My friends who are not on Twitter constantly ask me, “Why are you on Twitter?” Yesterday I attended my first 140 Character Conference — #140conf — and like Twitter, it moved quickly and in short bursts, on various unrelated topics. Speakers had 10 minutes each, panels lasted 20 minutes each. Someone unfamiliar with Twitter may have felt that the conference had no direction or purpose. On the contrary, I left with a feeling of empowerment. Twitter, social media and the real-time Internet in general, can help one do many great things.

Listening — Hear what your neighbors, customers, clients, target market or constituents are talking about. Should you know more about some topics? What are they saying about you? Can you offer a solution? If you are in customer service, or looking for more business, this is a great way to use Twitter. But as @JustinKownacki reminded us, when you’re a business person trying to join the conversation around the community water cooler, don’t go into a hard sales pitch. Have a conversation like adults.

Discovery — Find news as it is happening. Read about it from primary sources or from your favorite investigative journalists. Discover stories (or restaurants or recipes or hotels) through recommendations from friends. Those on the media panel said they use Twitter as their personal news wire, both to know what’s being released by news media, and to get ahead of their competition.

Revelation — Find out more about yourself, your likes and dislikes. Do you have an expertise you’ve been keeping quiet about? You’ll be able to find a group of people on Twitter that appreciate your specialties. There are regular chat groups, like the #edchat education group, that bring together experts and interested folks around certain topics. Search and you shall find.

NOTE: People are often concerned about falsehoods on the Internet, but @acarvin of NPR said that Twitter is often where “rumors go to die.” Since so much information can be passed around so quickly, as fast as a false rumor is started, it is revealed to be a hoax.

Volunteer recruitment — Non-profits are having great success at getting volunteers and donations of time and resources (outside of cash donations) through Twitter. It’s easy to be specific and local. Even investors have been found, as @MelissaPierce found making Life In Perpetual Beta.

Amplify your voice — Remember that old ad, “I told two friends… and they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on…”? Twitter works like that, but it can be almost immediate. Instead of waiting for you to run into a friend, people can re-tweet ideas as soon as they receive them. And they are often telling hundreds of their friends as soon as they hit send.

Research — Some people argue that “lunchies” (thanks for that word, @doctorjeff) — those that tweet about what they’re having for lunch — are the problem with Twitter. But a writer like @girlinblack can use these minute-by-minute journals for character development, and our host @jeffpulver pointed out that these Twitter accounts may belong to someone’s grandfather one day. As the Library of Congress is going to archive all our tweets, even these little throwaway tweets may give us some valuable historical, biographical information someday. No? Well, imagine if you could read your grandparents’ tweets. Was your grandma excited to change her name or was it a hassle? How excited was grandpa on his first day back from World War II? Maybe not everyone wants to read their grandparents’ tweets. But check out @bus2antarctica.

Many people are hesitating to log on to Twitter because they anticipate it may be too involved, too much like Facebook, or because they feel they already get all the information they need from websites and e-mail. In actuality, Twitter is less complicated than Facebook, websites or e-mail and that is its strength. Some of the interesting new websites I learned about from the 140 Character Conference (#140conf) follow. I hope you’ll check them out. Know that you wouldn’t have found out about them without Twitter.

• JustCoz: Launched by conference host Jeff Pulver at the DC #140conf, this is a great way for non-profits to get the word out at no cost. If you are a non-profit, check it out right now.
• TroopSwap: an online marketplace that allows active duty military to connect with other service members, veterans, community members, and small businesses both locally and nationally to buy or sell almost anything related to military life. For now, these items fall into the categories of: gear, household items, cars and homes.
• BetterHumanRace.com: Search to benefit charities.
• Rock the Vote: 20 years old this year, and getting ramped up for the midterm elections.
• The Remarkable Power of Twitter: A Water Cooler for the 21st Century – by @doctorjeff
• Life In Perpetual Beta – a film by @MelissaPierce

Also read: Getting the most out of Twitter, Tips on being a corporate Tweeter, 10 tips to help you learn to fly on Twitter

There is lots of info out there about how to get more followers for your Twitter account. And then there are all kinds of links offering to get you more followers the quick and easy way. DO NOT CLICK THERE.

Personally, I get much more out of quality people I follow, not quantity people following me. Sure, with my corporate accounts we want to reach lots of customers with our message. But even there, we want it to be the right people that we reach.

Geoff Livingston, Allison Fine, Beth Kanter and Kami Huyse started a smart meme on “Ways to Increase Your Twitter Following Ethically” – if you’re looking to build a Twitter presence, I highly recommend it.

They’ve invited us all to extend the conversation: I have a few tips of my own to add.

