Twitter quickstart: 10 ways to make time to Twitter

April 22, 2009

Whether you’re an ambivalent Twitter newbie or a chronic tweeter in the throes of a growing addiction, your tweeting is going to take time that you’re currently using for something else. Even if you’re following our guide to effective tweeting in 5 minutes a week, those five minutes have to come from somewhere. So here are my suggestions for activities you can pare back on — or give up entirely — to make room for tweeting.

  1. Partying. Not only do you spend time at the party itself, but you also need to get dolled up, buy beer, and waste the next morning figuring out how to get rid of the person you accidentally brought home with you. A Twitter-based social life can be conducted at home, in your p.j.s, possibly even sober, and if you want to get rid of someone you just unfollow them.
  2. Facebooking. Install the Twitter app on Facebook, and your Facebook friends will receive your tweets as status updates on Facebook. You might want to occasionally visit Facebook to see what they’ve written back.
  3. Writing in your journal. Why keep it to yourself? The twitterverse is dying to hear about how your lunch is sitting, what you liked about the latest Dollhouse episode, or what you really think about your boss. (Caution: Make sure your boss isn’t on Twitter.)
  4. Antiquing. Just use search.twitter.com to search for “baby spoon” and “vintage”, “collectable” or “useless”.
  5. Bookmarking. Post interesting links to Twitter, instead of to delicious. Then use twicious to get them into Twitter automatically.
  6. Instant messaging. This is what Twitter DMs are for. IMs are so 2008.
  7. Telling your sweetie about your day. If he wants to know what you’ve been up to all day, tell him to read your tweets.
  8. Flossing. Yeah, I know your dentist says it’s important, but that’s because she’s assuming you want to keep your teeth. If you maintain your friendships via Twitter — or whatever online network you’re using by the time your teeth start falling out — you can have a satisfying social life without ever seeing anyone in person, and nobody will see your toothless smile.
  9. Sleeping. This is our preferred option, as you can see from the time stamps on our tweets.
  10. Blogging. If it’s worth saying, it’s worth saying in 140 characters. I believe this post proves my point.