Twitter tips

Twitter had taken the world by storm! Early adopters have known for a while how much fun twitter can be. It has connected us to each other in real-time. For those who are asking "What's Twitter?" It's kind of like a Facebook status update or texting. It's called microblogging. Meaning you have 140 characters to express your thoughts or insights. You can read an earlier post about Twitter here: Why moms should tweet on Twitter. Now more people are joining and needing to learn a few things about Twitter etiquette. Here are a few things to keep in mind when tweeting to your tweeps:

1) Your tweets are broadcast to all of your followers. Don't type something about you or one of your tweeps that you wouldn't say loudly in a crowded room. This means that asking someone about her rash is not really tweetable. You can be personal, just not TOO personal. Think also about not putting too many details so that your private information stays private.

2) You can direct message someone. If you just have to ask Joy about that disgusting rash then you might want to direct message her. It goes only to the person you select. Remember also that when you get a direct message, you should direct message the response. I've seen random tweets from people who are obviously responding to a direct message but they forgot and responded in the public tweet.

3) You can respond to someone by clicking on the reply icon next to the message. This starts your tweet with @personsname but can be seen by all your followers.

4) You can make your Twitter account private or public. If it is private, then you will not be searchable. If it is public you can get random people following you and you should keep an eye on your followers to make sure you don't get people following you that you don't want. You can block them. My account is public because I wanted to be able to post it to this site. I have some followers that have their own parenting and/or mom blogs and have found my through some sort of search. I follow them if they seem interesting to me.

5) You can follow some of your favorite news organizations or companies. One of my favorites is Starbucks. Beware though that some people out there have set up fake accounts claiming to be something they are not so you have to weed through the fakes sometimes to make sure you are following the real deal. When Sarah Palin became the VP nominee there were several twitter accounts claiming to be her but they were not.

6) Do look around on the Internet for fun applications that support Twitter. Tweetdeck, Twitterfox (firefox add on), twhirl, twitpic, etc are fun things that can add to your twitter experience. There are also applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.

7) Have fun updating the silly and sometimes mundane events of your day. Your followers will enjoy being connected to you and having a little insight into your day. I recently tweeted a series of tweets about my first experience in the carpool line. I got more comments on how funny it was, I thought I was just keeping myself busy!

8) you can also follow current topics of interest by going to the search page: search.twitter.com (no www). The top trends are listed on the page and you can search key words. For example: John McCain, will come up with tweets people are posting about the presidential candidate.

I'm sure there is more, I'm still learning. Enjoy Twitter, keep these things in mind, it might help!

Other resources:
Twitter Fan Etiquette On Wiki
Blog entry on Global Geek News
Google Search

Culture Shock: Small Town Texas on a Fall Friday

This is the 3rd Friday in Kindergarten for my 5 year old. Each Friday the high school cheerleaders and a few football players are there to help kids get from their cars to the building, and to spread a little spirit. As we were walking toward the school, I noticed the mascot, a giant cardinal, was also part of the welcoming committee. Fun! Then my daughter revealed to me that she was supposed to wear red or gold to school on Fridays but she was ok because pink is like red. (I hope she doesn't try to make that argument to friends at school, my heart cringes for her.) OK, I guess I should support spirit day and make sure that next Friday, she is in red. As we get closer to the school I noticed SEVERAL little girls in cardinal cheer outfits and little boys in football jerseys! Isn't that a little overboard? Suddenly I feel awful that my little girl is going to be in a minority of girls that not only aren't wearing red, but are without the mini-cheerleader outfit!
So I decided to get a grip. Do I really want my 5 year old dressed as a 17 year old cheerleader? No thanks! She's going to have to be "different" and that is ok. I just never thought I would feel so "different" after living in Texas now for nearly 3 years. I love it, the people, the values (I could use a mountain or two, just sayin) but sometimes I grow tired of the keeping up with the Jones' attitude. But then, maybe that is everywhere, not just Texas.

Teaching kids about money

I found this great product on Parent Hacks, I'm going to purchase it. I thought it would be a good thing to pass on.

Parent Hacks: Introducing Money Management to Preschoolers

http://www.parenthacks.com/2008/09/introducing-mon.html

First 3 weeks of school

I was so not prepared for our first school experience. I knew that it would be "hard." Because that is what people told me. But I really didn't KNOW how hard it would actually be. I haven't been able to even blog the last few weeks because I really didn't feel like I had any wisdom on the subject. I still don't really feel like I do. Since dropping my daughter off at Kindergarten I have fought the urge to take her out and home school her every day. I want her back! My mind and heart are in complete disagreement.
On the one hand, I feel like our time together has been shrunken so drastically. All of the sudden she is gone, ripped from my arms! It is truly heartbreaking when I think of how much we miss of her day.
On the other hand, though sometimes she wants to stay home (when she knows lil sis and I are doing something fun that day) she really seems to enjoy school. She has learned so much already in the last 3 weeks. Every waking moment at home she is practicing her letter writing and pretending school with her sister. I know that it is important for her to be in school at this time, at this age because she is truly ready. If I had waited, I am fully confident she would be bored next year and then we'd be setting her off on the wrong foot. She's getting what she needs, when she needs it. She also has a wonderful Christian teacher.

So, as I am the adult and have to learn to let my children go, I must endure the school year missing my child and trying not to get hurt over the fact that she only mildly misses me. This process of letting go started with childbirth and I guess will continue until she is married and moving thousands of miles away from me. (sorry mom) I think I now truly understand the heartache that we cause our moms. Heartache that I just have to get over, as our moms did.

Blog Surfing

There are so many blogs out there it's hard to know which ones are worth a look. Just clicking on "next blog" at the top of the screen is a little dangerous, to say the least, and usually unsatisfying.
So how do you find quality, informative, interesting and even entertaining blogs? www.alltop.com Alltop is an aggregator of blogs. Meaning it collects, categorizes, and ranks blogs. You can find all of the top blogs for most subjects worth looking into. For instance, if you are looking for mom blogs moms.alltop.com and you will get a list of mom blogs that are the cream of the crop (oh, I can only dream!). Going to the main website, www.alltop.com will get you to a large list of topics that seems to be growing every day. Only a few topics include: homeschooling, adoption, theater, tv, and of course, blogging.

I want to share a blog with you that my husband discovered and shared with me, it is not a mom blog and can be found under church.alltop.com . Her site is www.flowerdust.net and she is an author and serves on staff at a church in Nashville. I find her entries to be interesting and real.

Happy reading!