1. Have a goal. Know what you want to get out of people you reach as well as those you’re following. Why are you doing this Twitter thing anyway? Do I have to mention this? Well, yes, from what I’ve read on Twitter it seems I do. Even if your goal is just to communicate with your friends and get news faster. Know that this is your goal.
2. Focus. When someone asks you what you tweet about, can you answer them? Try narrowing tweets from your personal account to just a few topics important to you. I recommend that you focus on topics you know best. This way people find it easier to associate you with a topic or two. Your profile and any directory tags should reflect these topics.
3. Engage. When someone follows you, check out their profile and see what you have in common. Twitter is about making connections, and that’s a two-way street. Make a conscious decision whether to follow someone back or not. And don’t follow so many people that you can’t manage reading your incoming Tweets.
4. Use etiquette. Be positive. If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything. Of course correcting false information and participating in healthy debate is appropriate. Give credit where it is due — label retweets as RT or /via.
5. Don’t overtweet. This does no one any favors. Taking over everyone’s Twitter stream is just rude, and unless you’re covering a specific event, you need to leave space between your Tweets to allow folks to consider what you’ve said.
6. Be patient. Your numbers will come in time. If you have built your audience slowly it will be a much more reliable audience than one that’s been built overnight.

Also read: Tips on being a corporate Tweeter, 10 tips to help you learn to fly on Twitter

I’m looking forward to embarking on a new adventure as a corporate tweeter. As such, I’ve taken a good deal of time accumulating best practices for corporate accounts. Many of these are the same as I would recommend for anyone operating a business Twitter account for themselves:

1. Have a mission/message in mind before you post your first tweet.
2. Your message should also consider your target audience.
3. Twitter directories are a good way to gain some followers initially, but there is no get followers quick solution.
4. Be selective in following. There is no need to follow everyone who follows you.
5. Be careful of your language. This is even more important for corporations than for individuals.
6. Your posts are 100% public. Remember that bad news travels faster than good news and anything your shareholders wouldn’t like will travel out of the Twitterverse and onto TV screens and into newspapers.
7. Corporations need to select a voice. It’s best if one person, or a couple of people, man the account, for consistency, and to be sure there’s no redundancy. Most corporations invoke the royal ‘we.’  Other more customer-service oriented Twitter accounts have used an individual speaking from the first person.
8. A regular stream of content is important to any Twitter feed to maintain followers. Appropriate corporate topics include:

• • respond to follower/customer inquiries
  • retweet satisfied customer tweets
  • link to updated/interesting information on corporate websites/blogs
  • retweet updates from affiliated Twitter accounts
  • Twitter contests
  • advance notice of corporate news
  • Twitter discount codes
  • stimulate Twitter discussions with product-related questions
  • product-related trivia
  • run online surveys
  • photos of corporate events

Have some other ideas? Please share in the comments!

Bird art by Triax Mills.

A friend of mine and I have been talking about doing this for a while, and I procrastinated as much as is socially acceptable. Now it’s happening. My first Tweet Up is next week. And I helped plan it!

Let me rephrase that. A person I don’t know at all — to whom I was introduced through Twitter — and I have been exchanging 140-character thoughts about this concept for a while. She and I planned a party together via Twitter, for folks we know on Twitter and their Twitter friends. Ah, the mysteries of social media!

For those who don’t know, a Tweet Up is when people who have met each other on Twitter meet up in person.

@seakisst and I hit it off, via Twitter, and according to the information she’s shared with me, we will probably get along great in person. (She meets my empathy standard.)

To be honest, I’m just really excited to go downtown and have a beer at happy hour, because I don’t really do that much anymore without a good reason.

I think a Tweet Up is a good reason to go downtown and have a beer. Will you join me? My friend @seakisst will be there with me, @dcgrrl.

DC Tweet Up
Thurs. August 13
http://twtvite.com/vwnivf

So, you’ve decided to join Twitter.

Welcome. Anyone can tailor their Twitter experience to something they enjoy. You can make friends, communicate with your family, get the latest news, see behind the scenes on movie sets, get out a marketing message, or look for creative inspiration. All of these objectives can be met with Twitter, if you know that’s what you want to do.

1. Twitter is not complicated. Each post can be up to 140 characters long. The site counts the characters for you.
2. Twitter addresses are represented with @ – so my Twitter address is @dcgrrl – that will take you to a Twitter profile page, where you can read someone’s tweets and opt to follow or un-follow anyone on Twitter.
3. To keep posts short and to the point, Twitter shortens web links and people sometimes use the same SMS text shorthand they use with their phones, like omg & thx alot.
4. You only have to read the folks you’ve decided to subscribe to, or follow.
5. Choose to follow people that will bring informative or entertaining value to your Twitter stream. Remember you don’t have to follow everyone that follows you. Beware of scam Twitter bots — those that are simply sending links to credit card or adult sites — they’re probably not real people, you should ignore them like spam e-mail.
6. Feel free to un-follow someone if they’ve gone off topic or are over-tweeting for your reading schedule. You know when you read your tweets, and how many tweets you’re interested in reading.
7. If you especially like someone’s post, or tweet, you can ReTweet it, signified by RT, and share it with your followers. Or save it as a Favorite for later reference. Posts go by in real time from all over the world. That immediacy is part of Twitter’s charm.
8. Be careful of your language. Use a word like ‘p0rn’ in one post and you’ll be surprised by the type of followers you’ll gain. On the other hand, try cupcake + baking and you’ll eventually have the entire recipe contingent on your tail. And depending on your motives, that could be a good thing. (There are a lot of good cooks tweeting!)
9. Topics that get lots of reference earn a hashtag # — such as #SOTU for State of the Union — as an indexing bookmark, so it’s easier to search everyone’s tweets for comments.
10. Your Twitter posts are 100% public and anyone can read them. You can change your privacy: There are options to PROTECT your posts from being seen (under Settings), except from the followers you approve — perfect for kids who want to tweet — and you can BLOCK unwanted followers on individual profile pages. Use these tools to keep the Twittersphere safe for you and your family.

