many attempts to log in. *sigh* I've changed my password, so I guess I just have to wait for the numerous attempts to subside?

#edit No 2: Also, as has been pointed out by some people on Mashable, "twitviewer.com" is fine. The phish (which apparently has been taken down anyway) was "twitviewer.net."

What is This Twitter Thing? - Part 3

Hopefully the previous two posts on Twitter have given you some idea of what you might want to do with it, at least as far as what you want to read is concerned. But reading is only half the fun. Hell, it's not even half the fun, actually.

How do you become a part of this vast Twitter universe? What will get people following you and reading what you write? How do you get friends, socialize with people, and generally become part of the conversation? Well, you're just going to have to post something, aren't you?

I know what you're thinking. "Why would anybody care what I say?" "I don't do anything interesting." Things like that. Don't worry, I thought the same way too. (Shout from the Peanut Gallery: "And you're still not interesting!") There's nothing wrong with posting some kind of introductory post, just to get things started. My very first post, way back when, was something about trying "understand this Twitter thing." Of course, it got me no followers, but that's because I didn't follow it up with anything else.

There are two things to know about interacting with other people on Twitter.

1) People love to have their posts forwarded to others (called "Re-tweeting" in Twitterspeak). A lot of people actually have searches set up so they can see if somebody re-tweets what they say. They'll occasionally even thank you for it by replying to you. So if you're following somebody and they say something that you think other people who are interested in the same thing might like to know, go ahead and re-tweet it.

You might say "but I don't have any followers yet, so who's going to see it?" While that's true, you're already beginning to build a network because your post will show up on twitter searches and you've already become known to the person you re-tweeted.

Now, I don't suggest you re-tweet with total abandon, but some re-tweeting is a good way to get started.

Of course, the web version of Twitter doesn't support easy re-tweeting, but you can copy-and-paste the post, making sure you give credit to the person (like this, but without the quotation marks: "RT @histerin Trying this Twitter thing out now.") Or you can use a Twitter application, which I'll talk about in another post.

2) Reply to people. Did somebody say something you found valuable or interesting? Reply to it and tell them! If it's a celebrity, there's a good chance you won't get a response, but others will probably respond, depending on what you say. The response will show up on your Twitter profile (everything you post publicly will), so don't think it's only going to them and say something you wouldn't want the whole world to see. The only way to message people directly and privately is when they follow you. Yes, I know that's weird, but that's how it's set up.

The easiest way to get involved, though, is to just start posting things that you find interesting. Are you into politics? Did you see an interesting political news story? Post a link to it with your opinion about it. Into sports? Did you see that Michael Vick got partially re-instated today? If you're reading a news article on it, pass it along! Did you see some good Days of Our Lives gossip that you might want to pass along? Do it!

Yes, you can also post things like "Going down to Outback Steakhouse tonight for dinner with the wife. She's paying!" as long as that's not all you post. In fact, posts like that actually humanize you once you do have followers. It gives them an insight into your life and how you're living it. There's nothing wrong with that. You just won't build too many followers if you start out that way.

One piece of advice, too. Make sure you post information your profile about interests and what you like to talk about. If you look at my profile, you'll see the following:

"Senior Program Assistant at UBC, conservative, love to read history and SF"

It's not much, but people see a little bit about me. Combine that with my posts, and they get an idea if I'm going to be interesting to follow. Some people don't follow anybody who doesn't have at least something on their profile, because it seems to indicate that the person doesn't really care about networking.

And you will get followers, even if you hardly post anything. These will be a combination of people who find you and hope desperately that you'll follow them back, spam accounts who are just trying to get their business/adult pictures/whatever information out there, and the like. People you follow will sometimes have a program set up so that if somebody follows them, they'll automatically follow that person back. Thus, some of the people you're following will follow you. That doesn't mean they'll read you, but it does add to your list.

The best advice I can give is just to keep tweeting. Don't post 100 tweets your first day or anything like that (that's spamming), but just remain active. As you continue to tweet and to read other people's tweets, you'll find it's a fun experience. And the first time somebody responds to one of your tweets, or re-tweets something you sent out, you'll get a thrill up your leg that doesn't have anything to do with Obama.

