I don’t know anything about Mark Shapiro, but when I did an image search for “mean people on twitter,” this came up (and makes the point). 

Picking up from yesterday -

Addressing one of the only other problems I could imagine people having with twitter:

Like anything on social media, there will always be haters out there. That’s not really twitter’s fault, though. That’s just kind of an internet thing (also, perhaps the fault of all of us by how we raise kids, also how we conduct ourselves and treat each other).

I don’t have all that many followers (though as of this writing I have crossed the 200 mark! ). So, I don’t get a whole lot of yell-y or hate-y tweets. Sometimes if I say something about gun control or marriage equality and it gets retweeted or mentioned somewhere else, I’ll get a tweet or two. But even those usually aren’t attacking me personally.

But, I have heard complaints that twitter can get kind of spammy or mean. (Though I have not experienced it myself, I have seen a ton of mean tweets to celebrities. Even if you don’t like their work, you do know they’re people, right?… And that you’re allowed to not like someone’s work without personally slamming them to their face (computer screen)?)

So, the first solution to that is a tough-y. ‘Cause whenever not great things happen on the internet, people say to ignore other people. Sort of good mantra about ignoring what other people think – especially internet people (but this is twitter, not YouTube, so they’re obviously far more civilized).

But, the thing is, if you ignore people on twitter, that starts to defeat the purpose of twitter – connecting and all that jazz. But, if you’re wildly famous and getting tons of mean tweets, it might not be so bad to ignore the noise every once in a while.

Or, if you’re wildly famous with lots of people tweeting not great things about you, you could be like – yes, you guessed it, I’m gonna say it – Cory Booker. He actively responds to people who say mean things to him.

I believe this actually adds to his lovability/credibility, because he always treats every person with respect. He’ll often apologize for falling short of someone’s expectations or wish them a lovely day even if they same something awful.

And he has so many supporters that I think anyone who says something nasty to him and gets retweeted immediately regrets it, because they get pounced on by hundreds (if not thousands) of admirers very quickly.

Also, what’s great about twitter, is people have found a way to take nasty comments (which are so awful) and turn them into a hilarious sketch (which is so wonderful).

The one thing I don’t recommend is to teat twitter like Donald Trump does – constantly saying negative things about people, and actively arguing with someone who says bad things to him. Cory Booker’s way makes me want to stand behind him. Donald Trump’s way makes me want to run away from that mess.

And, if you’re getting hated on, on twitter, and all else fails (even though it contradicts the importance of community feeling/purpose I do believe in and was talking about earlier), just remember this. (And yes, that is a link to an amazing twitter feed. Because where do you find the answers to small problems twitter maybe might possibly have? On twitter, of course.)

I got this from the blog http://digitalmarketingburp.wordpress.com through an image search, but then saw that blog looks pretty interesting.

Picking up from yesterday – another thing that can be a bit hard for people to find on twitter:

What is your brand?

I have some comedian friends and some of them struggle with this. (And I’m sure non-comedians do too.) “Should my twitter feed be sarcastic?” “Should it revolve around this or that side of my personality, or this or that big life event?”

If you’re a performer, do you just have tweets that have to do with performing – or how personal do you get?

I even kind of tried my hand at having a “personal” twitter. (That’s in quotes because obviously, my blog is personal. But it’s kind of, sort of a brand-ish… and what if I want to just be me? What if I don’t have a blog someday?)

Well, that experiment was a huge mess. I had no idea who I wanted to be or what I wanted to talk about on that twitter account.

I tried to maybe be a bit more, um, I guess sarcastic is the word version of myself – or, you know, that sad funny that (a tweeter I really enjoy) @AndyLassner is. But I certainly never found my real “twitter voice” (if that’s a thing).

I mean, I guess not everybody has to be sarcastic and/or hilarious on twitter. There are plenty of feeds I like that aren’t like that (not to say Neil’s doesn’t have some funny tweets, but I don’t think that’s what his feed is known for), though there are plenty great feeds that are.

Brands aside, there are some other things people might not get totally right when they first start twitter. It sort of has a bit of a learning curve. When I went back through my feed the other day to check it out and walk down twitter memory lane, I saw a tweet to Michael Bloomberg, showing him my support for keeping the New York City Marathon on (though, in the end that didn’t happen), and I didn’t even put a period in front of his name!

“Silly girl,” I said about myself as I shook my head at the computer.

I didn’t know back then that in order for someone else to see a tweet about someone, there has to be a period (or anything) in front of the name for everyone to see it (not only the people who follow both you and the person you’re tweeting).

Silly girl who doesn’t know how to use twitter.

I don’t love looking back and seeing those early twitter mistakes. But, twitter is twitter. Not much I can do about it now, except know that anyone who looks back will know I used to be a total twitter newb. (But weren’t we all at some point? Or you all knew the period thing before me, didn’t you?)

