
Most people say “Twitter? Oh, that’s that facebook status-wannabe site kids are using.” But I hope I’ll get you to change your mind and see what twitter is really all about. I started using twitter recently after having joined a while ago and quickly losing interest. I really didn’t see the big deal and I didn’t see it’s value in comparison to facebook. I mean, what do I care if Billy Joe is eating a hummus wrap on the couch and watching Housewives? Why would I want to read that? I’ll show you thats not what twitter is really about. I’ll tell you how people use twitter as a valuable social networking site and beyond . And maybe if you are curious enough to jump on the twitter train, you can follow me! :)
- Convenient, Easy, and to the Point: Unlike other social networking sites, you don’t have to weed
through endless babble to get to the point. It has a 140 character max and available on phone applications. To keep things short, people can even use twitter shorthand. You can upload a quick comment, photo or link within seconds. - Twitter is “Thinking Bubble” Newspaper: Let me explain. The newspaper is full of articles that the newspaper company thinks people want to know about and care about. Twitter is like a newspaper for what people are actually thinking and caring about. Its a similar structure to you walking down the street and reading the thinking bubbles above everyone’s heads. You can go to to the “Trends” area of twitter and see what everyone is actually thinking about and talking about. It gives you an idea of the world that you live in at the very moment. Currently as I’m writing this article at 12:41pm on August 8th, some of the the trends people are talking about are: Pauly D from Jersey Shore (new season aired last week), S&P (Standard & Poor downgrade of US debt), and Italy (most likely related to Jersey Shore). Have you ever wondered “whats the big thing these days?” Well, you can find out. As soon as it becomes the “thing.” Stay updated on what people are thinking about. It literally changes all the time.
Find out First: Because of the speed at which news travels on twitter, you’ll hear about the latest news most likely before even seeing it on the news! Twitter spread the news about Bin Laden faster than the mainstream news. People on twitter found out first. I follow HarvardResearch to read about the latest findings and research published from Harvard.- Stay tuned as part of a group: Twitter is appealing to anyone who wants to start a group or be part of a group, and listen in on what the latest is. Its easy to set up any kind of group and follow it. When you are following someone, your homepage becomes a “news feed” for any and all comments the group/person tweets in real instant time. For example, I’m following Barack Obama, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (my veggie idol), CNN breaking news, Latest Hairstyles, Vegan Deals, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Daily Gita, MigraineDotCom and many others. As soon as the news comes out about politics, animal rights, migraine treatments, fashion, and social awareness, I get it. Instantly. And I got to pick what I want to hear about.
- Keep in touch with friends/family: This is where the “eating a hummus sandwich on the couch”
kinda tweet might come in. (But hopefully you’ll have more interesting things to say!) When you and your family/friends are on twitter, you can tweet about the things going on in your life that you want to share. Its the easiest way to stay connected for a person with a busy schedule. Think, “Gee, I wonder what my brother Alex is doing over in Minnessota.” You could pick up the phone and call him, but lets face it, you wont do that every day. Who has the time? You can keep in touch with him by signing onto twitter and seeing, “Oh! look at his daughter’s beautiful 1st birthday picture! How sweet!” or “Omg! He just got a promotion! I’ll have to call him to congratulate him!” or even just seeing tweets that Alex writes like, “I feel so lucky and alive today. So grateful for my beautiful wife and children” will probably be nice for you to read because you’ll know that he’s doing well. - Find out who’s the “Big Cheese” these days: Twitter has a “Who to Follow” feature that you can click and see who twitter suggests that you follow based on who you’re already following and your interests. You can also browse your interests and click the topics you choose to see suggestions of who to follow within that topic.
- Discover what people think about a PARTICULAR topic: Like I said, twitter is INSTANT. If you want to know what everyone thinks about the latest harry potter movie, just punch it into twitter. You’ll instantly get every tweet in order from most recent that has talked about the Harry Potter movie. Or if you’re watching a trial or big political speech on tv, you can tune in on twitter during the commercials and see what everyone thinks as it’s happening. When you tweet about a topic just add # in front of the word and it will categorize your tweet in that topic so others can search for it.
PR and Marketing: Lots of stores are on twitter to update their shoppers and customers about new brands, sales, menu items, etc. If you’re a big fan of Old Navy, Amazon, Nordstrom, Best Buy or other companies, I suggest following them on twitter. If you’re a coupon maniac, follow CouponTrade.- Entertainment: You can choose to follow comedians such as Dane Cook, Stephen Colbert, Borat, or many others. I follow “WarmFuzzyTweets” which provides me with my daily dose of cute animal pictures! :)
- Why you should follow ME on Twitter :) Especially because I don’t always update my blog often, I want my readers to be able to stay in touch with me and keep the vegan inspiration going. For example, I recently purchased a pair of vintage leather boots that look real (but are vegan!) from Charlotte Russe on sale! That fact is not big enough to blog about, but I want to let you guys know that Charlotte Russe sells great vegan kicks and they’re having a sale, so I tweet it and include a picture of my purchase to let you know about it! It’s as simple and straightforward as that. And since you either are interested in the vegan lifestyle or live one, you probably care about other things besides animals, so I’ll retweet from other companies what you probably care about like Greenpeace’s detox
campaign for Nike and Adidas. Also, you’re all my friends on here, so I’ll let you know how I’m doing too. I recently went to the Cirque de Soile show and tweeted about how incredible it was and how I would definitely choose that show over an animal circus any day!
Tags: Education, Product Reviews, Updates


happy so they can relate those activities to good feelings. I will be an active member of the temple. The house will be clean and tidy. My wife and I will have a weekly “date,” even if it’s only for an hour, not only for us, but also to show the kids how to be in a healthy relationship is. I will never put my wife down in front of the kids and disagreements between us will always be behind closed doors. We will have open communication and “family meetings” to discuss important family topics. I will be a therapist and show my kids that I love people and I made a living doing what I love, so they can make a living doing whatever it is that they love. I will go to conferences, workshops and lectures so keep up-to-date because I want to be good at what I do. I will always encourage questions and curiosity from my kids because questions being deeper understanding of the world. When my kids are ill, struggling, or going through any sort of difficult time I will always show them that I will be there for them.
all races, abilities, sexual orientation and religion. My children will understand and appreciate different nations and cultures because of where their brothers and sisters come from. My children will understand disabilities because one of their siblings will be disabled in some way. My children will understand the bond between family members because we will live close and they will often spend time with their cousins. Spending time with their cousins will continue to give them a sense of family and support after their grandparents and I have passed away. All of my kids will be encouraged to continue to work on their strengths, whether it be basketball, dance, music, or art.
existence and value doesn’t rely on how they fit in at school. Every year we’ll have spring cleaning, Christmas traditions, and family reunions. During the holidays everyone will donate some time working at a soup kitchen so my children will learn that helping others is the key to happiness and making the world a better place. We’ll donate old toys, clothes, and trinkets to children who are less fortunate. I’ll teach my kids the value of volunteering to help people and animals because we are privileged to have the time and ability to do so. We’ll have weekly rituals like sports practices, family meals, going to temple, visits with cousins and “Spaghetti night.”









I told you it looked pretty terrible, didn’t I? Well anyway, I also enjoyed some flatbread and crispy flatbread with different african dipping spices. Yummy.