Now for some valuable references…

• http://search.twitter.com/search: You can search for anything on Twitter without having an account.
• Twitter Grader: Here you can find the ‘Elite’ tweeters worldwide and in your area for ideas on whom to start following.
• Localtweeps: Looking for friends? Localtweeps helps you find other folks on Twitter near you geographically, that you can tweet-up with in real life.
• WeFollow: Search for people to follow based on topics you’re interested in.
• Mr. Tweet: Helps by providing personalized recommendations for you.
• Twittervision: It lets you see tweets pop up all over the world, just what’s happening on our planet via Twitter.
• Tagalus: Defines the Hashtags.
• Corporate Avatar: Like Facebook, Linked In and other places, you need an avatar at Twitter. If you’re representing a company, you may want to be a bit strategic about your avatar.
• tinyurl: Twitter automatically shortens many links that people put into their posts. But sometimes you need to shorten your link to make it fit under the 140-character limit. This service is very handy and free (and run by donation).
• SMS language: Another helper in keeping your messages short and to the point is the shorthand you may already be familiar with from text messages. This link will take you to a brief dictionary on Wikipedia in case you get confused.
• #followfriday: This happens every week. Tweeps share some of their favorites with their followers and tag their post #followfriday or #ff. There is also a Wednesday version of this, #women2follow, for the ladies.
• Twitter Guide Book: from Mashable – very comprehensive!

PS: Tweeps I follow, featured in the image above: comedian @MichaelIanBlack, media journalist @HowardKurtz, DC shadow representative @MikePanetta, and homemaker and creative powerhouse @thepioneerwoman. More folks I follow on Twitter on my Tweeps I like page.

UPDATE: You will by default get e-mails from Twitter that notify you when someone starts following you. This includes a link to that person’s Twitter profile. You can turn this notification off at your Twitter settings page under Notices. However, if you take a look at your new followers, you can quickly identify if these folks are obvious spam accounts, and if they are, you can block them. (Actually, you can block anyone.) That helps Twitter keep the Twittersphere clean, and it protects your privacy from these folks.

I’ve noticed two main types of bloggers: those who write for themselves and those who write with the reader in mind.

This applies to you too, my Twitter friends. Actually, this applies to all communicators. In the land of person-to-person verbal communication we have a third type, the reluctant communicator. This person only reaches out because of biological or occupational requirements, but we’ll leave them alone for now.

Back to the blog. I believe that utility is the key to distinction within the blogosphere. I want to follow a blog that gives me links, news, entertainment or insight. I am not interested in knowing that a stranger is going to the grocery store, looking out the window, napping, etc., unless you are adding some insight or entertainment value to that information.

So your lifeblog sharing the number of reps you did at the gym doesn’t help or motivate me. Unless you are Lance Armstrong,  in which case I am very interested in your workout routine, diet and new bicycle.

If I don’t know you, your date last night isn’t interesting to me. Unless you are dating columnist Julia Allison.  Get it?

What do you do? What are you an expert on? Share what you know, resources you find, news your readers can use. Write with your reader in mind.

If you can only share how your day is going, provide links to help your readers understand better. Are you milking a goat? Share a link to more info on dairy goats: http://www.dairygoatjournal.com

When you’re working in a medium like Twitter or a blog that has subscribers, be respectful with the number of ‘issues’ you send out each day. Keep in mind that some messages don’t need to be public. While you’re editing the number of things you publish, do edit your grammar. Here’s some help at The Slot http://www.theslot.com/.

Writers, hear my plea. I know you have a lot on your mind, and I look forward to reading it. Please let us know here in the comments where you’ll be writing in 2009. Happy blogging!

We’ve been combing through some old front pages of the Post here at the office, in preparation for an exhibit that will be open to the public around Inauguration time. Keep your eyes open for that. It’s been mesmerizing to see how the more things change, the more they stay the same.

1) Advertising on the front page was in vogue decades ago, and many papers have brought it back.

2) The twitter, or short quotable thought, was also quite popular ages back. News was more personal and personable.

3) The Post was more locally focused. The news came back to how Washingtonians were effected. And that’s the newest ‘change’ in how the paper is operating. More local focus.

For your enjoyment, here’s a vintage front page. The big news of this day: the atomic bomb changes war and science. And, in local news, Major Bong is hit.