Friday, May 8, 2009

First Tweets--140 Characters to Twitter Bliss by Jan Verhoeff

I am pleased to be reprinting Jan Verhoeff's article, "First Tweets--140 Characters to Twitter Bliss." Whether you've used Twitter for awhile, or are a Twitter newbie, this article is for you.

Conversations with those who aren't interested in the blog-o-sphere, twitter, tweets and peeps may not be interested in why we twitters, tweet our peeps. But, if you're interested, here's the scoop.

What the heck is twitter?

The voice on the phone was familiar; my 23 year old daughter had gotten a text message from my son. "Hey sis, get twitter and tweet me. I can tweet you back."

And why in the world would I tweet my brother?

Suddenly 140 characters on the cell phone sounded dirty. I was gagging on laughter. I knew I didn't dare. From 204 miles away, she'd smack me upside the head with her flip-flop.

"Twitter is the latest social network, it's like Facebook on steroids and MySpace ain't got a chance." I answered her, stifling a giggle.

Mom, do you have any idea what "tweeting my brother" sounds like?

She's still boiling over, and saying, I was talking to my boss via text when I got that text from him. I couldn't imagine what the boss was talking about, and my mind was going straight to no mans' land with the future implications of "tweet me".

It's like an instant micro-blog post where he can promote his book, tell peeps about his website, and share the details of his writer day.

Mom, did you just say peeps?

She was giggling into the phone, and I heard her friend ask her what was so funny. She told him that her mom was nearly fifty and she just said peeps on the phone. She was laughing so hard he didn't understand. She told him again. I said, it isn't THAT funny.

She said to me that if I could only hear myself talk, I'd think it was pretty funny too. Then I hear her friend start laughing and both of them are talking about his mom and how he'd never catch her tweeting on twitter.

I got the last laugh when I sent my next tweet to one of my favorite peeps. 140 sweet characters later @hismom knew he thought she was too old to tweet too.

We old birds of twitter must tweet together.

You can be one of my peeps too, at http://twitter.com/janverhoeff and you'll get to hear all the great ways that twitter helps to advertize your business, promote your website, and create active interest in the most normal and mundane kinds of days. Even if you're a boring old almost 50's mom, you can tweet some interesting twitter to your peeps and be the coolest granny on twitter.

© 2009 - http://janverhoeff.com

Check out K. Verhoeff's site where he talks about promoting his book. And also be sure to visit Jan's sites acewriters and Jan's site


6 comments:

orcalover said...

I've been tweeting my peeps for quite a while. twe tweet every peep we tknow.

Joyce Anthony said...

I love this!!!! Thank you :-)

Maryannwrites said...

How funny, as well as having helpful information. Thanks for sharing this.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

Yep, you're right, Katie. I'm going to put a link to this in my newsletter. (-:
Best,
Carolyn
Tweeting @frugalbookpromo

Jan Verhoeff said...

Thanks ladies! I had a blast writing that one... My daughter is a hoot! Ms College, loves technology most of the time, but she HATES social medias. In the field of marketing, I'm certain she'll eventually grab the twitter game, but for now, she's cozy in her own realm.

thanks again...

Jan

Dianne E. Butts said...

I'm a little late, Jan, but I just found this. I love it! I joined Twitter June 12...while I was still almost 50 myself. I've been having great fun with it. (Joined FaceBook and LinkedIn the same day. That's a great way to get yourself REALLY confused.) I'm still learning how to use these things--how to send PRIVATE messages, and such. I know what a Tweet is. But what's a peep???

Dianne