Umm. Interesting. Let’s perform an Aha! Experiment. Open two web browser windows or tabs. In one, search here: Google (for the word “creativity”). In the second, search here: Twitter (for the same word). Take a moment to review the results of both searches.
What did you learn? Do you see any differences in the results?
Learn/Discover. With Google you find approximately 64.5 million web home pages for your right-brained consideration. Of course, the most popular web pages do rise to the top of the natural search. And, there are some good ones . . . many merits a bookmark or an RSS subscription for later reading.
With Twitter you get an unnumbered amount of short and sweet tweets (140 characters or less) with the keyword within. While some tweets are simple, short statements or a piece of conversation that contained the word creativity, if you scroll down you will discover that many of the tweets are quite useful, interesting, worthy of knowing more. All you do is click the tiny or itsy bitsy web link and explore what one from the collective consciousness of like minds has written or recommended.
It’s the “like minds” part that plays with my right brain.
Drill down: when you see a useful tweet, click on the user name and read even more of their enticing and easily addictive tweeted thoughts. If you continue to do this with several tweeters, you will begin to understand the value of Twitter for feeding and fodder for the right brain.
Of course, with random tweeters you will get:
1) raw unedited first thoughts;
2) lopsided conversations shared publicly; and
3) assorted minutiae of the day.
And, this is why many of your naysayer friends will declare Twitter a royal waste of time. Though, in the grand scheme of creative thinking and idea generation, there is good inspiration in the random thoughts of others and not to be discarded lightly.
But, with more carefully chosen tweeters you may find that one good tweet with:
1) web links to the interesting, the inspirational, and the helpful;
2) quotations worthy to relate, retweet, and remember;
3) original thoughts to beget your own original thoughts; and
4) there’s that “collective consciousness of like minds” thing I mentioned earlier.
And, this is all wrapped up in concise, easy to read, 140 characters or less, tweets for the right brain. A web page or blog post takes much more time and deservedly so. A tweet is kind of like a little bird told me something interesting that I didn’t know or I needed to hear again during the few moments in my break from the monotony of a left-brained life.
That is until you get addicted or obsessed. There is that sway to go from the focused digestion of tweets for the right brain to the wildly broadcasted random musings from the tweeters of the world (button: Everyone). “Boxed wine makes me smile.” “I wonder if Tweety Bird tweets with Twitter?” “Hello dreams: why so boring?” “My breakfast talked to me this morning.” “Someone follow me before my ego explodes.”
Grow/Balance. Go elsewhere to deal with your tweet addiction, but here I can recommend how to use Twitter to focus on a topic of my own special interest: creativity, right brain play, idea generation, creative thinking, innovation, and think outside the left brain kind of stuff (or on a topic of special interest such as your business, profession/career, expertise, or hobby).
With Blogger, I blog; with Twitter, I micro-blog. Here is how:
1) Find a focus. Open a Twitter account and choose a user name, upload a photo, and add a short bio that adequately defines and informs potential followers of your special interests. If you have your own web page or blog on that special interest, then add that link to your profile, too. My user name is @TweetRightBrain and my blog and bio reflect this focus. With your focus you are defining a Twitter persona or identity, much as a marketer would brand and position a product.
2) Search for like minds and grow your network. Complete a Twitter search using a number of the keywords in your focused interest. Then, as before, identify a number of other tweeters with similar, interesting, and appropriate tweets. Click thru to their Twitter page and if you see interesting and helpful tweets on their top page, then follow them. If you see random thoughts and daily minutiae, then don’t follow them. It is easy to get caught up in the mania of Twitter, but try to resist so as to not lose your focus and persona.
I regularly search Twitter for the new to follow using the keywords: creativity, creative, innovation, and ideas. I also search for: #creativity, #innovation, #creative, and #ideas. These are called hashtags and are used in a tweet to stress the importance of chosen keywords. Also try adding the words “tips” or “lessons” to your favorite topical search terms. TwTip is an excellent search engine for finding valuable content and quality tweeters on your favorite subject.
You can also identify appropriate tweeters by going to WeFollow and inserting single keywords in the search box and click go. Read their user names, short bio, and review their tweets to determine their quality of contribution to your subject; and follow them, too. You should follow as many likeminded tweeters as possible, but do so with reserve. One indication of a quality tweeter is the ratio of following to followers (explained later). After you have followed a number of tweeters, you can then go to Mr. Tweet to grow your special interest network even further.
Side note: if you have unrelated subject areas of strong interest, then I recommend you open additional Twitter accounts with their own Twitter persona. Keeping each account focused is important. My first Twitter account is focused on streams of creativity and my tweets from that account are RSS fed back to this blog and my web site. Thus, it is important for me to tweet with focus and not to publicly share private conversations, personal minutiae, or irrelevant topics.
You may even want to set up a separate Twitter account for friends and family and the sharing of more personal tweets (ala Facebook: What’s on your mind?). Or, you may want another Twitter account focused on streams from your favorite marketers or products, such as @Starbucks @iPhone or @WholeFoods.
