A new take on an old blog that can now be found on my new post as SF Social Media Examiner. Check out the full article here. Don't forget to click on the "like" button.
Twitter: more than a virtual text message sent to the masses. Tweeting can be a 140-character fun-filled adventure for the eagle-eyed user. Especially in this tech-savvy town where slews of techheads continue to burst through finite character restrictions and give us something new to toy with, one tweet at a time.
Take a look at these marvels blossoming within the seeming chaos of the Twitter-verse.
1. Chatrooms: hashtags (#) can be a wonderful thing, a tool to track entire conversations following a single subject, occuring right under our noses on twitter. #journchat is an online community of journalists who meet up once a week over the "t-wires" to chat about the state of the news industry through the use of the hashtag search function. An entire forum converging across time zones and geography to discuss in a virtual arena - and they're not the only ones.
Groups all over the world are engaging in a #chat forum of sorts, throwing out hashtags for people to add to the end of their tweets, bringing a virtual conversation alongside real-time events. Try putting a #-sign in your next search and see what surfaces.
2. Choose Your Own Tweet-venture: What child of the 80's or 90's can forget those tiny cream-colored paperback books that held a world of possibilities between there covers? Who didn't mark their last five choices with as many fingers as they could spare, a precaution to continue on in the adventure should you find yourself abandoned in a cave for all eternity on page 107? Well now, you can relive the childhood thrill, tweet by thrill-seeking tweet, thanks to Jonah Peretti of Buzzfeed and Huffington Post fame. So, maybe take that 10 today at work and sign on to Choose Your Own Adventure.
3. Post like a Pirate: argh maytees, looking to tweet like the ruffians of the sea do? Well, ye be on the right track if yer headin' toward http://postlikeapirate.com/twitter.php. Simply enter in yer infermation and a message in a bottle ye wish to send out to sea, and the app will reformat it in pirate slang. Now everyday can feel just as fun as September 17, otherwise known as Talk Like A Pirate Day.
4. Read a Novel - tweet by tweet: Unable to afford a whole new e-reader? Forgot your book and your already on the road for that trip? Stuck at in the dentist's lobby and only Elle or Cosmo to read? Well here's the answer for literature lovers. Two projects on twitter are trying to share an entire novel tweet by tweet: James Joyce’s Ulysses or Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Read an entire novel, at your pace, taking in only a thought at a time.
5. Better yet, Write Your Own: Although the first novel has reached completiono, there could be a follow-up project in the future. You could start it. Even though it’s defunct, you can still read what was written at the 140novel site, color-coded by each author's contribution.
6. Alarm Clock Anyone? Need to remember something, but not as trusting of the old alarm clock? Send this @timer a direct message, and this account will automatically tweet you back. For example, 'd timer 45 call mom' sends you a reminder tweet in 45 minutes.
7. Keep April Fool's alive all year long: At TweetForger it's as simple as entering someone’s Twitter handle into the form on TweetForger's homepage, creating a zany tweet, and sending your victim a link to the resulting page. Then sit back and enjoy as your prank comes to fruition. The site creates a graphic that looks like a real tweet that is nothing of the sort. The site simply swipes your target's Twitter background and then recreates it with the new faux-tweet.
8. Track your packages: with @trackthis you can keep your eye on the things making their way to you from FedEx, UPS and DHL shipments. For those of us who order online at least once a month - loving the anticipation of knowing that soon something is waiting for you, sent to you (yes even if it was from you too), on your doorstep - this is a great tool.
9. Keep track of who's Adding and Dropping you on Twitter: Nothing's more disconcerting than to watch your following fall in numbers and not know who, why or how? Was your content lacking? Did you offend someone? Too many tweets about Martha Stewart's latest recipes? @chirpstats keeps a tally of the people who've followed and un-followed you over a week or a couple of days, depends on the traffic - just make sure you follow the chirpstat feed.
10. Sharpen your brain with some Twivia: Looking to take on the world in one oversized extreme quest for useless information? Look no farther; you want to play some twivia. Test your knowledge against some of the toughest minds in the Twitter-sphere through @playtwivia. Here's how it works: Twivia posts a question and the first person to @reply the answer gets points, specified in the next tweet. Plus Twivia posts answers after someone gets it correct, so you don’t have to keep wondering. They even take suggestions.
That's probably enough for now as new jewels keep cropping up all the time. Keep your eyes peeled for more unexpected and creative new uses of Twitter, be it a complete time suck or the answer to the world's power crisis.
Posted via email from Kellyfornia on the state of... well, things.
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