Twitter

-

When my post about Sushi was featured on BlogHer the other day, the editor over there gently suggested that I get myself on Twitter. Excited to be a featured blogger, I was eager to please. I had tried Twitter once before, but never really caught on to what to do with it. I could figure out how to tweet, but couldn't figure out why I should. Still, I decided to give it another go, so I re-opened my Twitter account, updated my information, and loaded the app to my phone. Okay. All set. Now what?

First maybe I should explain what I'm doing on BlogHer in the first place. I write both of my blogs on Blogger. It's where I started out, and I like and understand the software. TakingTheLongWayHome is more of a personal journey sort of blog, so I've been happy to have it sit in one place, waiting to be found by people who know me. But when I started PositivelyVegan, I knew I wanted to try to reach a larger audience, and I knew they were out there somewhere, all the newly emerging vegans, looking for information, good food, and inspiration. I decided to post my veg-blog on three different blogging platforms, Blogger, BlogHer, and Tumbler. It's an easy way to find more readers, and it's a lot of fun when I get a featured spot on the heavy hitter BlogHer main page. It's happened three times now, and I just know this has to be good exposure, although it's way too soon to quit my day job.

My Dream Life looks something like Cooking, Writing, Feeding People, Traveling, and Making Beads Just For Fun. Sort of like Anthony Bourdain, only more artistic, and not an arrogant bastard. Don't get me wrong, I love his show, even though we have decidedly different eating habits. He's just such a buffoon when it comes to vegetarians. I honestly hope I never ever meet him, because I think he would be a big mean bully, and who needs that crap? I'm here to spread the love.

Anyway, any goal is reached with baby steps, and sometimes big steps or leaps, but the point is, you have to do something other than just sit there wishing. So in my case, I cook the food, I write the blogs, and I do what I can to shamelessly self-promote on a budget - that budget being exactly zero dollars. Cross referencing blogs and Facebook are good ways to reach readers and connect with like-minds. And then there's Twitter... which still baffles me somewhat, although I'm beginning to see some value in it. I'm reading articles on how to make the most of it, and I check in now and then to see how other people use it. I've come up against tougher challenges than Twitter in my life. Surely I can find my way through this one too.

I'd like to start some conversation here by way of comments so we can all participate. Are you on Twitter? Why? How do you use it? Why do you like it or not like it? Do you have any tips for the rest of us? Please share! And if you'd like to follow me on Twitter, I am @PositivelyVegan.

Guess I'd better go tweet now. Or cook something. Hmmm...

Comments

  1. KristiBowmanDesignNovember 10, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    I'm with you Kim, I use Twitter but it's not my favorite. I have never heard of BlogHer, I just signed up for it. Thanks for the tip. So do you create the same blog posts for each place or an individual post. I can barely keep up with 1 blog so I would hope using a single post and putting it on each site is acceptable. I'll try to find and follow you on Twitter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zoe NelsonNovember 11, 2011 at 4:46 AM

    I'm on Twitter (@ZNArtwear) but I'm with you - I don't really understand it. I think the whole "follow me" thing means that I have to actually post something. I rarely do, so I don't have many followers and I imagine that I've lost a few for that very reason.

    ReplyDelete
  3. eyetypeNovember 13, 2011 at 1:48 PM

    I really don't want anyone to "follow me" because right now I don't really have anything to say! But I instead use twitter to follow people who DO have something to say! And that is what twitter is to me! @eyetype

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnT MFebruary 13, 2012 at 3:39 PM

    I use twitter to keep up with local hometown news and road closures. I searched twitter for Kim Miles and the 8th result was Kourtney Kardashian! You were #12. made me snicker that you and Kourtney Kardashian were together. I picked your twitter over hers for obvious reasons :)
    Melissa

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment!

