Twitter Roundup

I've been stumbling around in the land of Twitter for a while now, and am really enjoying myself! Just today I happened to come across a terrific beginner's guide to Twitter – it's a 48-page ebook called "A geek's Guide To Promoting Yourself and Your Online Business in 140 Characters or Less with Twitter". 

I've made some great connections with other coaches, and seem to get at least 1-2 new followers most days. It's fascinating to see who follows you – sometimes I really wonder how on earth someone found me or what they saw that sparked their interest.

Twitter has turned out to be very different than I expected, and definitely more rewarding than I imagined. Probably the biggest "aha" is that I'm feeling more inclined to blog more frequently because I finally "got" it that shorter posts can be both helpful and fun. (140 characters is a great way to train yourself to keep it simple!)

The biggest surprise about Twitter is that I've been using it to experiment with Haiku poetry. The 5-7-5 syllable rhythm lends itself quite nicely to the 140 character limit. Here are a few of my better  attempts:

• The flowers riot/colors panting and hot, while/the grass begs for mow.
• One cricket alone/is annoying enough, but/two are making more.
• She sits and dreams of/rocks & dirt giving up their/succulent secrets.
• This light's far too bright/I cannot see the angels/God sent to bless me.
• I know that I should,/but it's not in my nature/to finish my peas.

Lastly, here are some of the Twitter gadgets, apps and resources that I've found useful:

• TweetBeep sends Twitter messages to your email inbox; I set up an alert for @Spiritspring so that I don't miss any replies or Tweets about me, myself and I.     =^)
• I use Tweetlater to automatically thank new followers for following me.
• I haven't tweeted from my cell phone yet, because – 1) I have a really crappy cell phone, and 2) I'm almost always in front of my computer when I feel a tweet coming on – but I like variety, so when I get tired of tweeting on the Twitter.com site, sometimes I feel like a Twhirl, and other times I feel like a TwitterFox.
• Looking for people to follow? Use Summize to find people who are talking about stuff you're interested in.
• Caroline Middlebrook has written a Big Juicy Twitter Guide (it's actually a series of blog posts). Scroll all the way down to the bottom for the really basic stuff.
• John T. Unger of TypePadHacks.com has posted several great blog articles on Twitter accessories. Here's the first one to get you started.
• Here's a great video from CommonCraft, "Twitter in Plain English".
  

P.S. D'oh! almost forgot! You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/spiritspring.