Twitter for Beginners

Since I've been representing Georgia Aquarium on social media sites, at least twice a week (if not more) I'm asked what Twitter is, how to use it and why it's so popular. Instead of explaining it over and over, I've created a mini tutorial for Twitter newbies!

Twitter is a free micro-blogging site that allows you to send short 140-character updates --or "tweets" - to a lot of people at once. It was designed to be read on you cell, though many people read it online, too. It has a world-wide audience of six million unique visitors a month, up from 1.2 million a year ago, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

How do I get started?
Go to http://twitter.com and set up your account. Upload a personal image from your computer but remember that the dimensions need to be square and that it will appear fairly small to others, so it’s best to use a headshot.

Search for friends through your e-mail. This is the easiest way to find people you know on Twitter. From there, you can start looking at who your friends are following for recommendations.

Unlike other social media outlets, relationships on Twitter are not reciprocal. People you follow do not have to follow you or give you permission to follow them. You just sign up and start following them.

Give it time; it may take a while for people to follow you. As a rule of thumb, the more people you follow, the more will follow you. But, be careful. Your “friend feed” can become too full and overwhelming if you follow too many people, but that is up to you.

Who do I follow?
Obviously, people you know to start, but the beauty of Twitter is that you don’t have to know people personally to follow them. News outlets, TV shows, celebrities and aquariums :) frequent Twitter and are often the most interesting Twitterers to follow.

Why is Twitter so popular?
For celebrities and organizations, Twitter is gaining popularity as a way to reach fans, plug new projects and act like BFFs.

For us normal folk, it’s a fast, easy way to keep up with your friends and fave celebrities and you can easily update from your phone no matter where you are. Even if you don’t have a phone with internet capabilities (like me) it’s a great tool to use on your computer.

How do I direct a Tweet to someone?
You can either send a person a direct message (which only they can see) or you can reply to them. Next to each person’s Tweet you will see an arrow. Click on it and their name with an @ symbol will appear in your post box. You can also simply type their username at the beginning of your tweet with an @ symbol in front of it: @michaelannedye it was great seeing you today!

Your Tweet will show up in their @ Replies section and will be public for everyone following you.

Note: if their name isn’t at the beginning of the Tweet, it won’t show up in their @ Replies section. However, you can use http://search.twitter.com/ to search for your name (or any other term) and find who’s mentioned you in their Tweet even if it’s not at the beginning of their post. This is incredibly helpful when searching for Georgia Aquarium Tweets on Twitter.

Twitter Glossary
@: At reply. A public tweet directed at a fellow Twitterer, such as @Barack Obama, that shows up in their Twitter stream.

DM: Direct Message. A private message that appears in a Twitter inbox. You can only direct message people who follow you.

RT: Retweet. A tweet that you like so much that you are resending to your followers. Usually includes credit to original tweeter, such as RT @BarackObama, followed by the tweet.

Other Useful Twitter Tools
Twitpic: Post a photo on Twitpic, and then share the Twitpic link via Twitter.
Twhirl: Desktop software to help you manage your Twitter account, find your @replies and shorten URLs so they can be shared on Twitter.
Tipjoy: A service that lets you send small amounts of cash across Twitter, and then tweet about your donation.
Twibs: A list of businesses on Twitter with links to their Twitter accounts.
TweetDeck: Desktop software that lets people split their tweets into columns, such as @replies, direct messages, groups and keyword searches.
Twitterholic: Ranks Twitter users by number of followers.
Twitturly: Tracks which URLs are most popular on Twitter, based on how many times they've been shared by Twitter users.
Monitter: An easy way to keep tabs on multiple searches on Twitter at the same time.
Tiny URL: When posting a URL please, please, please use this site. It will make your long URLs short and help save you space.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/michaelannedye
Follow Georgia Aquarium on Twitter: http://twitter.com/georgiaaquarium

Family Around the Web

Do you ever go on google and search for people you know? I do. A lot. My favorite searches are my dad, mom, grandfather and myself (concieted, I know).

I just found a blog post someone posted about my grandfather. Haha... I love him. He makes me so proud: http://xnreflections.blogspot.com/2009/03/j-allen-thompson-concludes.html

Meet Teddy!

I'm a proud new mother to a little maltese puppy! His name is Theodore Bear Dye (Teddy for short). He was born December 26, 2008, and he's a bundle of energy!

Check out my YouTube video of Teddy's first night home!