Popular posts from this blog

cats are not dogs, and how tangling string untangles frustration

-
Image
As Airbnb hosts, we have lots of lovely interactions with guests while they're here, and with potential guests making inquiries before they book. I try to be really clear in our listing, about the house, amenities, and rules. The trouble is, some people would rather not actually read the listing, or if they do, they just ignore the parts they don't like. Oy. I mean really, who thinks cats and dogs are the same thing? Today I got a booking for two nights in March, from a very nice-sounding couple coming down from Canada. They were very excited to stay here at Mermaid's Nest , and everything was great... until I got to the part in their message about bringing their cat... Ruh roh... I had stated very clearly in our listing that we allow small dogs . Cats were not mentioned. Neither were goats, snakes, skunks, or rhinos, because I figured people would see that part about dogs , and at least ask before assuming all other animals were welcome. Oh, silly me. Apparently the...
Read more

where to buy what i make

-
Image
I closed my Etsy shop recently. What??? Why??? Well, because I think Etsy has done great harm to the livelihoods of makers everywhere. If you do manage to get noticed, which is pretty difficult these days, it's impossible to compete with the pricing on so-called "handmade" goods that are mass produced in foreign countries. Equally frustrating to me is the number of actual makers who drastically underprice their work, effectively turning themselves into voluntary sweatshop laborers in order to stay in the game at all. I'm not playing. I would love to see makers of all fine handmade things everywhere reclaim a sense of dignity, and charge a fair price for their skills and talents. Until I find such a group of folks that I can join, I'm back to being on my own here, in my own little shop, charging a reasonable price for the quality materials and hours of work it takes to make the things I make. I feel good about this. The Shop, at the moment, contains exactl...
Read more

soft spring scarf

-
Image
If you come here often, you know that I finished this pretty little swath of yarny love a few days ago. The yarn is from CandySkein , and I love it. A lot. It's a beautifully hand-dyed, washable merino fingering weight that was quite wonderful to knit with, even though I'm sort of a lazy knitter and usually use something quite a lot more bulky. This worked up into a delicious, lightweight-but-warm fabric that's perfect for between-season wear. Pardon my pilly worn-all-winter sweater, and focus on the scarf. It's my favorite style - an asymmetrical triangle, worked from end to end. It has a ziggy-zaggy edge on one side, and a smooth edge on the other. The pattern is called the Hitchhiker Scarf, and you can get it on Ravelry . I test drove this one for a day and loved it. But as I do with most of the things I make, I also decided to let it go. Only three have made it into my personal wardrobe for keeps, and I'm just fine with that. Make them, love them, let ...
Read more

and what do you do?

-
Image
I'm in my outdoor office this week, at the picnic table on the patio. I have a favorite vintage tablecloth, lilacs in a martini shaker, and tea in my new favorite cup, made by Charan Sachar . I'm considering a new format for my blog, which I'll try here today. I suspect that only three people actually read this, and yet I persist. I like to write, so that can be good enough. I have lots of things to talk about, so I'm going to try dividing my time here between Life Stories and Ponderings, and of course, Knitting. Feel free to tell me what you think, or even just grunt if you're out there. Really, have no idea. Pondering... I like meeting new people. But I hate the inevitable moment when New Person will politely raise their eyebrows and ask me, "And what do you do?" It's sort of like the human equivalent of dogs sniffing each others' butts. We need to size each other up somehow , right? What better way than to sniff out what a person d...
Read more

yarn that speaks for itself

-
Image
I've had this amazing ball of hand-dyed-and-spun yarn for months. It was made, and given to me, by my friend Valerie, which makes it even more special. I've moved it around the house, looked at it, held it, and asked it what it wanted to be, but it's been very quiet. I've loved it so much just as a ball of yarn, I was in no hurry to knit it into something else. Here it is with my great-grandmother's hand carved crochet hook. So much wonderfulness. Maybe sometimes yarn can just be yarn, at least for a while. As the weather got colder, I started think of hats. Not just baby hats like I make for the hospital, but big hats. For me. That wind on the beach can really bite a girl's ears in the winter. So, long story short, I knitted my beautiful, most favorite yarn into a hat. I found a really easy pattern for a beret, which Rick made for his daughter (yes, he knits a bit). Here's the pattern . It's really cute! And here's my hat. Also really cute. ...
Read more