Oh, Twitter! I Hardly Knew Ye!

When I joined Associated Content, I created an account with Twitter.com, since there was a way to post links to my articles automatically. I thought this sounded like a great idea for a promotional tool. Since I really did not know much about Twitter.com, I wanted to view the site and see if it was something that would work for me. Within a few days, I found the AC Twitter Challenge listed in the assignment desk, so I decided to claim it and see what I was able to discover. What an adventure this has been! Too bad the adventure was not of the fun and profitable or at least personally satisfying type. I hope to entertain and instruct at the same time. There are lessons to be learned from me concerning procrastination, arrogance and planning for the unexpected, such as the flu.

At first, I spent some time searching for some of my areas of interest, such as Judas Priest, Nightmare on Elm Street, autism, parenting, and gossip. As a full-time employee at an adult education facility and a mother of three, I am not able to spend that much time on line. Even when I have time to use a computer at work, I am not allowed to use Twitter.com, Facebook or My-Space while I am there, as there has been abuse of the computer privileges in the past concerning those sites.

I was a little at a loss with concern to how I should build my followers on Twitter. As I mentioned earlier, I tried looking up my areas of interest on Twitter, and I clicked to follow a few people from them, but this did not net followers for me. I "tweeted" a few times, but this did not gain any interest. I then looked at the assignment again, and I followed the link to AC Jelena's article, How to Get Twitter Followers the Right Way, and I found several other articles, as well. These articles made sense to me, and I was ready to use the advice I had found, when the battery for my laptop stopped charging. I could have screamed. The days were counting down. I had plenty of time, but I my computer's battery was dead, and I was having no luck getting it to work even when I had it plugged into the wall socket.

Fortunately, I called the local Geek Squad, and they kindly advised me to unplug the computer, remove the battery, replug it and try to turn it on. I turned over my laptop, took a screwdriver to what looked like the battery compartment, and removed it. When I plugged it in, it would turn on, which was a step in the right direction, but a new message would pop up. I called the Geek Squad again, and the gentleman asked me if I had used a screwdriver. I told him that I had, and he very gently told me that I should not have needed to use a screwdriver to get to the battery. I thanked him, and when I looked back at the computer, I saw that I had removed the hard drive. I carefully replaced it then followed the original instructions concerning the battery. Much to my amazement, when I replugged the adapter to the computer after removing and replacing the battery, it not only turned on started charging the battery, as well! Whew! I was able to complete some assignments on time. I checked my Twitter.com account, but there was really no change at that point. I was determined to put to use the excellent information from the other AC contributors, such as Donna Porter (How to Promote Content with Twitter for More Pageviews) and Becky (How to Add Followers on Twitter).

There are a lot of sayings about good intentions, and all of them ran through my head as I became one of the victims of the good, old-fashioned influenza. I was grateful to not get one of the designer brands of it (i.e. swine or avian), but that was not much comfort to me as I was shivering, sweating, fighting nausea, vomiting, sneezing, coughing, etc. I was down with this for almost two weeks, and I was unable to go to the bathroom without having to take a nap afterward, so I had no ability or desire to try to use brain cells were completely warped by various medications. I mostly curled up in bed and whined.

I was finally able to start working on the Twitter Challenge on the weekend of October 9. With my son's fourth birthday, and my best friend's son having his own birthday party, I was far from sitting around relaxing, but I was able to at least get on line and start working with the Twitter account. I started searching for interesting people and subjects, and when I would find an interesting "tweet," I would follow the person and make sure to comment on what they had said. For every person or subject that I followed, I was beginning to have more followers of my own. I really wish the computer issues and the flu had not interfered. I have all of my articles auto-post, and I could have really built a good marketing tool with it. I have noticed that my page views are gaining since I have been keeping up with Twitter, even though I am still not on it much. I find it fun to check in and see something new every time I do. I may only have twelve followers, at this time, but I am enjoying the time spent and learning from the information that is "tweeted" by people with similar interests.

While I was prevented by technical difficulties and illness from completely following everyone's directions, I was able to learn that Twitter.com can be a wonderful promotional instrument with reasonable effort and time spent in building a following. I am not generally able to spend a lot of time on the Internet, but with a maximum of twenty minutes per day since October 9, I have gained followers. I am following sixteen people, and I have gained twelve people from that. I would say that three-fourths is a good return on the time spent looking at "tweets" for interesting people and subjects to follow. I plan to dedicate time to this project on my own, since there are so many benefits besides upping my page views on Associated Content. I am glad that I claimed this assignment, even though it drives me nuts that I was not able to put as much time into it as was recommended.

I hope this has been entertaining and, to some extent, helpful. There are three things to learn from my Twitter experience. First, do not try to repair your laptop without help. The arrogant will be humbled. Second, avoid the flu in any way possible. People will be happier if they manage to avoid it. Get a flu shot, too.l Third, do not procrastinate, since things like computer issues and nasty germs can ruin the most well-laid plans. Not to mention the millions of other things that can get in the way. I hope Twitter.com works for everyone, and I hope to see more success, now that I am not quite so hindered. Good luck!