WEBVTT - Creative Ways to Use Twitter 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:09.040 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:14.160 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello, everybody, 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:16.800 welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, and 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.760 I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.319 And with me as usual as the person for whom 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.920 I usually edit articles, that would be senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:34.320 I'm sorry the service is temporarily unavailable. Okay, say wale, Yes, 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.400 we're going to talk about everybody's favorite hundred and forty 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:43.520 character limited blogging service Twitter Twitter. We've talked about Twitter before, 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.320 but this time we're gonna talk about some cool stuff 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.559 you can do using Twitter. That because before we were 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:51.680 just kind of talking about what the service was, and 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:53.920 and you know, by now, pretty much everyone's heard of 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:58.120 it thanks to people like Oprun, Ashton Kutcher and really more. 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:03.280 They they they used Twitter well noticed ye Ashton could 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.040 could jump off the Twitter bandwagon at any minute, And 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.759 boy are we holding our breath for that announcement, because lord, 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:12.839 I don't know that I can sleep at night knowing 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.039 that Ashton isn't on Twitter has at least a million 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:20.080 more followers than I do. Sure, yeah, I mean the 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.760 guys got the guy's got plenty of followers. I'm not 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.920 one of them. I have a hundred and nine people 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.320 I'm following or thereabouts, and and strangely enough, he is 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:40.080 not among that that crew. Yeah, but I follow you, Chris. Okay. Twitter, Now, 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:45.240 just in case somehow you don't know what this is. Twitter? 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.120 Is this this messaging service. Really. It's used over the 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.200 web and you can access it either through a computer 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:56.920 or your cell phone, and you can send messages that 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.680 range up to a hundred and forty character at a time. 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:05.800 And people who first joined Twitter often get overwhelmed by it. 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.680 They don't necessarily see the value in it. And there 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.760 are a lot of people who they look at it, 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.079 they decide it's not for them and they leave, and 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.079 that that they don't look back, and that's it. Yeah. 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:19.760 I think a lot of people who are just coming 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:22.640 to Twitter after being told, hey, you should check this out, 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:25.720 are kind of put off by the message on the 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.520 home page of Twitter, which is you know, what are 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:32.440 you doing right now? I have to be what you're doing. Yeah. See, 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:36.040 that's that's I think that's a big misstep. On Twitter's part, 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:40.520 because that question makes you think, oh, well, I just 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.040 tied my shoes, so I guess I should type that 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.320 in the type of I just tied my shoes, and 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.080 everyone who's following you, assuming that you have followers, looks 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.400 at that and thinks, I don't need to follow this person. 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.000 All they do is type about tying their shoes. It's 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.240 not interesting to me, it's not relevant, and it's not entertaining, 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:04.760 so there's no reason to follow them now. Um. However, 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.480 if you use Twitter to do things like share interesting 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.560 news stories or tell some jokes or or things like that, 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:15.560 if you're entertaining or informative, or if you're a famous person, 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.400 people will follow you and continue to follow you. Yep, yep, 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:23.360 And um, you know, that's one of the cooler things 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.040 to do with it. In my opinion, it's really sort 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.040 of mundane if you think about it, because it doesn't 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.119 sound sexy and exciting. But you know, make a new friend. Yeah, 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.600 it's really easy to do, and you kind of have 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:35.760 to get past the what the heck am I doing 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.600 with this thing? And I think everybody has that moment 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:40.440 of what the heck am I doing with this thing? 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:43.480 You know, you sign up, you throw a few comments 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:45.800 on there, you follow a few people, and nothing happens, 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:47.400 and you go, do I really want to keep going 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:49.960 with this? If you do, you know, there are some 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.240 simple things that you can do to kind of push that, 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.720 and you can start actually talking to people and having conversations, 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:58.920 and that's kind of a neat thing, right, Yeah, So 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.560 the first thing you would end up doing is um 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:03.680 probably trying to find a few people that you want 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.200 to follow. Whether these are people you know in real life, 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.080 like good friends or family and you just wanna keep 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.160 up with what they're doing on a daily basis, Well, 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.960 you can follow them. If there are any journalists that 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.719 you particularly admire, or news agencies that you know that 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.160 you think provide a valuable service, you can see if 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.560 they have a Twitter account and follow them. There are 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.599 a lot of news agencies that have Twitter accounts, Twitter feeds, 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:32.880 and you can keep up with breaking news that before 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.760 before it hits any major news source, you can find 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.200 out about it on Twitter, which can be very useful 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.640 if you happen to be heading in an area that, 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:43.600 let's say just is about to get hit by a tornado. 