Sad Purple Dove: Make It your Twitter

I hate social media but like Twitter. When I first joined Twitter in 2012 it seemed something different, less complicated and "in your face" then Facebook. Me and tech often fall out yet with Twitter I settled into the community quickly.

Your first Twitter steps are always hard and you may not understand it at first. Preserve and you'll soon get used to using 140 characters or less to say something meaningful, mundane or have a outburst to vent your frustrations at the world.

Twitter is mini-updates and you can soon gathers followers providing you participate and tweet regular. A list of all your updates will become your Tweeter feed.

I joined Twitter to follow people I like/hate, interests and track news updates. I even started my first blog around the same time to try to improve my tech skills and share my online voice.

In 2014 I went through a bad patch, deleted my tweets and stop using Twitter for over two years until I came back and rediscovered why I like it.

Twitter is great conversation. Twitter is an amazing platform to meet like minded people with similar interests and complete idiots. It's a place for breaking news, people to share content, information, find useful resources, jokes and laugh at the celebrity gossip. It's also great business for and customer complaints when companies let you down.

At my age I know that technology can be bewildering and I've learned a lots by using Twitter and taking a blogging training course. These 140 character or less tips will help your Twitter experience.

My Twitter Tips:

· Listen, join in and engage in the conversation.

Be interested in what others have to say.

· Follow the and consume the content you want ignore the rest.

· Don't get upset if your favourite celebrity or Twitter crush doesn't follow you back.

· If you see a tweet that interests you, makes you laugh then share with a Retweet or favourite it.

· Never do it for the money.

· Don't let Twitter upset you it's just people beliefs, there are bound to disagreements. That's freedom of speech for you.

· Don't post a selfie of yourself out on the town and then call in sick for work the next day.

· Don't overload your followers timelines by tweeting too much.

· Don't use a #hashtag if your tweet doesn't relate to it, that's call spam.

· Don't get addicted. Talk to your human friends too.

Retweeting a Tweet distributes and shares that tweet to your own followers.

You can send direct messages providing you follow each other and it will only be seen by that person.

A @reply or @mention will notify your account. If people follow you and the person that replied you'll see the conversation.

Hashtags are like topics of conversation for example - #TwitterTips. Clicking a hashtag will filter tweets with that tag.

Reasons Why should you be on Twitter?

It's easy publishing with a micro blog then setup a real blog.
You can make new friends and new enemies.
You can help people, raise awareness and save lives.
It's fun.
It's a also a platform for serious issues not in the mainstream media.
It's uncensored, anti-establishment and great for democracy.
You might learn something new.
You can promote your stuff and other peoples stuff.
It's show real time topics so you know when things are happening.
It's contains free porn.
It's not Facebook.
I'm on it.

Managing your Twitter Stream:

Although you can get your thoughts and broadcast your messages out it's important to listen and interact with others. Mix it up and follow the people and Twitter accounts that interest and entertain but also read the view points of people you disagree with.

As you follow more and more people you can create lists to group related topics and subjects together.

Although social media has its problems and can be a breeding ground for trolls, spam and hate speech I have a passion for Twitter. Twitter is an important tool and the best thing about Twitter is it's simple, to the point so you can filter out the useless crap using the mute function. Make it your Twitter.

If you follow me I'm delighted to tweet you. Welcome to my small digital world and underground community.