- Twitter is self-selecting. I find the people I Twitter with most are sharp theological thinkers, committed Christians with a tendency towards Reformed theology, yet are very different from me – and therefore challenge my assumptions, broaden my understanding and bring humor and joy to Christian life. A little bit of heaven here on earth.
- Twitter broadens my social world. I twitter with Christians who are Baptists, Emergent, Presbyterian/Reformed, young, old, single, married, scattered across the globe. I find out about missions and missional living. I’m learning good things about Emergents, pro-life Catholics, reformed Baptists and southern Presbyterians. I’m finding common ground. To God be the glory for leading his invisible and visible church with Christ at the head.
- Twitter brings us down to day-to-day living as Christians. I hear that Al Mohler, Ed Stetzer, R.C. Sproul – like eggnog. I find out that people whose books I read and theological contributions I value get tired, sick, like movies and play with their kids. In other words they don’t just read theology or dialog with the great books and great minds 24/7. This I find encouraging. The Incarnate Christ in his humanity and divinity is modeled in his saints. ~ source; mineandthine.com
Seven Tweeting Tips
(1) You are what you tweet. Are you an
encourager, a humorist, a businessperson,
a pastor – a complainer? People will
know.
(2) Craft your words. This may be
instant publishing, but it's still publishing.
Your words will last longer than you will.
(3) No cheating. Say it all in 140
characters. Don't use a second tweet to
continue your point.
(4) Don't answer Twitter's standard
question, "what are you doing?" Rather
than your flight plan, nap schedule, or
lunch menu, say something that will
benefit others.
(5)Don't over-tweet. If people quit
replying to you, it may be because they
can't keep up.
(6)Share Pictures On Twitter
Bet you weren’t aware of this, were you?
Using services such as twitpic.com you
can upload and share pictures on your
twitter account in your tweets.
Sometimes, the pictures speak better than
140 characters would. Not to forget that
they also add variety to your tweets every
once in a while
(7). Re-Tweet… With Thanks To
Original Tweeter
Sure you can copy others’ tweets. But be
ethical and credit them for it. So when
you decide to copy someone’s tweet, do it
with a @name (where ‘name’ is their
twitter username) preceding the tweet.
Six ways to make the best use of your
140 Characters:
1)Use shorthand codes. LOL, RT, TYL, etc.
Some may call it tech speak or leet speak.
Acronyms and abbreviations for commonly
used words and phrases.
2) Be clear and concise. Make sure you are
not being redundant. Remove any words
that might be irrelevant to what you are
trying to convey.
3) Use URL shortening. This one is pretty
obvious and is even built in to Twitter.
However, there are some URL shortening
services that can save you a few more
characters than http://tinyurl.com/. I use
http://is.gd/ and another popular one is
XR.COM which even allows you to
customize the URL.
4) Use special symbol characters. You may
not know it, but Twitter accepts more than
just normal characters. You can actually
create hearts, stars, smilies and other symbols
that can represent words or ideas in just 1
character. TheNextWeb has created a great
tool called TwitterKeys which allows you to
have all these symbols at your fingertips.
5)Use Hashtags. A hashtag # is like a tag at
the end of your tweet. Your followers will
have an understanding of what subject you
are sharing right away and it may even
increase your chances of being re-tweeted.
You can also look up other tweets that have
the same hashtag. Here are some
examples… (#Reading:, #Motherhood:,
#lovemychurch #wedgewoodbapt,
#pleasepray, #vacation, etc.)
Essentially,using hashtags in a twitter post creates a
grouping around some specific subject that
other tweeters can access, thereby viewing
all of the tweets from around the world that
have that particular hashtag in
them.
Hashtags were first made popular in
2007 when Twitter user Nate Ritter tweeted
the following message: "#sandiegofire
300,000 people evacuated in San Diego
county now."
6) Be simple. This is a writing tip from
Copyblogger, “…simple words work better
than big ones. Write ‘get’ instead of
‘procure.’ Write ‘use’ rather than ‘utilize.’ Use
the longer words only if your meaning is so
precise there is no simpler word to use.”
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