I have been avoiding Twitter and Pinterest certain social media outlets like the plague; however, I have been slowly coming around to the idea of Twitter.
First, I know that there are a lot of people on Twitter who do not use Facebook although I’m not sure why. Secondly, I know it will be better to update things moment by moment as if you care on Twitter versus Facebook. Thirdly, I was “concerned” I was missing out.
Even though I had valid reasons for jumping on the bandwagon joining Twitter, I still didn’t sign up but rather put it on the “To Do” list pretty far from the top. However, last week The Wannabe Athlete posted Twitter Tips: Getting Started and I thought, “okay, this is the time….do it now”, but I didn’t. Then tonight when I was on the website for the Southwest Half Marathon (aka: Palos Half) checking the start time of the race, I saw a follow us on twitter button.
Basically, it came down to the fact that I want to tweet about the race so I opened an account. Now I’m not sure how to use the damn hashtags in order to get it started. Somebody please send me another tutorial! And while you are figuring out what to tell me about Twitter, please go and follow me @tootallfritz!
How many social media avenues do you use? Which is your favorite? How do I start tweeting about the Southwest Half Marathon? If you are interested, they are @SW_HalfMarathon.
Happy “Following”, Amanda – TooTallFritz
TooTallFritz 
Twitter was considered to be the new email I dont see it myself . Basically your twitter name is @tootallfritz and the hash tags are used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. You can send direct private messages to others and retweet others postings. The best thing to as always with new software is to start using it and itll get easier the more you do 🙂 @ipnsg
I couldn’t find you!
I have had Twitter for a while now and I still don’t quite understand all the in’s and out’s of it. Still learning:) @livinthehikelif
I personally hate twitter right now, but thats because my account was hacked. Social networking is hard!
Too hard!
Hashtags are basically keywords preceded by the # symbol. It’s like a way to participate in a “conversation” but by conversation it’s more like a bunch of people posting about the same topic. I use #runnerds and #runchat tags on many of my running-related posts (usually links to my blog), so that other users who don’t follow me might find my posts. Sometimes you can participate in scheduled “Twitter chats,” and you would use the assigned hashtag for both following and participating. If you notice, any word with # before it (and no space between the # and the word) automatically becomes a link. If you click on it, it’ll show you all of the recent posts using that hashtag. Make sense? You can also search for terms, and any tweets including that word or term will come up, whether or not they used it as a hashtag. I use that at work to monitor what people are saying about our hospitals.
My advice: Don’t follow everyone. There are a lot of useless/spammy accounts out there. Only follow people you know, or people/companies who look interesting to you. There is no obligation to follow someone back just because they follow you. I really need to go through and “clean up” who I follow on Twitter. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed. Also I’ve set up “lists” to keep things a little organized (one for people I know in real life or “know” online; and another one for other runners).
So if I want to tweet that I’m going to the “expo” tomorrow, how do I do that? Not trying to sound stupid but do I use the same name they have with the @ but instead put a hashtag in front? Like #SW_HalfMarthon? I know you’ve gotta be laughing but it’s a serious question on my end. The ones I see in use are easy to replicate but I haven’t seen any for this.
If you want to tweet at them (similar to posting on their FB wall) just start your tweet with @sw_halfmarathon. If you want to add keywords, you can include the hashtag. But don’t worry about the hashtags, those are optional 🙂
I’m not in love with Twitter. I get annoyed by the people “following” me who are basically just trying to sell stuff. And then there’s the “re-tweet” people who want to share way more stuff than I care about. I only follow stuff to get coupons. 🙂