Keep in mind that these tips have nothing to do with being "successful" on Twitter, as far as becoming a Twitter celebrity or a pundit, or using it successfully to promote your business. There are far better guides out there for that. These posts are just intended for those who want to dip their toes in, see what the phenomenon is, and have some fun.

What is This Twitter Thing? - Part 2

One of my first posts on this blog was transferring a post I made on Facebook, trying to get my family and friends to check out Twitter. Here's the original post.

So, as promised, here are some more thoughts on the whole phenomenon and how you can become part of it yourself. If you're new to Twitter, I heartily recommend the blog Twittercism, especially the post Twitter 101. This post gives you the basics on what you need to know to get started. It has everything from Twitter etiquette to how to get followers and how to share links. It's a one-stop shop for learning the basics and how to get going.

Because that post is so definitive, I won't get into any of that here. It would just be reinventing the wheel, and Sheamus is definitely worth following if you do start to Twitter. Instead, what I'll do is tell you some about my experience, how I've made use of it, and give some general advice.

First, keep in mind that everybody uses Twitter differently, and there is no one right way to use it. There are wrong ways if you want to actually take part in the Twitter universe instead of living in your own Twitter ghetto where nobody comes. You do get out of it what you put into it. Posting nothing but banalities is a good way to be completely ignored. You may get a few followers, but these will mostly be people who have programs set up to automatically follow anybody who follows them. Most likely, they'll never read what you post.

What do I use Twitter for? I use it for a few different reasons. I follow politics a great deal, and there are some great conservative tweeters out there, disseminating their views either on their blogs (which I find by them posting links to blog posts on Twitter) or on Twitter itself. There are also some good liberal ones, but we won't talk about that right now. I follow them to get their thoughts on the current topics of the day, as well as to get to know them a bit better too. They're not above posting personal tweets as well as political ones, as the best tweeters do.

I follow a few authors and other celebrities as well, though not many. Mainly, I follow them because they post either interesting thoughts or interesting things about themselves and what they're up to. The best ones actually engage their readers, and it's a great way to feel like you're in touch with them if it's somebody you admire.

I mentioned in my first post that I follow Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20. First, I like his music. Secondly, despite the fact that he seems to be a flaming liberal and I doubt I agree with him on anything political, he posts interesting stuff. Finally, when he posts interesting stuff, he seems to engage his readers in the discussion as well. While I can't see the discussion because I'm not following who he's discussing things with, he will often tweet things like:

"ok guys. gotta go have my day. thanx for the debate. btw, the bad-ass on my background is DOLEMITE!!!!"

Also, many of his tweets are replies to other people, which is also a good sign.

Many celebrities twitterers could take a page from his book. He even had a back and forth discussion about Fan Club perk seating at one of his concerts because people were complaining about it. No matter what you think of the topic, the fact that he would actually take the time to do that says something, I think.

When you're looking for celebrities to follow, Rob Thomas is a good example to keep in mind. Of course, you might not get that lucky, and the celebrity that you're dying to follow to find out what they think about things is somebody who talks at you instead of being willing to talk to you. But that's ok. If you find them interesting, that's all that matters.

The only cardinal rule about following somebody is that they should interest you and not post things you find offensive or annoying. They should make you laugh, or make you think, or be informative (I follow a few people who talk about iPhone apps, for instance). Obviously, the more people you follow, the harder it can be to keep up with them all. But that's ok. You can go to their profile page and see everything they've posted (to get the Rob Thomas quote above, I had to go back to July 15) if you're truly interested. Or, you can realize that Twitter is an ephemeral thing and you don't have to look at everything they've posted.

Ok, so you're now following a bunch of interesting people, being informed, having your thoughts provoked, or being entertained. How do you turn the tables and start participating yourself?

That's for the next post. I promise it won't be a week coming this time. Incidentally, if you wish to follow me, you can find me here.

What is this Twitter thing?

