Okay, I made these suggestions on Twitter today, but because it's so ephemeral, I RT them here:
- A Better Twitter Query: "What's happening for you?
- Use "MT" when you are suggesting a link to your own stuff.
1.
The Better Query encompasses the original query (still in use today): "What are you doing?" BUT it also conveys the way a majority of my Twitter contacts use Twitter, to convey what they find exciting, useful, notable. Sure, we have to go back to the 60's and 70's "What's happening man?" but those times weren't all bad.
2.
MT=Me Tweet. The MT idea helps people know whether the Tweeter is plugging their own work. This is useful in many ways. If you really like what someone you're following has to say in their longer off-Twitter conveyances, then you'll want to go there (and vice versa). It also enables the Tweeter to follow common interpersonal traditions by enabling spam-warnings. For example, in normal conversations we might say the following while looking apologetic, "Well, I know there are lots of perspectives on this, but here's my thoughts…" thus lubricating the social dialogue. Finally, some smart Twitter programmer will come up with a way to measure MT's and then self-promoters can be labeled as such.
Please RT (Re-Tweet) these ideas if you like them.
(1290 characters) about 9 tweets.