One thing that sometimes throws people off on twitter is the timing. Some people write articles that say if you have an important tweet, you should tweet it at different times of the day when different people will be on twitter, so that hopefully the majority of your followers can see the tweet.

But, I get a little annoyed if a place tweets out the same news story 7 or 8 times in the course of a couple days. ‘Cause for those of us who are seeing it over and over, it just feels so bleh in our feed so many times.

But what’s the balance of annoying the loyal followers, but reaching as many as possible? I dunno.

And I will pick up with one more post in this series tomorrow.

For one thing, let’s start with me! I’m not perfect at twitter.

I obviously had the story of the rough night on twitter. I’ve made mistakes before – accidentally using photo or video services that don’t embed into the tweet directly, sending a dumb tweet here and there, even a typo once or twice (though I try so hard not to!).

(Oh geez, another Cory Booker story? Just skip the next two paragraphs for more twitter and non-Cory Booker talk.) Cory Booker sent me a nice thank you tweet after I donated to his fundraising page. At first I retweeted it. But then, getting closer to his reception in San Fran, I tweeted again to say I donated again in the form of a second ticket. He graciously thanked me again, and then I un-retweeted the other one, because I thought “Two Cory Booker fundraising/thanks tweets in a row – that’s a little much in your timeline, isn’t it?”

Anyone who follows me knows my timeline is going to be Cory Booker heavy. And he’s Cory Booker! How could you ever have too many retweets of things he tweets you? You couldn’t. When I’m lucky enough to get a tweet, I should be retweeting that biznatch. (Or, at least, I think so.) (And obviously, now that I’ve un-retweeted it, it’d be too weird and not timely to back and retweet it now.)

The tweet I un-retweeted. How could I?
Oh, my many twitter mistakes…

I’ve also read that sometimes when you delete tweets, some of your other tweets might accidentally disappear by the wayside somehow. Well, I know I didn’t purposely delete it, but somehow my tweet suggesting “Empire’s New Groove” for #DisneyStarWars names got deleted. And I was sad, ’cause I thought that was clever, and I even got retweeted by a writer I like!

I guess that’s what I get for deleting tweets.

The man I mention too much (but really, how could I now when he’s such a big reason I started tweeting) (and yes, it’s Cory Booker) says part of his tweet is to never delete a tweet, even if it’s a “butt tweet.”

Being that I’ve mentioned deleting tweets, that’s obviously not my style yet. Maybe it should be. I don’t know. I never delete any kind of important tweet or tweet I think people like. I try not to delete a tweet that people have publicly responded to (though I’ve obviously made that mistake, mentioned earlier).

I do delete tweets with misspellings or bad links if I send out a new tweet. I do delete a few tweets here and there if they’ve been up for a while and have no favorites or retweets, ’cause I guess people didn’t find them interesting. So, why leave them in the way of things people might have found interesting?

Obviously, I’ve had twitter for less than a year, so I think I’m still finding my strategy. I don’t know how long it takes to find your strategy, or if some people ever do.

(Ashton Kutcher broadcasting from his iPhone)
Photo credit: PureMobile.com

Ashton Kutcher’s twitter philosophy is ICEE (pronounced “icy.”) It means you can’t send a tweet unless it inspires, connects, entertains, or educates.

Are all my tweets ICEE? I don’t think so. Some of them are kind of dumb or silly. I mean, sure, I’d like to think I’m entertaining people through my feed. But I’m no comedian or anything. I’m oftentimes just tweeting facts, I suppose. “This or that happened/is happening.” Or “Hey, celebrity/jeopardy contestant/random twitter person I’m totally loving right now, pay attention to me?”

And it can be hard (especially for someone a bit loquacious like me) to get thoughts into 140 characters. (But I am thankful that twitter makes me think, “What’s the best, most concise way to say this?” It might be a lesson I can eventually bring to the blog or other places in my life.

Not only is it sometimes hard to find your twitter strategy/philosophy, but it can also be hard to find your twitter brand, which I’ll talk about tomorrow.

As I took a walk down twitter memory lane, I remembered this is the first tweet I ever got from Cory Booker! He responded to my lame tweet to him about nothing. Why? ‘Cause he’s awesome!

Since I’ve been mentioning the wonders of twitter lately, I thought I’d take a chance to just write a little love letter about twitter.

I. love. twitter.

I know that’s maybe a bit weird for someone who isn’t generally in love with social media. But, what can I say? It’s awesome. Judging by the bottom of my twitter timeline, I started tweeting around early October of last year (2012). That means I’ve been a tweeter for about 8 months.

