So I Finally Joined Twitter…
May 27, 2009 Posted by Tyler CruzSurprisingly, I’m actually usually one of the last people to jump aboard the band wagon when it comes to emerging trends and technologies. I didn’t get a cell phone until I was 21 or 22. I didn’t join Facebook until early 2008 or very late 2007, and I never use the account I do have. And I never used MySpace before.
Therefore, it should come to no real surprise that I honestly never used Twitter before a couple days ago. Obviously I had heard of it and knew what it was all about, but had never visited anyone’s Twitter page or made my own account.
The number one reason I didn’t make a Twitter account until now was because I didn’t like the fact of feeling obligated to keep my Twitter account updated throughout the day, updating it with everything that goes on in my life. While my blog is very transparent and I share a lot of personal information on it, the fact is that I always do that during my ‘work sessions’ and consider it as working, even though it’s usually fun.
I kept my distance from Twitter because I didn’t want to have to be constantly tweeting (is that the right term?) while I was out doing non-work related things.
So why did I end up making an account? In the end, I felt that the potential reach in terms of marketing and viral buzz outweighed any issues I felt regarding it being another chore to keep up with. Plus, I felt I was taking it a bit too seriously. After all, it’s only 140 characters and isn’t expected to be as high-quality or in-depth as a blog post.
As such, I finally created my first Twitter account two days ago. You can find it at: http://www.twitter.com/tylercruzdotcom.
Why Didn’t You Get Twitter.com/tylercruz?
Some squatter took it. I actually tried getting it back after numerous e-mail attempts to Twitter support. I complained that the owner obviously wasn’t using the account (it only has a total of 2 updates) and was just using it to squat on my name, and that I’d turn it into an active account. Plus, my name was Tyler Cruz after all.
At one point, it seemed that I was going to get it, but then Twitter got really big all of a sudden and I hadn’t heard back from their support team for months. When I did hear back, they had gotten so big that they couldn’t help me anymore and said I could only get it back if I had the trademark or copyright to the name.
That’s unfortunate, as I know that people had took Shoemoney and JohnChow’s name but they managed to get it back. I guess it’s easier to argue when you already have an existing follower list of 38,000…
So, in the end I had to settle for http://www.twitter.com/tylercruzdotcom.
Twitter Added to Blog
In addition to creating a custom Twitter background (as seen above), I also added a new Twitter section to the right side of my blog which now has a counter and a link to my Twitter page as can be seen in the screen below:
I’m considering adding a plugin that shows some of my most recent tweets. Does anyone know of a good one for WordPress?
Also, I’d like for whenever a new blog post is added to update on my Twitter as well. Is there a plugin for that does anyone know?
Bare With Me, I’m a Twitter Newbie
I’m still brand new to Twitter so bare with me if I don’t know some of the lingo, terms, or how it works. It looks pretty simple and self-explanatory though.
As I write this, I currently have 7 followers. I only know 2 of them. I’m assuming the other 5 just auto-added me somehow after seeing that I just signed up. The first person to follow me was John Chow.
I already set my Blackberry up with Twitter which is pretty neat I must say, and could definitely be useful for when I travel. I guess that’s part of the point of Twitter.
Anyhow, I’m now on Twitter, so please follow me. My Twitter address again is http://www.twitter.com/tylercruzdotcom 🙂 You can expect to see me running a bunch of Twitter contests in the future, so you might as well follow me now 😉
About time. Follow me and I will follow you
http://www.twitter.com/ryanmclean
You’ve done a couple of things right, like uploading your own avatar and background image, but you’ve done one very big thing wrong: you’re not following anyone. You can start with me – @michaelkwan. 🙂
If I follow people does it add their update on my page whenever they make an update? I don’t understand all the acronyms and symbols yet…
You get a feed with all the people that you follow. This is separate from your own feed.
I also suggest that you stop using the web interface and use a desktop client. Twhirl and Tweetdeck are good on PC.
Oh, and if you want a beginner’s guide to Twitter, you can check out my glossary of Twitter terminology. It’s a good place to start.
