by Shelley Silverstein
Nothing to do?
Nothing to do?
Put some mustard in your shoe,
Fill your pockets full of soot,
Drive a nail into your foot,
Put some sugar in your hair,
Place your toys upon the stair,
Smear some jelly on the latch,
Eat some mud and strike a match,
Draw a picture on the wall,
Roll some marble down the hall,
Pour some ink in daddy’s cap–
Now go upstairs and take a nap.
Languish no more. You can find plenty of things to do on Twitter, such as:
1. Challenge yourself to form a truthful, yet interesting, answer to the question, “What are you doing?” If YOU’RE bored, do something else.
2. Tighten your writing. Learn to express a complete thought in 140 characters or less.
3. Promote a blog post: yours, or someone else’s. Go sparingly with your own; be generous with others’.
4. Ask a question. Provoke a thought. Start a conversation.
5. Promote good products; critique the bad. 140 characters is about all the critique most companies really want on their products, anyway.
6. Meet new friends. Just don’t mistake “followers” for “friends” and invite them home for dinner.
7. Expand your professional network. Don’t kill it by behaving like a self-centered twit or a mindless bird brain.
8. Blog your own list of “Top 10 Twits to Follow”!
9. Use #FF (Follow Friday) or #FAD (Follow ANY Day) plus @ mentions to help others gain followers and find great Twits to follow. The correct form is:
#FF (#FAD!) @Trockle because he scares away the scary ol’ under-the-bed monsters! (Call to action, @ mention, and WHY you recommend it.)
For great reads, #FF (#FAD) authors @MarianAllen @maryannwrites @CairnRodrigues @blogbooktours (Reason, call to action, @ mentions. Order is not important, but be sure to include all elements or you’ll be considered annoying – see Mitch Mitchell’s comment, below!)
10. Exchange tips with the pros. Avoid the cons.
11. Follow people who tweet about things that interest you. Don’t go all middle school and unfollow someone just because they unfollow you.
12. Talk to yourself. (Who’s going to know?)
13. Write a serialized novel, 140 characters at a time. Try to make each tweet a cliffhanger. If people unfollow, don’t quit your day job.
14. Explain, in 140 characters or less, what “microblogging” is and why companies, or individuals, should care.
15. Write poetry. (Twitter is the perfect medium for Haiku.) If you write a sonnet, post it in the comments here!
15. Share what you’re listening to, right now, on Spotify.
16. Report breaking news. Try not to BE the news.
17. Learn about fun things like Problogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge. Find more information on what it entails here.
HollyJahangiri
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All excellent advice! I heart Twitter. 🙂
Twitter can be fun. I especially like trying to craft perfect 140 character sentences.
I bookmarked your article. Thanks.
Janice
Janice Wald recently posted…4 Simple Things You Can Do to Be a Better Blogger
Good! Glad you liked it!
The only one I’m going to openly disagree with is #9. Please, PLEASE people, stop doing this one! Oy, my head gets crushed with this type of thing because so many people do it on Fridays that my stream gets crushed with my ending up on so many of these things. It was neat back in 2009 when it first began but now… ugh! lol
As for #13… I’ll leave that one up to you 🙂
Mitch Mitchell recently posted…10 Ways To Find Inspiration To Write About In Your Niche
Better now, Mitch? 🙂
HollyJahangiri recently posted…6 Reasons Writers Should Use Twitter
A little bit lol Just had to be said, as you can imagine; oh the blather!
Mitch Mitchell recently posted…5 Rules Of The Laws Of Attraction
No, it was definitely a fair point on your part and an oversight on mine not to mention how to do it EFFECTIVELY, as opposed to being an annoying little twitterbot.
Holly Jahangiri recently posted…6 Reasons Writers Should Use Twitter
Okay I get Mitch’s point, it does get annoying. But I have gotten new followers that way. 🙂
Mia recently posted…Hey Baby, What’s Your Sign?
People wouldn’t do it, surely, if it didn’t work!
Thank God, I don’t twitter.
Rummuser recently posted…Travel Series IV.
Gee, thanks. You mean I haven’t effectively persuaded you with this post? I’m crushed, Rummuser. Crushed, I tell you!
Holly Jahangiri recently posted…6 Reasons Writers Should Use Twitter
Look at me, I’m blushing! Thanks for exampling me, Holly. ~ducking~
Marian Allen recently posted…Multiple POV — Ur Doin It Rite #amwriting
But of course! You make such a good example!
Lots of good ideas here. I primarily use Twitter for business, but expanding it for other interests is something I should pursue.