My Valentine's Day E-card

For Valentine's Day, the mission assigned to me at work was to create the Aquarium's Valentine e-card. For my first attempt, I'm actually pretty proud of myself! Click here to check it out and be sure to send the e-card to your friends!

Facebook: 25 Random Facts About OTHER People

Having been inspired by a recent article in Time Magazine, I’ve decided to create a compilation of the most amazing 25 things people have sent me via notes on Facebook. The following is a list of 25 random facts taken from other peoples' "25 Random Facts About Me." Enjoy!

25 Random Facst About Other People
1. I'm only doing this list because I see that cool people are doing it and I want to be cool.
2. I day-dream about being mute and living all-alone in a gothic cathedral ruin.
3. A few months ago, I asked my dad did he have any illegitimate children, and he said “Yes.”....Wait, What the hell?
4. I thought long and hard about the proper ratio of funny to serious items on this list. I think 60/40 is about right.
5. I wish that life was like a Broadway musical and we would burst into perfectly choreographed song and dance numbers all day.
6. I have started a collection of episodes of Rick Dees & The Weekly Top 40 from 1984-1999.
7. I sang the Rainbow Connection in a Kermit the Frog voice in front of a thousand people. I regret it, because too many people only know me as the Kermit guy.
8. When I was 12, I broke my hand from punching a wall through a pillow. It was after watching Karate Kid at a friend’s house and we were pretending the pillows were the bad guys.
9. I'm missing a testicle. Not really. Just a finger. But I did have a close call once, requiring a morning of testing with a technician who had the nerve to ask if her attractive student assistant could watch. This was almost as unnerving as the urologist who asked me how it felt.
10. I have a weird obsession with glasses. When I was younger I wanted glasses so I faked my eye exam. In all of my elementary school pictures I am wearing glasses.
11. My right pupil is shaped like a heart because I had to get six stitches. When I was in first grade, this b*tch, Chandravia, stole my blue Little Mermaid pencil. When I went to retrieve it, yanking it from her hand resulted in the recently sharpened tip stabbing my eye.
12. I broke up with my first boyfriend (in 2nd grade) because he peed on my backpack in his sleep while we were camping in the front yard.
13. I have an obsession with the hair on my arm. I hate for them to be in-grown and so I pull them out. Sometimes in class, I used to circle ingrown hairs to remind myself to rip them out when I got home.
14. I believe that God put me on this earth to be totally awesome, and to help other people to be totally awesome too.
15. At least once every day I look in the mirror and think, "Wow, I'm really pretty." I think this is an excellent habit.
16. I got a real chain letter as a kid and was terrified for weeks because it said something horrible would happen to me if I didn't pass it on to 10 people. My mom told me it was against the law to forward a chain letter so I didn't do it.
17. I was featured in The National Inquirer when I was 8.
18. I have over 200 cousins. (Editor’s Note: this was posted by one of my cousins).
19. I used to play ‘Jesus on the Cross’ with my brother in our living room. I would be Jesus, and he would be every supporting role in the Gospel.
20. I named my first car, a 1988 Pathfinder, after my great grandmother's Model T, which she called Betsy Sue. She committed suicide in Betsy Sue.
21. I don’t get what people see in bird watching. What is the point? You check off your list that you’ve seen a yellow breasted nuthatch. Big woopty-do.
22. I once rode my bike through my college campus naked. I was sober.
23. I swear I remember being born. My wife likes to bring this up in large groups so everyone can make fun of me.
24. When I was a kid, I used to hide behind a tree to poop outside so my mom would not see. The rest of the neighborhood did not think it was too funny.
25. I have a better taste in music than you do.

$15 Georgia Aquarium Tix!

To say thank you to their followers on MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, etc. Georgia Aquarium is giving out $15 tickets!

http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/socialmedia

Check out the Georgia Aquarium on its social media sites to keep up with more special deals:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Atlanta-GA/Georgia-Aquarium/22727908123
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/georgiaaquarium
Flickr: http://twitter.com/georgiaaquarium
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/georgiaaquarium

Follow Georgia Aquarium Whale Shark Biologist on Twitter

Jennie, a whale shark biologist at Georgia Aquarium, will be blogging live on Twitter today! She's going to be posting pictures and updates about all the happenings behind-the-scenes. She's one of the biologists that takes care of the four whale sharks, the manta ray and all the other animals in Ocean Voyager.

Check it out: http://twitter.com/georgiaaquarium