3) Win followers and influence tweeple. Brace yourself, because you will now witness the power of the collective minds. Many of those you have chosen to follow, will review your Twitter page and follow you back (assuming you have added relevant content/tweets). And, some of their followers will follow you. And, some of their followers. And, some of their followers. And, @SomeGuyYouDontKnowOrWantToKnow that already follows 50,000 tweeters with no detectable special interests (other than the dream to be in the same top 100 list as @BritneySpears or @BarackObama) will follow you, too.
While Twitter etiquette often suggests you should follow your followers, I think doing so without selectivity could mess up your special interest Twitter stream. While that follower with a passion for everything @TofuMommaSan may follow me seeking creativity tweets to inspire and expand her repertoire of dishes, I may not be interested in her daily raves about tofu ala Bubba Gump. And, if so, I would want to follow her in a separate Twitter stream/account.
Side note: if @TofuMommaSan provided creative inspirations with insightful observations on life and her hilarious and creative videos on YouTube, then yes, I may want to follow her back as she would provide right brained inspiration for my own creative pursuit. In my Twitter stream I follow anyone than may contribute creative inspiration, original ideas, and anything right brained. This comes from: writers/authors, artists, designers, creativity bloggers, innovative educators, entrepreneurs, marketing/advertising professionals, creative coaches, publishers, technology innovators, and more.
There is also an issue with the ratio between followers and following. If you are following a substantial number of tweeters that do not follow you back, then this may discourage others from following you. You may get few followers or lose followers if your tweets are not focused, helpful, or relevant enough for their specialized streams. So, try to avoid being a followholic and don’t let your ego get ahead of your Twitter purpose.
Some tweeters use software to detect when they follow you and you do not follow them back. If this harms their ratio, they drop you. Thus, you should regularly check your list of followers to ensure that you follow back those that could contribute to your Twitter stream and continue to improve your ratio.
4) Read selectively, or not. When your follow list exceeds 200, you may soon find your Twitter stream unmanageable, unfocused, and borderline wasteful. If someone you follow is junking up your specialized Twitter stream with irrelevant tweets, you can always remove them. Or, you can better organize and control your Twitter streams with numerous third party Twitter apps.
I have tried TweetDeck, Twhirl, PeopleBrowsr, and HootSuite, with no particular preference as of yet. Each of these third party apps allows me to manage multiple accounts within Twitter (and some social networking accounts outside of Twitter). Facebook is for my closest friends and family; LinkedIn is for my professional contacts/networking; and Twitter is for my likeminded followers/following.
Any of these Twitter apps will load directly onto your computer (laptop or desktop) or work thru your web browser and provide control over those you follow through creation of groups, multiple groups if desired. Therefore, I can review the collective tweets of all those I follow or I can go straight to my favorite and most focused tweeters. I can also use the filtering function for quality control. Sometimes I only desire to read those tweets with links (filter: http) to find good reading on the web, or the retweets (filter: RT @) someone I follow has labeled as quality and worthy of a second look.
5) Tweet away. “What are you doing?” You should now begin (or perhaps you already have) to contribute to your newly created special interest community or network. If you truly want to keep your quality followers and continue to attract new quality likeminded followers, then you should instead answer the question: “What can you share of value to your special interest network of followers?”
And, follow me and my guidelines for tweets:
a) Tweet with quality and proper English. Do not tweet with unedited first thoughts and short text messaging language or slang; unless those first thoughts and abbreviated messages are of true interest and understood by your followers such as @YoBabyYo or @HippyCatnapper. You cannot undo a tweet, so edit accordingly.
b) Tweet quotations relevant to your special interest. Think about it, a good quote (yours or someone else’s) is what makes a good tweet . . . it shares a lot of uncomplicated brilliance in 140 characters or less.
c) Share what you know and learn. When you do find time to read those bookmarked web pages, RSS feeds of your favorite blogs, and timely and relevant news items, link to them in your tweets (use a link shortening service to save more space for your own words; such a service is built into most of the third party apps).
d) Answer and ask questions. Answer questions with a relevant web link if possible . . . it strengthens your expertise to your network; ask questions to give others in your network the opportunity to share their expertise and opinions.
e) Retweet the good stuff. Forward your favorite tweets from your followed to your followers. Use RT @ to preface your retweet or Via @ if you want to add a comment to the retweet while giving credit to the original tweeter. Retweeting may also give your persona more exposure across networks and appreciation from the original tweeter.
f) Join the conversation. When someone makes that “one good tweet” or many, tell them so and why. But, stay on likeminded focus and try to avoid making public those personal conversations that are not relevant to your followers.
g) Don’t be a @SpamManiaMan or @EgoDayTripper. Your tweets should always be appropriate to your special interest followers. Share your expertise, knowledge, research, thoughts, quotes, and ideas on a special topic rather than specifically sell your product, service, unedited random thoughts, personal conversations, or daily details. Your followers will appreciate the quality, and others with like minds will find and follow you.
In summary, one good tweet a day invites the right brain to play. If you can find it or write it, then the effort was worthwhile and the day made more creative.
Copyright 2009 by Denny E. McCorkle. All rights reserved.
"Play with your right brain," "Thought Breakers," "Aha! Experiments," “Aha! Lessons,”
and “Think outside the left brain”are trademarks of Denny E. McCorkle.
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