Great decision Tyler. Followed. Can’t wait to see your tweet. 😉
Hey, let’s take things slow… 😉
Welcome to the dark side. I’ve had a Twitter account for a long time, but never really used it much. But just by sending my RSS feed posts to it I managed to get 157 followers without doing anything really.
Then, last week I finally decided to start using Twitter properly and I’m already up to 236 followers just by talking about it on my Blog. I’m amazed how quickly it grows.
Another thing I love about it is that it’s a great search engine for current events. I was in Burnaby today and there was a shooting. Heard the cops and sirens and stuff and saw them from a friend’s balcony.
When I got home I went on Twitter and searched for “Burnaby shooting” and found a whole bunch of Tweets from there, saying what happened. Someone even posted a pic of the cops/ambulance etc.
That’s pretty cool. It was up on there way faster than on Google.
The WP to Twitter plug-in is handy for that, but it can get annoying if you post a lot.
I am following you why don’t you follow me Tyler. Congrats on joining Twitter and it is about time. LOL Greg Ellison
To be honest I really don’t know what following does!
Welcome to Twitter, I often wondered if you were on Twitter, and have searched for you in the past.
As for WordPress plugins here are two I would recommend:
‘Twitter for WordPress’ and ‘Twitter Tools’ both have their pro’s and con’s. Check em out, let me know what you think.
Be sure to follow some people back, and enjoy it!
twitter.com/chrisbrandrick
Thanks, I’ll check both those out.
good to see you finally join Twitter 🙂
To put the latest tweets on your blog I recommend either :
Twitter Tools
or the defaul widget from Twitter
Twitter Widget.
Thanks, I don’t like adding Flash, but I’ll check out Twitter Tools.
I use Twiter soley for personal use to chat to friends and other people who have followed me.
So many people follow me, expect me to post nothing but tips on how to make money, get angry at me not posting tips and then unfollow.
People do the same with my blog 😉
Just followed you (I’m @livingstonmedia). Welcome to the obsession but I have to agree with @michaelkwan above; it’s really important to follow people back on Twitter. It’s called a social network for a reason.
What does the following back actually do? Is it just like adding a friend?
Yep! exactly
I love you, but I kinda don’t love twitter….
How are you Mr. Cruz? Haven’t talked to you in while….
Howdy stranger. I replied to your most recent blog post.
Oh so you’ve decided to join Twitter! Just make sure you start following people, of course you don’t have to follow EVERYONE, but it’s good to connect to some right? Especially people who are local, well over on the Mainland anyway 😉
I’m @TylerIngram
wow, I really thought you were on Twitter this whole time…well its never too late to actually join…look forward to your tweets.
Good to see you finally on Twitter.
If I may offer an advice, your user name is too long and it can make it hard for people to retweet your message.
But anyway, I’ve followed you on Twitter. Looking forward to connect, share and enjoy your tweets.
Yeah, I don’t like the length of it… unfortunately I couldn’t really think of any other choice that would have been suitable… I could have went with tylercruz1 or something like that but I thought it would look fake…
Glad you finally decided to jump on the bandwagon. Twitter can be a great marketing tool. I actually thought you were the one with the @tylercruz account, but I’ll follow your actual account. Even John started out with JohnChowDotCom before he eventually got his own name.
Who do you think helped him get /johnchow? 😉
I should’ve known! Sneaky, sneaky…
Odd, I thought that was me – John even confirmed this when he posted about getting his name!
I often wondered why you weren’t on Twitter. Nice to have you on board.
@ChrisJacobson
Welcome to the Twitterverse Tyler! 🙂 You’ve definitely made a wise choice jumping on the bandwagon as this will be a great way to drive EVEN MORE traffic to your blog.
Twitter currently ranks as the second highest traffic source for our blog and is slowly moving its way up.
I look forward to seeing how it plays out for you, as well as the results you see in the next few months.
Keep us posted!
One of the best plugins for auto broadcasting your blog posts on Twitter is made by a local (Lower Mainland) guy, Duane Storey. You can find it here.
