Using Twitter - 12 Things To Think About From @JohnBrownPJ
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As @JohnBrownPJ nears 1000 followers on Twitter, a few observations are at hand.
Using Twitter - 12 Things To Think About From @JohnBrownPJ
1. List all of your followers by category. This will help you focus on tweets you specific to the varied issues you are interested in. In doing that, you will be able to view tweets by subject in the left pane.
2. Track your tweets by attaching using a bit.ly link.
3.Use 3rd party applications such as Listorious, Seesmic, WeFollow and TweetReach to find potential followers.
4. If you are a photographer, avoid tweeting about your photography only. It looks like spam and becomes boring unless you happen to be James Nachwey.
5. Use #hashtags (there is some debate about this)so people can see other tweets people your followers may be interested in besides yours.
6. Thank people who retweet your tweets and mention you. If you're not doing that, ask yourself, why not?
7. If you are a niche tweeter, avoid tweeting trending topics. Afterall, the scourge of child labor will be around after Lindsey Lohan gets out of jail.
8. Clean up your lists. If a non-follower hasn't tweeted in 3 years, why keep following? You can always start following them again when they become active.
9. Use Twitter for research by temporarily following people who are experts relative to specific subjects. There is a lot of gold to be mined here.
10. Be patient. Critical mass is probably achieved at around 30,000 followers. If you are a niche tweeter, the odds are that you won't get there.
11. Stick to your guns. If you believe the issue of child labor around the world is important, keep tweeting about it. The kids need you.
12. If you hail from the Western World, don't expect your "real life" friends who live there to follow you. As one friend in Queens New York recently told me over the phone, "I'm WATCHING COLOR TV!". Try that in a country where 80% of the population has no power.
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John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS



