My internet travels provide the best opportunities for me to discover new heroes for the Kids Are Heroes web site. The other day was no different. I came across a 13-year-old boy in Denver, CO named Mark who has a little brother with Type 1 diabetes. They have a service dog named Red that alerts when Jason’s blood sugar gets too high or too low. I had never heard of that but found it fascinating. Mark helps other families acquire, train and manage similar dogs for this same situation. He has helped quite a few families across the country and in Canada and is tasked to solve problems on his feet. There are two families in particular that Mark and his mom need extra help with. That is where I hope the Twitter family can step in. (FYI TV News article on Mark can be seen here: http://www.9news.com/life/community/whocare/kids/article.aspx?storyid=109166&catid=538 )
Five-year-old Ayla is from Oregon. She has Type 1 diabetes. She and her family are being evicted from their apartment because of their service dog. (See the TV News report here.) To add insult to injury, the puppy is suffering from cancer and I’m told she won’t make it. Now this will have been the second dog this little girl has lost in her short term. What Mark’s mother is asking for is that someone donate a golden retriever puppy to replace the other dog. She can ask pointed questions to determine if the animal would be susceptible to this type of service work. If you know of anyone who can help with this, please leave a comment here.
There is a separate situation that needs equal attention. There is a 13-year-old girl named Katie-Jane who lives in Denton, TX. She has a wonderful German Shepherd that is also a diabetic alert dog. This dog is a natural when it comes to this activity. Unfortunately, it has a severe case of hip displaysia and needs an operation desperately. I won’t go into the hardships of the family to explain why they cannot afford it, suffice it to say they have fallen on hard times. What they are looking for is someone to perform the operation for free. They claim that the dog be flown to wherever is necessary.
Update: 6/17/09: I received an email this morning from dad of a family of heroes. The McKay family is recognized on our site for collecting food for local food banks. He wrote: “Hey Gabe! I just joined Twitter. How does it work? How do you use it?” Great, I thought, I’d send him the link to the post I had written back in February on the subject. Then I read it and thought it wasn’t that good so I am now rewriting it. Thanks, Mark! ;)
Ok, you are convinced that you would at least like to try Twitter. Let me say this: If you do not give it enough time or if you go about things in the wrong way, you will probably leave feeling you have wasted your time. Twitter is an incredible platform that allows you to connect with an unlimited (0k – it is limited to millions – sorry!) number of people around the world and it doesn’t cost a dime. It can be used for personal enrichment and/or as a conduit for you to do some professional networking.
How Do I Start?
1) Go to http://twitter.com and register yourself by clicking “Join the Conversation”.
Once you have registered and you are at your “home page” you will see that zero people are following you and you are following zero people. It doesn’t make sense to jump in just yet because no one is listening. You may want to leave one “tweet” such as “Just getting started!” so that if people discover you they will know you are active.
2) Choose your Twitter ID (Username) wisely.
This is critical that you do this. First off, you don’t want it to be too long because people don’t like to type and it will also “crowd” tweets. Remember tweets can only be 140 characters and you’ll find that real estate can be precious sometimes. When you get retweeted your tweet plus your user name must fit in the 140 characters or people will have to edit your tweet to rebroadcast it. People don’t like doing that and will only do it if they really like the tweet. So keep it as short as possible. Also I do not recommend underscores or dashes. It just lengthens the user name unnecessarily. Eventually you will be able to search your twitter user name on Google and if you are trying to establish your brand you never want to change your user name. I have written blog posts about people on Twitter, gave their user name so that others could follow them. Later they changed their user name and now these links are dead. I trust you get the picture.
3) Fill out your profile.
This sounds trivial but this is an extremely important step. How you present yourself is what will help feed the decision of whether people follow you. I have a lot of personal opinions as to what should (and should not) be written in your profile. But let me at least suggest to make sure you write your city, state and country, spelling out at least the city and state. I say that because I was once discussing with a Twitter friend from Australia where each of us is from and he didn’t know what Frederick, MD meant. So I changed it to Frederick, Maryland, USA. Remember, you have a global audience now. Also I have found that most people want to see your real name and what your passions are. It is certainly OK and expected of you to put a web link that promotes you in some way. When writing your bio give as much information as you can but if it’s too spammyor self-promoting it might turn people off.