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.919 It's good to be able to see that before it happens. 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.320 That's true, providing you have time to actually check your Twitter, 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.320 and all depends on whether how you're receiving the messages 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:57.159 to um, but there are lots of Once you start 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.320 following people and you start seeing how this works, you 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.120 have to keep in mind people who follow you, they 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.320 are going to receive the messages that you send out 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.440 for the most part. There are a few exceptions. Will 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.920 get into those little bit a little bit later. And 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.479 then there's a public timeline that unless you change the 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.520 settings in your account, your messages will also appear on 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.520 that public timeline. So anyone looking at the public timeline 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:23.440 around the time you you post a message will be 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:25.640 able to see what you type. So it's not just 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.040 the people who are following you who see that, unless, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.880 of course, you've, like I said, adjusted your settings so 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:35.400 that your messages do not appear on the public timeline. Now, 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.520 that doesn't mean that that the only people who will 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.720 ever see anything you write are either following you or 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:45.760 watching the public timeline. You can actually direct messages at people. 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:50.960 In fact, it's using the at reply UH method, and 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:55.159 it's simply the AT symbol followed by the person's handle, 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.920 and that message will appear in that person's Twitter feed. 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.240 And if the person is getting tons and tons of 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.560 Twitter messages, they may not see it anyway. But if 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.240 they aren't getting tons, then there's a good chance they'll 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.719 see your message. So it might be someone that you 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:13.960 know who isn't aware that you're on Twitter, and you 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.040 can let them know and then maybe they'll follow you back. 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:19.080 If someone is following you and you're following them, you 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.640 can send a direct message, which is a private message 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:23.280 between the two of you and no one else can 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:25.640 see it. And it's much more likely that they're going 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.320 to see a direct message, and they would, you know, 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:31.560 with a simple at reply, right. Most Twitter clients have 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.039 some sort of special notification for things like at replies 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:39.560 and direct messages and uh. Those can be applications that 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.360 are either on computers or on your cell phone smartphone, 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.719 that kind of thing, UM and you can you can adjust. 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:48.640 Most of these have have sayings that you can adjust 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:50.560 so that it will alert you whenever there's either a 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.359 new tweet, which is of course the noun version of 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.360 the message UM or at least one of them. There 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.400 are also people who call them twitters uh or if 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.839 that's a little overwhelming, and it might be because, like 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.040 I follow a hundred and nine people, if I had 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:06.800 my phone and alert me every time there was a 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:11.680 new tweet, it would never stop vibrating. So in my case, 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:13.680 I just have it where it alerts me for replies 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:19.760 and direct messages. So that's the basics. Now let's get 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.520 down to some other kind of interesting things that you 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.800 can use Twitter for two to really get the most 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.720 of your experience. Okay, do you want me to start 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.040 or you want to you know, I could go either way. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:37.360 Why don't you go ahead? All right? Sure? So hashtags? 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.440 Hashtags are good, that's appropriate. Right on the end of 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.560 the after so as Chris, as Chris goes on a 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:48.480 rampage through the studio, apparently hashtags or something. He feels 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:55.960 very passionately about hashtags. So hashtags, h you're using the 0:07:56.000 --> 0:08:00.240 little hash symbol, which is the pound sign or the 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:06.200 nice the octathorp busting now the octathorm. So yeah, when 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:10.440 you're using you use that in front of uh, whatever 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.920 term that you are are talking about, like if you're 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.840 talking about a specific subject, and that allows people to 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.119 search for that term in a in a more effective way, 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.360 they can put the hashtag in front of it. They 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.280 put the term there, and then they you can use 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.200 a Twitter search engine to pull up all the tweets 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.920 that relate to that topic, so you can actually follow 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.760 group conversations about a subject. And the interesting thing is 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:41.920 about in the in these group conversations, you may only 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.040 see three or four the people in that discussion from 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:48.839 your Twitter feed, and you can even participate in that discussion. 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.040 When you do the search, you'll see everything, so you'll 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.280 suddenly get a bigger picture of the discussion that was 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:56.280 going on, and it actually becomes pretty interesting. There are 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.040 a few people within the Twitter verse who are probably 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.720 the lynch pins for these big discussions. These are usually 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:05.040 the people who have hundreds of thousands of followers and 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:09.400 so they kind of end up seeing everything anyway. But 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.959 I'm thinking of you guy, or Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.079 is he's he's sort of the center of my Twitter verse. 