(Facebook friends have seen this, but nobody else has)

When I first got the invite to join Twitter back in the summer of 2008 (I think it was from my brother, but I'm not 100% sure), I didn't really know what to make of it. I was on Facebook, and Twitter just seemed to be a place to put status updates. "Heading to the gym!" or "I'm going to bed now" or even "Having a peanut butter sandwich." This is back when Facebook's "updates" were more along those lines ("David is wondering what this Twitter thing is" and stuff like that). I posted once about "not really knowing what to do with this Twitter thing" and ignored it after that.

Then, one of my students found me on Twitter (Hi, Bernadette!) over Christmas and I looked into it a bit more. And what I found piqued my interest. People are actually *talking* in Twitter! They're passing along information! So I read a few of Bernadette's followers, did a search on some interesting people, and fell into a world that I haven't left since, 969 posts later (note to self: make 1000th post especially interesting). I'm following 181 people and have 160 followers myself. I also started a MET program Twitter feed for work, posting updates about the program and other e-learning stuff and it's been pretty popular.

So, just what is Twitter? What are you missing out on? Twitter is a social media phenomenon where you post "Tweets" that are a maximum of 140 characters long. That doesn't seem like much, does it? But it's amazing what you can say in that amount of space, especially with Internet shortcuts like "b4" instead of "before." Some people use it for extremely banal reasons, like "I'm eating ice cream!", but those people hardly have any followers and nobody really cares about them. There are so many other users out there who are interesting. If you're interested in something, most likely somebody's tweeting about it. Interested in "Days of Our Lives?" There's a twitter feed for it where you can get information on schedule preemptions ("NOTICE:The Tues. (Jul. 7) episode of DAYS will be preempted due to Michael Jackson funeral coverage. The episode will now air Wed. (Jul. 8)") or even information on what some of the actors are doing ("Stars Nadia Bjorlin + Eric Martsolf to sing at Dodger Stadium this Saturday, June 6! Details here: http://tinyurl.com/o78qbw "). And people are talking about it if you do a search on that string (make sure you put the quotes in, like this: "Days of Our Lives").

What about politics? That's one of the major areas of Twitter that I follow. Pundits like Karl Rove and Alan Colmes are on there, giving their thoughts on politics and also promoting their activities, of course. Even the president has a twitter feed, though of course he doesn't contribute to it himself, I'm sure. Some politicians do their own feeds (being from Iowa, I love Chuck Grassley's feed) and others have theirs done for them (the infamous Mark Sanford, for instance). Twitter really made a name for itself during the recent Iranian unrest, which is still going on (as is the Tweeting about it!). It allowed protestors on the street to get around the official blackout of the web and other social media services. It allowed videos of the atrocities to reach the outside world. It was amazing, and I did as much as I could to forward these tweets along.

But it's not all politics. Celebrities post (Ashton Kutcher famously had a contest to see who would reach 1 million followers first, him or CNN). Sports figures post (Shaq posted from the locker room at halftime once). Even reporters (the best is Jake Tapper, of ABC News: ). I follow Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, and he's actually a pretty interesting tweeter, to name one example. People like you and me post. As long as you're posting more than your daily routine ("Heading out to Outback Steakhouse for a nice, juicy steak!" posts are fine occasionally, but if that's all you post, who cares?), then you'll pick up some readers. What are you thinking about? What are you doing that somebody might be interested in? If you're in business, promote yourself a little bit. Pass along an interesting article that you think everybody should read.

What would I suggest? Sign up for a Twitter account (URL posted above) and then do a search on some topics you might be interested in ("scrapbooking" got a lot of hits) and see what people are saying. Or click on "Find People" and type in what you're interested in. You may find some people in that field who really know what they're talking about ("scrapbooking" got a lot of hits here, too). Go to their profile and see what they're talking about! Maybe you might want to join the conversation too.

This is in danger of going on too long ("it already is!" yells the Peanut Gallery), so I'll stop for now. My profile is here, and feel free to take a look at mine as well. I'm not vain enough to hold myself as a shining example of how to Tweet, but I like to think I'm pretty good. If there's enough interest, I may post more thoughts on Twitter. Let me know!