The Twitter Experience

As most of you have probably seen, I have a "Follow Me on Twitter" button on my blog. I've been using Twitter for several months now and I must say I'm really enjoying it. For those of you who don't know, Twitter is a micro-blogging, social networking medium. In other words, it's a replacement for (or supplement to) your Facebook status updates.

But what non-Twitter users don't really understand is that Twitter allows you to do so much more than simply update your status. By using a common language made up of hash tags, you can keep track of trending topics. You can also follow your favorite people just like you can friend them on Facebook.

As an example, I'm a UH Cougar alum and I follow Cougar Athletics religiously. Football season is inching closer and closer and I want to make sure I get breaking news updates on all things Cougar football. So, I follow @UHCougarSports and @campbellcoogs, 2 Twitter users who focus on Cougar sports in general and football in particular. But, I want to see if there are other people out there talking about Cougar football. So I use the hash tag system to search for #UH, #UHCougars, #UHfootball, etc. There I can find all the people discussing UH football in real time and can choose to follow those people if I so desire.

It's also great to use as an educational and networking tool for your occupation. If you're a small business owner, in marketing, sales, or whatever your profession, you can find people on Twitter doing the same thing and exchange ideas with them.

Finally, it's a good way to market your wares. Let's say you like to sell things on ebay. Create your listing in ebay for your item and then post a short description and link to your item on Twitter and use the #ebay hash tag. This lets people find your listing when they search Twitter using the #ebay hash tag. The same can be done for Craigs List entries or anything else you want to sell.

I hope this helps. I know there are lots of people out there on the fence about Twitter because they like Facebook and don't care for another social networking tool. Just remember that Twitter and Facebook can be used in completely different ways. Leave me a comment if you have any questions or have some other ideas for Twitter usage.

If you decide to sign up, you can follow me by clicking the button on my blog or going to www.twitter.com/TyCamp. Also, check out this Twitter guide book put out by @Mashable. It will tell you a lot more about how to use Twitter and get the most out of it.

Have You Changed Your Mind?

Ok, we're 8 1/2 months in to President Obama's first term which has given us plenty of time to observe what his policy ambitions are, how those ambitions may or may not differ from his campaign promises, how he intends to handle congress, whether any of his campaign promises are coming true or likely to come true, whether he can be trusted in general, and whether he is leading our country in the right direction.

Having had that time to review and reflect, would you change who you voted for in this past election? This is not aimed solely at those who voted for Obama. If you voted for McCain and wish you had voted for Obama or someone else, I'd like to know why. Likewise, if you voted for Obama but have changed your mind about him, I'd like to know your reasons for that too. All too often people get married to their choices even if they have come to realize they were bad choices. It's ok to change your mind as long as you have a good reason for it.

So, leave a comment and let me know what you think. I know most of my followers are conservatives and I certainly want to hear your opinions. But if you have any friends or family who voted for Obama, please send them the link to this post so I can see what they have to say, regardless of whether they have changed their mind or not. Once I get a good amount of comments, I'll create a new post summarizing my thoughts.

Thanks for helping me satisfy my curiosity!