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.640 Neil Gaiman and uh and Stephen Fry, the two of 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.920 them together pretty much like it's interesting. I can see 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.040 I can actually see messages from some of the people 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.200 I follow get responded to by other people I follow, 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.559 and I had no idea that there was any connection 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:37.120 between the two until that happened. So Twitter searches, like 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.360 I said, that has a lot that that ties back 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:42.040 into the hashtag thing. Those are very useful. You can 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.240 search for pretty much any term you want. I've done 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.880 it for how stuff works before, to see what people 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:51.720 are saying about us, and it's a it's it's pretty useful. Um. 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.320 The Twitter search function tool if you just if you 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:58.120 go to the regular Twitter search engine, it'll, uh, it'll 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.040 pull up all the most recent tweet and it will 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.360 even update as time goes on, so as people send 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:08.880 more messages, you'll be able to see them appear. Mm hmmm. Um. 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:12.240 One of the the things that I like about Twitter 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:19.120 is it's great for finding quick answers to questions. Um, crowdsourcing, Yes, crowdsourcing, 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.880 and it's it's um really simple to you know, just 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.160 throw up a question on your Twitter feed, especially if 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.960 you have a reasonable number of followers, and get a 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:34.760 reasonably quick answer as a result. Uh. Famous people have 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.600 no trouble finding answers to anything on Twitter because hundreds 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:42.000 of thousands of followers. Yes, and and it invariably happens 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.760 when somebody will uh post a question and I will 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.400 race to answer it because I like knowing answers and 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.360 and you know, surprising someone and going, hey, I know 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:55.920 the answer to that, and uh, usually within seconds of 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.280 my trying to type that in and at reply to 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.679 this person, um, I'll get four tweets from the original 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.400 person saying thank you the sixteen people and thank you 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.920 these twenty four people. I'm going, wow, I slightly beaten 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.160 to the punch there. Yeah, but it's it's very easy 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:15.000 if you uh, you know, even people where you say, 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.679 I've seen people who are teaching classes say I'm going 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.560 to talk about this in my class. Can any of 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.360 you tell me why something something happens? And then uh, 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.480 you know, they get the answers they want immediately, you know, 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.480 just in the process of demonstrating Twitter. I've used that 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.280 same method when I was visiting different cities and I 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.120 would send out a Twitter message just saying, hey, any 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.640 of my Twitter followers happened to live in and say, Austin, Texas, 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:44.320 where's a good place for me to grab now a 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:48.880 really good taco? Stuff like that. You're gonna get responses 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:50.880 the sort of thing. Now. Now, granted, if you have 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:55.800 five followers, then your your responses will be somewhat limited. 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.760 Um and the way you get more followers usually happens 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.560 fair organically, unless you're a celebrity, in which case you 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:04.960 know people already are interested in you, so they're following 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:09.359 you anyway. But if you get mentioned by other folks, 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:13.080 like if you are contributing to discussions in a helpful way, 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.600 they will likely reply to you in such a way 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.800 that there are other followers can see that you know, 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:22.280 what you're saying is interesting, and then they their followers 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.720 may say, hey, let me check out this other guy 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.880 because apparently he knows what he's talking about, and then 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.080 you might end up with followers that way. I've I've 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.040 had that happen a few times, usually whenever I chat 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:37.000 with anyone, you know, a pretty significant stature in the 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.640 Twitter verse. There's also a thing called follow Friday, which 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.959 is really a meme on Twitter. It's a meme that 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.800 uses the hashtag that that Jonathan was talking about earlier. 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.480 And usually what what follow Friday does is the people 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.840 who participate in it, they just list some of the 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.000 folks they follow that they think are pretty cool and 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.679 that you know, people and more people should follow those people, 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.720 and I've been on a couple of those lists, So, um, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.400 now I'm still a small fry. I mean I'm talking 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:08.960 major small fry in the Twitter verse. I have three 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.720 hundred and eighty or so followers right now. But when 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.439 you're looking at people like Ashton Kutcher who have over 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.800 a million, and then you have lots of other folks 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.640 who are in the six hundred thousand, five hundred thousand range, 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:25.800 three is tiny. Yeah, but uh, I have great followers, 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:27.960 So I don't mind the fact that I don't have that, 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.120 MANI because the ones I have are awesome, excellent. Um, 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:34.480 you know, I was gonna mention before we get away 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:40.120 from the using the crowdsourcing aspects of Twitter, A cool 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.199 website that I found that that works for this is 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.480 straw pole now dot com. And you can sign up 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:49.960 and basically create your own poll and you can ask people, uh, 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:51.800 you know, and log in and give you a graphical 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.440 representation of your you know, it's a two question pole, 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:59.200 which is better red or blue? Or you know what, 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.360 what do you prefer? Ice creamer cake? You know you 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.120 do do those kinds of either oars but pretty neat, 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:09.960 little neat, little website and and sticking with the crowdsourcing thing. 