4) Add your picture.
I know my profile doesn’t follow my own advice but 9 times out of 10 it is best to put a picture of smiling self as your avatar. When I look for people to follow I instinctively look for people, not companies or groups with an agenda. In my experience many others are the same way. Don’t doctor it to make it cute or stand out, and please don’t put it sideways or upside down. Some people do that to attract attention and it works – I avoid following them. Click the Picture tab and upload your picture. Hint: Make sure the pic is as square as possible when you upload it. Also it is ok (and even recommended) to upload a picture that is bigger than the box it appears in. Twitter will reduce it automatically but people can see the original size of your photo by clicking on your profile then your picture.
5) You can protect your updates (or not).
In the Account tab there is a check box at the bottom that, if checked, will protect your updates. This means that anyone who looks at your profile cannot read anything you say unless they request to follow you and you approve them. I protect the updates of my daughter (who is 10) so that spammers and porn bots can’t just follow her automatically. Those types of accounts don’t bother to send requests or are unable to. But unless you have a really good reason I do not recommend protecting your updates. It’s hard to read a person whose updates are protected so I am less inclined to follow them.
6) Change your background
On the Design tab you can add a theme or add a background image. Depending on what your goal is and what you want out of this experience, you can simply choose a theme or you can pay someone for a professional Twitter background. There are also things in between that you can do. I recommend that for now you choose a theme and when you discover that you really want to invest your time in Twitter then decide what is best. Also note that free background images can be acquired from several places, including http://www.twitbacks.com/.
7) Add your Devices
Click on the Devices tab to add your iPhone, Blackberry or whatever device. I am not an expert on this since I don’t use my phone to tweet, so I am going to defer to Twitter’s own help on the subject.
8) Get People to Follow You
Ok, now you are ready to start tweeting. But wait! No one is following you. That means that no one will read what you are saying. You need to get followers. This is a bit strange because it is sort of a chicken and the egg situation. People who see you have few tweets are less likely to follow you but why would you tweet if no one is listening? The answer? To get people to follow you. This to me is the most difficult time, because you haven’t figured out yet what Twitter is all about, you have no followers and you are not sure what to do. My answer here is to go real slow. This can be a bit tricky if you do not know anyone on Twitter, but I will give you a bit of a boost if you like. If you follow “KidsAreHeroes” (Go to http://twitter.com/KidsAreHeroes and click the ‘Follow’ button) and send me a message that you read this blog I will follow you back. (I may follow you back anyway.) If you would like my assistance always feel free to ask I will gladly answer your questions if I have time and opportunity. But Twitter isn’t about just making one connection – it’s about connecting with a lot of people. The easiest way to get followers is to follow people. They see they have a new follower, read your profile and decide if they want to follow you back. There are many web sites that offer suggestions as to who to follow. One of my recommendations is @AlexKaris. He is always offering interesting tips to newbies. Once you are at his home page you can see who is following him. You can see their profiles, see if you like the things that they say, and follow them if interested. More often than not they will follow you back and that’s really how to get started. You may also want to check out Twitterholic.com to connect to the big players on Twitter. http://wefollow.com and http://twellow.com are great resources that classify Twitter users by category so you can follow people with similar interests. Here are some other quick recommended follows: @TheRyansWell, @Isipho, @ChloeMaxmin @LexxiSaal@AlanasAchievers and @HeroHugsOrg (all “heroes”) from our web site. And of course let’s not forget the cofounder of Kids Are Heroes, @MM4Animals.
Remember, if you have very few tweets people will be less likely to follow you until they can see some substance. So be patient. Follow just a few people at first and test the waters – get used to how things work. As you tweet more then you can try following more, and so on.
We have now set up your Twitter account and you are ready to start tweeting. Before you actually get started you will want to know some things that are germane to Twitter.
1) What’s with the ‘@’ Sign?
