The following is some information I put together, in an attempt to answer a few questions such as–
- What is twitter?
- Why should I get on twitter?
- Social networking is ridiculous; why should I bother?
A friend of mine asked me what is the value of twitter, so I’m writing a response to his question.
Read about twitter at Wikipedia’s entry explaining it, here.
Anyone who is interested can add me to their twitter friends – I’m @caoilfhionn1
Twitter is a microblogging service that allows you to send out one message to a large audience. As people find you through what you “tweet”, your list of followers grows. You probably have a group of online friends that you can immediately find through the “search people” function, but getting on twitter will enable you to expand your network way beyond that.
You have the option of blocking followers, as I’ve noticed that people I don’t want to be following me try to add themselves to my followers list. You have the option of protecting your tweets so they’re private instead of public, and you have the option of leaving your tweets open to the public so people can find them. By using hashtags, you can increase the probability of people with the same interests to find you.
Twitter is a microblogging service in that – you are required to keep your ‘tweets’ to 144 characters. The value in that is you can send out tiny notes about what is going on in your life, or if you’re attending an event, you can twitter what is happening at the event. That can be of extreme value…as an example, Senators have twittered about debates and votes on bills from the Senate floor; but it has also been used for candidate forums and other events.
Twitter can be hooked up to your facebook account so that your tweets show up immediately to your facebook friends. It does away with the necessity of going to each social network to post updates.
The use of hashtags allows your twitter updates to be searchable to people you don’t know, and allows you to connect with a considerably larger audience. This can be beneficial for a number of reasons beyond networking; fundraising, political campaigns; nonprofits; certain interests and groups, and establishing yourself as an expert in a field such as law, photography, etc.
In my case, @caoilfhionn1 twitters mostly about politics, and here is a cheat sheet that can be used for twitter hashtags. The longer the hashtags, the less space you will have to tweet your message – and if you’d like to send the word out on something, there needs to be room for retweeting; so try to keep it short!!!
Retweeting is when someone retweets what you tweet, and includes your twitter handle. When people retweet your tweets, other people may find you and add you to their list of twitter contacts.
Twitter reminds me of flocks of birds. When a bird finds a food source, it somehow communicates it to the rest of the flock, and before you know it they all show up. Twitter acts as the conduit to create very large groups of people discussing and exchanging information on the same subjects.
Consistently used hashtags allow us to communicate and organize ourselves in a way that wouldn’t be possible without them-and the use of hashtags help people to quickly build their networks -and conservatives need to get better at doing this sort of thing, but as I mentioned, it’s not limited to politics – that is just my area of interest.
Read more on twitter here, here and here. Twitter is available on a number of devices like blackberries, Xboxes, iphones, you name it. It helps you stay in touch even when you’re away from your PC or don’t have a laptop that’s hooked up with a wireless network.
Republican-
#gop – Republican Party
#rebuild – Rebuilding The Republcan Party
Conservative-
#ocra – Organized Conservative Re-Take America
#tcot – Top Conservatives On Twitter – this fell apart – was originally the extension of a project created by Truth Laid Bear – but the hashtag is still used.
#conservative
#right
Healthcare-
#healthcare
#hcr – Health Care Reform
#handsoff – Hands off Health Care
#healthbill
#obamacare
#pelosicare
#publicoption – Government Run Health Care
#tortreform – Tort Reform
#OBC50 – Obamacare 50 State**
Cap and Trade-
#capandtrade – Shortened Name For The Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill
#carbon
#energy
Card Check-
#cardcheck – Provision in EFCA Bill That Remove Secret Ballot From Union Elections
#efcafail – Employee Free Choice Act Failure
#efca -Employee Free Choice Act
#SEIU – Service Employees International Union
#unions
FOCA & Abortion (radical abortion bill – cleverly named “Freedom of Choice Act”)
#FOCA
#RTL – Right to Life
#abort – abortion
#ILRTL – Illinois Right To Life
Jobs-
#stimulus
#jobs
#taxes
#umemployment
Military-
#marine
#veteran
#military
#usmc – United States Marine Corps
#troopsupport
#MilitaryMon
Republican Organizations-
#RNC – Republican National Committee
#RGA – Republican Governors Association
#NRCC – National Republican Congressional Committee
Obama-
#obama:
#obamafail – Used to Describe Obama’s Policies
#obamacarols – a humorous takeoff on the 12 days of Christmas and other Christmas carols such as
#obamacarols City foreclosures, busy foreclosures. Dressed in bank bail-out style. in the air there’s a feeling of recession.
Deficit-
#deficit
#spending
Tea Party Movement-
#teaparty
#iamthemob
#we_the_people
#liberalpresents – humor – Example: The new and improved Sim City – now with community organizer mock riots and random bombing attacks from “freedom fighters”
Government
#transparency – More Transparent Gov’t
#statebooks – State Budgets
#bailouts – Government Bailouts
#autobailout – Government Bailing Out Auto Industry
#drip – Don’t Return Incumbent Politicians
2nd Amendment-
#nra – National Rifle Association
#guns
Conservative Commentators:
#sgp – Smart Girl Politics
#hhrs – Hugh Hewitt Radio Show
#beck – Glenn Beck
#rush – Rush Limbaugh
#hannity – Sean Hannity
#oreilly – Bill O’Reilly
#foxnews
Miscellaneous:
#rightblogs – Right Leaning Blogs
#tpot – Top Patriots on Twitter
#tlot – Top Libertarians on Twitter
#SRM – State Run Media
#2010 – 2010 Mid-Term Elections
#ampat – American Patriot
#right – general category for conservatives
#prim – primary
#RINO
Virginia:
#vagov – Virginia Governor
#rpv – Republican Party of Virginia
#vagop – Virginia GOP
#vapolitics – Virginia Politics
#va – Virginia
#richmond
#charlottesville
Illinois:
#ILGov – Illinois Governor
#RPIL – Republican Party of Illinois
#ILGOP – Illinois GOP
#ILpolitics – Illinois Politics
#IL – Illinois
#Chi – Chicago
#Rock – Rockford
#ILprim – Illinois primary
#ILcan – Illinois candidate(s)
#Blago – Blagojevich
#Quinn – Governor Quinn
#AMc – Andy McKenna
#ePM – elect Paul Mitchell
#A4IL – Adam for Illinois
#Proft – Dan Proft
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