What I've learnt about Social Media, #13

Information Overload

Oh My God!
On my list of 50 things to do this year, I decided I would experiment with social media (#13). Oh My God!! There is a flood of tweets coming my way and I have no clue what to do with them! I am only following about 40 people, but I know some who are following thousands, THOUSANDS! What tools and how many assistants do they have?

9 things I've learnt about Twitter

People follow you based on what you list as interests in your profile and you may or may not follow them back.
It is used as a marketing and promotions tool by many people (for example, authors promote their books, giveaways, and good reviews on Amazon or Goodreads).
It is a great way for people to communicate with fans and any others who share their interests. Rick Riordan who tweets @camphalfblood has great interaction with his fans.
You can choose to have Twitter promote specific tweets for you.
You get some useful analytics, for example my top tweet showed up more than 1,000 times. Since I don't have many followers, that's huge. Some of the statistics could be a little overwhelming and/or inconsistent. For example I tweeted a bit.ly link to my blog. Per bit.ly, the link was clicked 43 times. Per Twitter, people saw my tweet 35 times and interacted with it twice. Per Blogger for the same post I had 67 page views but the traffic sources were mostly Facebook and only about 10 were from bit.ly. Hmmm I need "Reconciling Social Media stats for Dummies."
If you have multiple interests, you could get followers in any area but they may not stay if you don't tweet things that they find interesting. For example, I am a Strike Back fan, so I have a few posts about that, but not so much on vitiligo, so I have a few Strike Back fans following me, but not any around vitiligo.
I can track who comes to this blog page if I use a specific link in my tweet (compared to another I may use on Facebook - that information comes from Blogger).
You should have some idea of what you want to use Twitter for - that will help focus your tweets and audience, and not be all over the place like I am. And finally,
Immediacy. You know when you text friends and family and they tell you they are at a soccer game or the grocery it does not freak you out, because you know them. Imagine you are following someone like Rihanna and she tweets, just landed at Chicago O'Hare. You know where she is at that very specific point in time, like you would your kids! Blows my mind. But that live action is what Twitter is all about.

Follow me on Twitter Follow @AustinTrini , Instagram AustinTrini

I also have my own (as me) Twitter account, so you can also follow me under my real name for my professional tweets.

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On which I have a few ideas. As my husband keeps telling me, I won't get a job by spending hours in front of the computer submitting applications to online job postings. The best use of any job-seeker's time is spent talking to friends and acquaintances and letting them know that you are looking for a job and what your skills and interests are. So here is what I found tricky about networking: How hard to push? Working parents are busy, so if I asked a friend, who is a working parent, about a position I had seen at their company, do I ask a second time? How soon after? And what if there is another position - do I talk about that too? If that friend is very enthusiastic about getting more information for me on a post then I hear nothing, what then? Is it realistic to think they'll get back to me? I find it difficult to broach the topic again. I might ask a second time but for me there is no third time. What do I trade in return? In the net...

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What is your 'bread & butter' conversation?

I am anxious to get back to the playgroups with my Moms group, and talk with some of the other moms because I want to know what they talk to their husbands about at the end of the day. If I were to truly tell my husband what goes on with my day? Well, the conversation would be inane and irrelevant. Gunnar: "How was your day honey?" Big smile. Me: "You know the usual. Lucas got up late this morning and was crabby because he didn't have enough time to play before breakfast and Liam pulled off my tiny earring, you know, the one I was so excited about getting because I thought he wouldn't notice it, and I could wear earrings again? Anyways, he pulled it off, and I grabbed it from him and set it down so I could deal with him appropriately, and I forgot about it, but when I went back to look for it I couldn't find it. It might have gotten wiped off the table when I was cleaning, so I spent part of the day sifting through the garbage looking for it, then I looked ...

Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

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