When you tweet about another person on Twitter you always should preface their Twitter ID with the ‘@’ sign. This tells Twitter that people can click on that user name within the tweet so they can check that person out if they wish to. Here’s a great example, if you wrote: “Hey all, you should check out @KidsAreHeroes because they are doing great things!” When someone reads this tweet and is interested in checking out KidsAreHeroes they can simply click on the link you provided because you supplied it properly inside your tweet. Also, when you want to address one person in particular, you begin your tweet with the ‘@’ sign followed by their identity. Something like “@moelib Tell me more about your editing service!” is appropriate. (Shameless plug for my sister in Canada.) When you do this it ends up in their “Replies/Mentions” folder which makes it much easier for them to track things directed at them. Although be careful – even though it is addressed to them it is plainly visible by others to see it. To send a message only viewable by you and another person you need to send them a “direct” message.
2) The Tiny URL
One common method of communication and exposure on Twitter is to send links to websites whether it is for marketing purposes or just to point to a funny YouTube video. You would be right in guessing that a typical link could take up a lot of precious real estate when you are restricted to just 140 characters. Services like http://snurl.com, http://budurl.com. http://bit.ly and http://tinyurl.com will “shrink” these long addresses for you down to a manageable size. When users click on these short links, they will be redirected to the original sites automatically. Note: The most compact one of these I have found is http://tr.im.
3) The Retweet
A common method of flatteryand respect is the retweet. This is repeating a tweet that impressed you in some way so all of your followers can read it. You also give credit to the author. Be careful, if you do it too much it will be seens as disingenuous. Here is how to do it. Say you read a tweet from me that said: “Wow! I just ate a Twix bar with a fork!” Now I know I would never tweet like that and I especially hope you don’t retweet it if I did but it’s just used as an example. Here is the retweet: “RT @KidsAreHeroes: Wow! I just ate a Twix bar with a fork!” Please pay close attention to the spaces and lack thereof. If done correctly the person who you retweeted will see that you did so and hopefully will thank you. A newer method of retweeting is by doing it the following way: “Wow! I just ate a Twix bar with a fork! via @KidsAreHeroes”. Although preferred by some I am a bit old school and like the former method because it takes up less space. UPDATE 12/11/09: Twitter now has its own version of the retweet. You will see the option underneath the tweet to the right. All this does is repeat the tweet verbatim to your followers – you cannot edit it. Alos as of now when you do this the person you are retweeting will not be notified that you have done so. The old way will end up in your mentions folder. That’s why I prefer the older method.
4) Feed your Blog to Twitter
When I discovered you could feed your blog posts to Twitter I was really excited. I knew this would help me increase my readership dramatically. Before Twitter I would write and write with very few people noticing it. Now I get regular comments and retweets. You can feed your blog to Twitter by doing it manually – shorten the URL as described above – or automatically through a service such as http://twitterfeed.com.
Ok I Think I’m Ready – So How Do I Do It?
There is a plethora of tools out there that interact with Twitter. In the very beginning when you are just starting out I recommend you just use your regular browser. What’s nice about this is that no additional software needs to be installed. Go to Twitter.com and start “tweeting”. Don’t forget to refresh your page every minute or so to see the new messages – they don’t pop up automatically. Engage people in conversation. Send out open-ended questions and see what comes back to you. You will see the replies directed at you on your home page but you can also see them at any time in your @Replies/Mentions folder. The reason why it appears on both is because if you are not monitoring Twitter at the time they are sent, the messages directed at you will not get lost in the mix of other messages you are subscribed to read. When you log back on you can simply check your Replies folder to see if anyone sent a reply to you. Direct messages can be sent to you by people you follow, and in this case they can be viewed by no one else. These only show up in your Direct Messages folder. A reminder: From what I’ve experienced, newer people tend to forget to look in their “@Replies” folder for messages directed at them when they sign on. Please check it often and respond in kind. And be warned, Twitter can be addictive!!
I have written many posts on Twitter that I hope are helpful to people just getting started and people who have been doing it for a while. After you have digested this one and get your feet wet a bit I hope you come back to read some other posts. My favorites are my “Top 10 Do’s and Dont’s” as well as “To Follow or Not to Follow“. To see all of my Twitter related posts, simply click here.
