Tweet Little, Tweet Well

There is a pronouncing,’Speak tiny, speak Well’ that appears on all sorts of items. Some have attributed it to Benjamin Franklin, others to the Bible, and a few have even made a claim it originated as a Pennsylvania Dutch proverb. All three do have something similar enough to be accurate. About 300 years ago Benjamin Franklin outlined the virtue of silence with,’Speak not but what might benefit others or yourself ; avoid trifling conversation.’

There are at least two Proverbs in the Bible, one passage in Ecclesiastes, and one in the Epistle of James that also express the same idea. And, though my copy of’Wooden Shoe Wisdom’ is lost, I remember my grandma pronouncing,’Spreck klein, spreck gut!’ whenever my answers to her questions weren’t to the point. As children, we learned that if we claimed too much, we might end up being asked to do or prove something. Talking tiny, and being sure of our facts was the best way to stop this. We also discovered that folk actually didn’t wish to hear us say the same thing over and over.

But blogs and social networks are not that forgiving. Even if you remove a blog file from the server, there’s still an opportunity that somebody made a copy of it, or it became favored enough for a ‘bot to cache. Now there are blogs about just about everything, and many are very well written. Some even seem to be more mag or newsletter level than the first diary style format. Until recently most of the people found out about blogs either thru a search engine or from a link, either from a forum, another blog or from a mate. The blog writer has little control of the last 2 options, and must be careful when using the 1st. Most forums discourage blatant self promotion, so posters must be careful to scribble posts pertinent to the topic, and only post links to their blogs as signatures or when the blog provides additional info on the topic.
Then along comes Twitter, a site whose primary purpose seems to be,’Lookie what I did!’ For the most part this is great. Twitter’s limited post size of only 140 characters is enough for a blurb and a link. If you have found 5 – 6 great internet sites to link to, have one or two short inspirational messages, or need to answer several folk, then posting a six different tweets at once could be what you want to do. Sadly there are some individuals that go more than a bit overboard. Some post,’Updated my blog’ repeatedly without any suggestion of the new blog entry subject. Since tweets frequently scroll off their supporters screens, this seems a fair practice, but many of those folk post the same few tweets 3 or 4 times inside a few mins. There are more tweeters that continually challenge the character limit by posting sequential tweets because they can’t fit what they need to say in 140, or even 280 characters. Mannered Tweeters :

Twitter is a fabulous way to assist in getting the word out about a new e-book or product. It’s a great way to let people know about latterly posted articles, and useful or engaging websites. And it’s helpful for updating relatives and buddies with no need to make tons of phone calls, or send a bulk e-mail. With careful use it can make a businessman ‘s reputation. But abuse can just as simply ruin what had been a well run business by making the owner seem to be grasping, and self-centered.