Thanks. Do you know if I need to publish a post from within WordPress for that to work? Because I actually use Windows Live Writer to blog and don’t log into /wp-admin…
Hey Tyler, I’m already following you… I think you will be followed by many people in the next days, just keep promoting your account, placing your account in your email address signature/forum’s signature etc etc…
Welcome to the community =)
I’m happy to see you’ve finally joined Twitter. You should expect @ messages whenever I own you on MyBrute 🙂
Follow me back @stickycarrots. How long before you pass me and my 4,100 followers? :p
Why do you think I REALLY made a Twitter account for? Bahahaha.
Hi;
be forewarned – for some of us twitter is becoming a bit of an addiction – I have added almost 2000 followers in the past month – some really cool things I have discovered….
1) a persons profile tells a lot about who they are – almost more important then their name. I take a few minutes each day to search the followers of the people I follow – looking for others of like interest – I use the profile to figure out who I want to follow.
2) When you follow people you get a stream of their posts – and many of them are really good
3)tweetdeck is my twitter tool of choice – you can set up different columns – so you can see who is talking about you – and can set up specific groups to pull out the tweets from those you want to hear from
4) lots of phenomenal people on twitter who want to help – I have been dealing with a physical issue (Bells Palsy) these last few weeks – sent out a tweet looking for info – and got some great feedback. Seriously making friends with people all over the world – with interests like mine – who are open and willing to help.
5) people who send out twits about their day to day activities soon get unfollowed – its not what its about. people send out links and quotes and info that others can use – its really pretty cool
you can follow me @cyndisays – look for me on your list cause I will follow you now
It’s all good 🙂
Don’t worry Tyler, Twitter is now basically a giant spam pool with bots and fakers. Every tweet you’ll see is probably a link..
-Mike
Good luck with Twitter 🙂
Hey Tyler, good luck with twitter. We have had good luck with it so far, besides… its a tool people enjoy, might as well be apart of it!
So you like joining things as they begin their dying phases, eh?
By 2008, Facebook had already forgotten its roots as a college networking site and become Myspace.
Likewise Twitter has forgotten it’s roots in bloggers and has become a tool for billions of businesses to whore out until the bloggers all get sick of it and leave.
I only joined Twitter for marketing reasons…
I’ve been one of those that has ignored Twitter also, but I think I’ll jump on the bandwagon. Some people have great success in gaining traffic from using Twitter.
I still don’t see the attraction, but if it works it works…
I will follow you. Follow me back @paulmclalin
Welcome to the forest! Tweet Tweet! 😛
Good to see you finally join Twitter 🙂
Frankly speaking i dnt use my twitter account anymre…
There is an option to just skip that part, which is recommended. Becuase im sure every one already has been getting twitter invites, or has joined already!
Thanks for following me back. I’ll look out for you tweets.
Congrats on getting suckered into joining the twitter bandwagon. Although I bash it, I’m sure it can be a very useful site. It just seems like more of a time waster to me. I created a twitter account a long time ago but never bothered logging back in.
Twitter is dying. I give it 5-6 months tops before noone uses it anymore. That’s a sad truth about most gimmicky fads.
I’m with you too Tyler. I’m, a total newbie to Twitter too. I really don’t have much followers because I haven’t had too much time for it, but I still think it may be worth to put in time for. Excellent post bro.
Tyler I too, recently joined twitter @joeyloganofan, I already started following you as you already know… but personally I am on the bandwagon that thinks Twitter is going to be a fad that is going to come and go. I still think there will be an evolution from twitter, that will leave twitter behind in the future.
I was lucky to pick up mikehenry.
Facebook announced they’ll be going to a username based system which will be going active on Saturday at Midnight.
Mine was taken also 🙁 The first come – first served rule clearly shouldn’t be applied here …
Don’t worry though, you’ll get it back. or maybe you did already ?
Pricing is important, but also give an incentive. Something of value but that you can afford to give out.
As far as advertising, social media is for the most part free and you can set up a business profile very easily.
Just don’t mass advertise on them. Use them to find people interested in what you have to offer using the search features.
The other way is everybody is doing logos through web, what is your difference? Work on that. My advice is to work on brand positioning.
You can use Twitter as a very strong marketing tool. Sponsored Tweets is the new way to make money from Twitter
Just sent you a follow! 🙂