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:15.280 Information on Twitter tends to spread viral e because people 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:19.640 retweet it exactly retweets. Another important part of Twitter. A 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:23.360 retweet is when someone takes the message that another person 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.720 is sent and then posts it. And the general format 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:32.680 is you type in our T meaning retweet uh at 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:37.080 and the original person's name, and then the message. And 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:42.840 this way you you hit a larger audience because theoretically 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:47.240 the second person who retweets the the first person's message 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:49.960 is going to have different followers or at least a 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.040 few different followers than the first person, and it will 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.000 spread that way now greatly when when something gets retweeted 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.600 by a big name, uh, I mean, you can still 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:02.040 retweet it, but here's a good chance that everyone following 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.880 you is seeing it somewhere else already. Because when you're 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.080 talking about the big big names, they're just there's so 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.600 many people following them that you know, it's it's kind 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:13.640 of a silly thing to retweet something that maybe Stephen Fryer, 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.440 Neil Gaiman or Ashton Kutcher or any of those big 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.800 names have said, because chances are it's gotten around already. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:22.760 You can still do it. There's nothing wrong with it, 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:27.040 and um, so that's a good way to to learn 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:29.320 about what's going on in the world. And if you're 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:33.520 interested in a very specific subset of information. Um, I 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.440 find it incredibly useful to follow tech news that way. 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.320 I followed tons of tech journalists and and tech news 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.480 sources and even users. I've I've received some really cool 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:49.320 information from users that lead to fantastic blog posts. I 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:51.960 can think of one in particular that is still going 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:56.080 strong two months after I wrote it. And um, you 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.360 know that's the thing is that that, like I said, 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.400 the information spreads virally. So if you are an information 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.960 junkie like I am, Twitter is awesome. Hey, we'll also 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.040 gradually suck your life away, but in a good way. Yes. Um. 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.760 Something else that's cool to do with Twitter, um, surprisingly 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:17.520 enough is to promote yourself. Uh. And I you know, 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.640 most of the time shameless self marketing is sort of 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:24.760 you know, frowned upon because it's you know, shameless, but 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:27.480 you look at it, and uh, you know, that's that's 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:28.920 what a lot of people do on Twitter, sort of 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.400 expected depends on on who you're twittering or I'm following. Actually, 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.520 and especially with somebody like, uh, you know, famous famous people, 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.160 famous authors or actors. Um, you're following them probably because 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:42.960 you want to find out when their next you know, 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.800 big project is coming out, how that's going, or you 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:47.720 want to find out what's going on behind the scenes. 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:50.880 So people say, oh, you know, I I uh, it's 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:54.000 ten minutes to the show. Little anxious, you know, people go, oh, 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:56.680 that's kind of that's kind of cool information. It's definitely 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.360 a little bit more interesting than tying your shoes. And 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.040 a lot of people follow uh. I think a lot 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.960 of people follow Jonathan's feed because he regularly posts when 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.359 he's got a new blog post up. Um, so you know, 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:12.280 when people who are interested in reading the tech stuff blog, uh, 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:14.320 you know, read his Twitter feed to go, oh, hey, 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:16.200 there's new blog post. And then I've seen lots of 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.760 people do that, you know, So that's uh, it's it's 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.040 not a bad thing to do, and people don't get 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:24.600 all bent out of shape because you're promoting your latest project. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.119 Speaking of self promotion, if you want to follow me, 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.359 my handle is John Strickland j O N S t 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:37.280 R I C K L A N D. Moving on. Um, yeah, 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:41.440 self promotion is a big part of Twitter. Um. One 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.680 of the people I follow Jonathan Colton, the musician. Yes, 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.960 he uses Twitter to not only announce when he's going 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:52.080 to have a new tour date or a new song 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.600 is out, he even uses it to ask his followers 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.960 for uh, song requests when he comes to their town. 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.880 So come to He came to Atlanta not that long ago, 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.000 and he sent out a Twitter message saying, all right, 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:07.639 give me your song requests, and people will send in 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.800 their messages and he played those songs and uh. I mean. 