Feel free to ask questions and/or leave your new Twitter user name in the comments section here. Are there any experienced Twitterers out there that wouldn’t mind helping out a “newbie”? Please also tell us about yourself and leave your Twitter ID in the comments. Happy tweeting and good luck!
As many of you know I began my Twitter journey fairly recently – that is in late December of 2008. I haven’t looked back since. I like to blog about things I have a passion for, and it just so happens that right now I am passionate about several things. In April of 2006, my dog Charlie founded Wags for Hope, which is a local pet therapy group in Frederick. In March of 2008, my daughter and I founded Kids Are Heroes, which is a web site that inspires children to become active in their communities. I only mention this because these are two distinct endeavors that I am very passionate about. So it made sense to me to create two Twitter personae. TeamCharlie is my Wags for Hope identity where I recount stories of pet therapy in nursing homes, talk about dogs, etc.. KidsAreHeroes is my other identity where we promote our web site. Now for the good stuff.
Since the start I have had one main blog where I reflect on all the things I care about. I would expect most if not all of you bloggers on Twitter are using Twitterfeed to automatically feed your blog posts to Twitter. That’s an easy and wonderful tool to have available. But what do I do when I want to talk about Wags for Hope, or specific things that concern Kids Are Heroes? How do I “split” my feeds? This has been tormenting me for a while, so I made an effort yesterday to start really looking for this solution. I was told about the ‘Filter’ option in Twitterfeed which is useful but not in my case. The filter option will pull posts that have certain key words in them. This doesn’t solve my problem. I was surprised that I discovered little about this subject on the Internet or through my Twitter family. At any rate I tripped over the solution this morning by simply playing with Wordpress URLs. I hope that those who are searching for the same solution find this blog post. Full disclosure: This works for Wordpress blogs only – you may be able to use the same logic on other blogs but I cannot attest to that. I currently use wordpress.com – not wordpress.org (I know – I need to upgrade) and I am assuming the same logic will work on both.
I wanted something that would filter tags (categories) instead of keywords. Therefore I can tag one type of post with Wags for Hope and the other with Kids Are Heroes. To separate them and create a feed link for Twitterfeed, here is what one of mine looks like: http://gabeoneill.wordpress.com/category/kids-are-heroes/feed . It’s as simple as that. So I can split up the ones that do not apply to each other. For something like this post that might benefit both identities, I created two feeds using the same tag and fed them to both Twitter ID’s. I hope this tidbit is helpful to you.
Now that our first major Music for Life fund raiser is behind us, I am really looking forward to the next one. This one is a much more family friendly event which fits in very well with everything MaryMargaret is doing. On Sunday, March 22nd, there will be three seatings at the Holly Hills Country Club for a really great breakfast event. The South Mountain String Quartet will entertain us, as will several young musicians. MaryMargaret, the cofounder of Kids Are Heroes, will be on hand to play her violin. She will be joined by a 10-year-old harpist, as well as other young pianists, singers and violinists. The featured performers will be the Bransa Trio, led by violinist Brian Kim (pictured here). Brian recently won the Young Artist’s String Competition sponsored by the Frederick Symphony Orchestra. He is bringing a pianist and a cellist along with him. I can’t wait for that as it will be amazing! Now that won’t take away anything from the other performers, however. They are all at different places in their musical journeys, but every single performance will be endearing and wonderful to watch. The web site has details of who will perform at which seating, so please choose the one you wish to attend carefully. Each seating will include the South Mountain String Quartet and performances by three young musicians. For more details and to register, please visit the Music for Life section on the Kids Are Heroes web site.
UPDATE: This was a WONDERFUL event. Here is a sampling of the entertainment. Everyone was outstanding!!