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:14.119 That's another great thing about Twitter is that it's this 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:19.480 interactive medium and you get to have some sort of 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.359 interaction with people that you really admire or you just 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:27.840 you know, your gaga over that particular celebrity. There is 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.160 a chance that you have that little bit of a connection, 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.600 and that's a very enticing thing. You also get to 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:37.640 see some really cool conversations between different celebrities, Like if 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.720 you follow both parties, you get to see both ends 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.400 of the conversation, assuming they're not speaking in direct messages 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.760 that is. And it's fun. It's like you're at a 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.199 Hollywood party and you're in the corner and you're watching 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.439 two celebrities just kind of gossip and chat and joke around. 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.720 It's awesome. It's so much fun. And that you know, 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.359 social nervousness that comes from being in a big Hollywood party. Right. 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.800 They don't they don't even notice my my profuse sweating 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:09.520 or my uh habit of cursing at inappropriate moments. Um. 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:11.880 You know, I have another one that's sort of related 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:18.680 to that, to the cursing. Networking, it's great to to 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.760 meet people. UM. Directory that's become popular, at least one 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.720 of them is that we follow dot com and um, 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.359 you could go on there and basically tag yourself up 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.440 to three tags, isn't it so it was when I 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:34.439 when I started, when I joined, it was three. I'm 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.680 assuming it hasn't changed. Um, And you know, for example, 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:41.800 I have myself tagged as an editor and writer on there, 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:43.840 and you can you can go on there to find people. 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.000 But you know, if you can, you can start to 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:48.800 find other people who do what you do and add 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.080 them and start conversations with them, you know, retreat, retweet 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:55.159 some of their their messages and and uh you know, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.119 mention them and get ato hashtag conversations with them. You 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.560 can actually you can actually network and make new friends 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.040 and and sort of build a community around yourself and 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:09.200 join in existing communities, which is, you know, pretty neat. Yeah. Actually, 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.679 when I was while I was at the UH the 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:17.320 Electronic Entertainment Expo E three. While I was there, UH, 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:21.760 a fellow tech journalist tracked me down via Twitter, followed 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.320 me on Twitter, sent me a direct message, and asked 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:28.320 me for a favor. Unfortunately, I was unable to help 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.040 Miss Natalie dell Conti of c net. And although she's 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:36.280 dreamy and a fantastic tech journalist, I had a flight 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:38.720 I had to catch, so I couldn't help her out. 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.359 But that's a cool opportunity that I never would have 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.879 had at all if I didn't have Twitter. You know. 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.000 But she knew she knew me, she just didn't follow 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:50.840 me on Twitter at that point. She's still following me 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:53.879 as of the recording of this podcast. That could change 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.400 by the time this goes live. She might be like, 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.080 totally don't need this, dude, X. But um, right now 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:04.560 she's still following me. Ye, So uh should I give 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.720 you another one? Yeah? Go ahead? Um? You could uh 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.000 you could start a revolution. Oh, I say you want 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:16.000 a revolution. We all want to change the world. You know, 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:18.919 it wasn't that long ago. We were talking about the 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:23.359 Twitter and uh I mentioned the UH this sort of 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:26.000 protest going on in Moldova where people were using Facebook 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:29.679 and Twitter to coordinate their activities using hashtags and some 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.479 of the other messaging UH to sort of stay one 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:34.840 step ahead of the authorities because they would you know, 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:37.200 message where they were going to be at what time, 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:41.760 and people would start showing up. Um. However, since that 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.960 podcast went we recorded it before, you know, a ways 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.480 off before one live. Since that time, UH, there has 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:53.119 been a very major media event that in which people 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:58.080 use Twitter and not they're not nearly as peaceful, and 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:03.240 that would be the recent protests in Iran following the elections, Right, 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:10.600 so we're talking about a a massive chaotic situation in Iran. Uh. 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.560 We're actually recording this podcast just a couple of days 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.840 after the election. So when this goes live, this this 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.080 is gonna be you know, old news, but at the 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:22.919 moment it's very fresh in our minds. And part of 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:27.840 the issue was that Iran government officials had started to 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:33.879 restrict internet access, started to throttle the broadband connections, really 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.440 limiting what people could access and what they could do. 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:40.960 But Twitter uses a hundred forty characters. It is not 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.080 it doesn't put a huge demand on broadband. It's easy 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:46.760 to get messages through if you can find a connection 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:51.240