“Ask not what your followers can do for you. Ask what you can do for your followers!” -@KidsAreHeroes
I have recently gotten into the habit of asking the question “What can I do for you?” when I sign on to Twitter. As I was reading tweets one morning, I noticed the majority of the messages were relating back to the person who wrote them. “Please vote for me!” “Please retweet my business offer!” I wanted to throw in just a bit of the opposite to see what would happen. So I posed the question: “What can I do for you?” I actually got one response for a suggestion for a brand of hard drive for a Mac. I unfortunately do not own a Mac (yet), so I felt unqualified to answer. But I did give him the contact information of a local computer repair shop that I have confidence would willingly give him an educated answer.
So when I ask this question I am not being rhetorical. I seek out tweets that ask for specific things that I can do. It might be simply googling for something that the requester had asked for. It may be a graphics task which I can do rather easily. I even helped one lady with a quadratic equation. Now I haven’t done these since high school which was when all I had to write with were tablets and chisels, but I found a site that explained how to do it and I helped her.
So why do I do this? Because I have found it to be the fastest way to connect with people. Once I have done whatever it is that they asked for I now feel I know that person a little better and are more aware of their tweets (and hopefully they of mine). This is when Twitter becomes really fun and why I like it so much. So next time you need something, just ask or respond to my question when I ask it. I’ll do what I can to help you.
I would guess there are thousands of posts on this subject about who you should follow on Twitter. Why not add another, I ask myself. The reason I am writing about this subject is because I feel there are no right or wrong answers to this question, only opinions. Mine has changed a bit since becoming involved with Twitter. So for me it is interesting to see how I change as I use it more. Anyway, I hate long introductions, so I will just get right down to it.
Do I “auto-follow” a person who follows me? Absolutely not. There are many spammers out there and I simply do not want to be subject to their uninteresting tweets. Since my main goal is to get exposure for KidsAreHeroes.com I seek out parents. There are several hash tags going around (i.e. #momfaves, #wiimoms, etc.) whose participants are my target demographic. So it makes sense for me to follow them. I do not follow them blindly however. I really check to see if they engage with people. Sometimes when I watch my Twitter stream I see a bunch of people performing monologues about their business or whatever it is that they are hawking. It’s almost like they are all in a room shouting at the same time and no one is listening to each other. Other times people are conversing and engaging each other. That is when I have the most fun on Twitter. When I see a period of monologues I immediately go out and try to find other people to follow so I can engage with someone. The more I use it the more I realize that Twitter is a platform that can provide real benefit as long as you are truly connecting with people. Otherwise it is a grand waste of time.
As I have mentioned before if I see a big disparity between followers and those following a person I usually do not follow them. One is just looking to beef up numbers and the other likes to hear himself talk. 99% of the time I will follow a person with a relatively equal amount of followers to followees. This person has more than likely taken a natural progression in their Twitter journey to connect with people.
I unfollow people that use excessive vulgar language. Even though I am not a prude there is a time and place for everything. Being in a crowded room is not the place to spew out vulgarity for everyone to hear.
I unfollow people that tout their wares too much. We all know why Twitter is so popular, and that is so people can reach thousands of others for free. Once I have connected with a person is the time that I am truly interested in what they do and if there is something that I can utilize myself and/or share with others. This type of marketing is a thousand fold more effective.
One tool I have found very useful in my quest to follow the right people is Friend or Follow. This tool shows you who you are following that is not following you back and vice versa. When I first looked at it there was a good number of people that did not follow me back, and also a good amount that I was not following. Since then I have reduced both numbers by weeding out people who do not follow me back, and taking another look at people who are following me. Why would I unfollow people that aren’t following me? For one simple reason – it’s much harder to engage with them. Maybe they have looked at my profile and were not interested. That’s all right by me as there are plenty of others who are. So I have found this Twitter tool to be invaluable.
So there you have it, another person’s take on who to follow and why. I hope it was helpful to you.
This is the third post of guest blogger Judy Gooding. She is one of our Wags for Hope volunteers who partnered with Eva, a sweet Doberman Pinscher, who sadly passed away in 2008.
Eva was one of the pioneers of the READ program in Frederick County.
Mrs. H was a dog lover who was always so happy to see Eva. One day she mentioned a dog that she used to have. She went on to describe it in detail and told me stories about it, and I could tell by the glow on her face that she had loved her pet very much. I asked when she had had this dog, assuming that it was some time shortly before she came to the retirement center. She said 1937 when she was 10 years old! How our beloved pets wrap themselves around our hearts forever and how we love to talk about them no matter how much time has passed!
Mrs. S was new to the nursing center, so I wanted to be sure Eva showed off all her tricks (pretty basic repertoire but perfectly executed!) to welcome her. Mrs. S was so impressed with Eva’s talent, she asked if Eva had been on TV! I said no, I didn’t think she was quite ready for that, but Mrs. S said, with complete sincerity, “Oh, I do! I think she’s ready!” I was pleased that she had been so entertained, but it was a sobering reminder of how little it takes to amuse and delight someone whose visitors are few and far between.
Mrs. R was a tiny, soft-spoken woman, confined to a wheelchair with severe arthritis. Her hands were frozen into tight fists with just the index finger free, but she had the sweetest smile and most pleasant face. She loved to pet Eva, sometimes poking unintentionally with that free finger around Eva’s eyes in her eagerness. Eva never flinched or pulled away…just blinked her eyes to keep the wandering digit from making an invasion and basked in the affection Mrs. R heaped upon her. One day Eva and I were visiting in the activities room with several of the residents. A long table was stretched across the center of the room and Mrs. R was on the side opposite the door. Eva and I spent quite a bit of time visiting the residents on the door side of the table until Mrs. R became impatient and said very slowly and clearly but with the sweet smile and pleasant expression still in place, “Bring her over here!”, using that free finger to emphasize the “here”! Eva and I did not linger a moment longer before responding to that gentle command!
Eva and I were approached one day in the hallway of the nursing section, as we were visiting from room to room, by a man who was approximately in his fifties. He asked if we had time to visit his father, a newcomer, who was quite ill but such a dog-lover that the son was sure he would enjoy seeing Eva. As we were talking, the man was petting Eva, and I could see that they were quickly making friends. When we walked into his father’s room, there were other family members gathered, and it was apparent that they were there to say their final good-byes. I went to the father’s bedside, urging Eva to move up close so she could be petted more easily, and she reluctantly left the son who took such pleasure in having his hands on her. I felt we should stay for only a short while, but the family thanked me profusely for taking the time to come by. It was one of those visits that stayed on my mind for a long time, and I came to realize that I shouldn’t have been so quick to call Eva away from the son. I think she sensed that he, himself, was in great need of comfort, and she was so happy to provide it for him.
Thanks, Judy for these heartfelt stories. This type of volunteering can sometimes be bittersweet for us, as we sometimes witness things that make us sad. But we all realize that the love we bestow on our animals as it is shared with the residents makes every visit worthwhile. We look forward to more stories from you as your new puppy Spencer becomes involved with Wags for Hope.
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My internet travels provide the best opportunities for me to discover new heroes for the Kids Are Heroes web site. The other day was no different. I came across a 13-year-old boy in Denver, CO named Mark who has a little brother with Type 1 diabetes. They have a service dog named Red that alerts when Jason’s blood sugar gets too high or too low. I had never heard of that but found it fascinating. Mark helps other families acquire, train and manage similar dogs for this same situation. He has helped quite a few families across the country and in Canada and is tasked to solve problems on his feet. There are two families in particular that Mark and his mom need extra help with. That is where I hope the Twitter family can step in. (FYI TV News article on Mark can be seen here: http://www.9news.com/life/community/whocare/kids/article.aspx?storyid=109166&catid=538 )
Ok, you are convinced that you would at least like to try Twitter. Let me say this: If you do not give it enough time or if you go about things in the wrong way, you will probably leave feeling you have wasted your time. Twitter is an incredible platform that allows you to connect with an unlimited (0k – it is limited to millions – sorry!) number of people around the world and it doesn’t cost a dime. It can be used for personal enrichment and/or as a conduit for you to do some professional networking.
As many of you know I began my Twitter journey fairly recently – that is in late December of 2008. I haven’t looked back since. I like to blog about things I have a passion for, and it just so happens that right now I am passionate about several things. In April of 2006, my dog Charlie founded 