In those 8 months, I got free tickets in a suite to a professional soccer game, and a truck full of free Ben & Jerry’s appearing at my work. I met an Indiana Pacers’ reporter (Brooke Olzendam) at a game. I got tweeted by my role model Cory Booker 11(!) times (but who’s counting?) (And I got a retweet for anyone keeping score at home. (And, actually, come to think of it, a direct message as well. Geez, I talk to Cory Booker more than I talk to some of my friends and family members…))

(Best tweet, btw? When he said I was fantastic. That’s right. Cory Booker said I was fantastic!) And that was all through twitter!

Not to mention, I raised at least hundreds, if not over a thousand dollars extra on my fundraising page for Broadway Impact, purely from people who found me on twitter.

I live tweeted a couple of events, and got to interact with awesome people in the process. I’ve virtually met some random super cool people who I’m really happy to now kind of know. I’ve also found some things I love that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. (If you aren’t loving Boston-based comedian Richie Moriarty (@richietown), you are missing out!)

Twitter = awesome.

Oh, and I even got to interact with Drew Carey and Manuela Arbelaez (the model by the car) after my big win on The Price is Right.

Now that I’m recapping this, it is seriously blowing my mind. How is twitter this awesome?!

I love it. I love it. I love it. I mean, what’s not to love? Little jokes, bursts of inspiration, and interesting news all coming to you in concise, bite-size bits throughout the day; plus interacting with amazing people, friends and strangers (of just soon-to-be friends) alike. It’s kind of amazing.

I highly recommend getting twitter if you don’t have it. I cannot recommend it enough!

Also, you know what’s nice? The other day, I scrolled to the bottom of my feed, then started reading up, just to see the past.

It was such a cute (and quick) trip down memory lane! I saw some great highlights of the 52 half marathons. The Price is Right was obviously magical. All that good stuff. It was so fun to see it just played out in a timeline for me. (I guess that’s what this blog is as well… but, you know, not as concise as twitter… and there’s not as much interaction on this blog (though you are welcome to comment as much as you want – I love comments!).)

I can’t wait to see what twitter brings in the future. And if you want to connect with me outside of this blog (which I also love), that’s the social media platform I’d recommend. Some of the others I deal with, some others I even like. But twitter is my jam! (And if that link doesn’t work for you, I’m @AurorasBlog!)

What are your thoughts on twitter?

Were you worried that Cory Booker totally hated me after that and we weren’t twitter friends anymore? ‘Cause I sure was!

Well, great news. Even after i ruined twitter by incessantly annoying him to get him to retweet a photo – then he did – and then I accidentally deleted that photo from twitter completely (shakes head all over again), he still tweeted me back after the Ben and Jerry’s truck came!

I take that as a sign of forgiveness. (Don’t you?)

Two very Cory Booker-type things happened to me in the past week or so. One was that I passed the premiere of Star Trek on Hollywood Boulevard on my way to work. The other was that the Ben and Jerry’s truck came to my work. (He loves, loves, loves both Star Trek and Ben and Jerry’s.)

So, if I couldn’t get him to tweet me back about either of those things, what hope did we have really?

Sure enough, after the truck came, I tweeted him saying the truck came and I even got to pose in the truck! (And don’t worry, I will not delete that tweet! Oh, how I have learned.)

He tweeted back with a “bummed I missed!” That’s right. An exclamation point in the tweet. And he’s even bummed he wasn’t there. ‘Cause where else would he want to be, besides hanging out with his twitter friend Aurora, eating some of his favorite dessert?

Basically, I take that to mean all is well in the world and my life. Hooray!

(Yep, I got to pose in the truck!)

Twitter makes the day better again!

I know I’m always talking about how awesome twitter is, but that’s because twitter is awesome.

So, I’m sitting at work before the morning people come in. As I’m winding down, I give a little check into what’s going on, on twitter. The Ben and Jerry’s West Truck tweeted out that they’d be around L.A. giving out free Ben and Jerry’s!

I tweeted telling them to come on over and hang out on Sunset Boulevard ’cause we were hungry at TNT.

They didn’t say anything back. I didn’t think anything of it. I was sure they got tons of tweets. So, the morning people got there. I talked with them a bit, then went out to run an errand down the street.

As I was leaving the office down the street about to go home for the day (my night), I got a direct message from the Ben and Jerry’s truck! They asked for my number, then called to ask me if I’d like them to come by.

Heck yes, I would!

When would anyone ever say no to one of her favorite companies offering to come by with a truck full of free food?

The awesome Jana and Dan of Ben and Jerry’s truck fame.

They said they’d be there around noon, and I headed on back to work. I told my boss, co-workers, and basically everyone around that free Ben and Jerry’s would be coming. And I felt really popular and loved.

While waiting for the truck (since my shift was over, but everyone else still had to work (boring, right?)), I hung out in the break room, had a great phone conversation with my friend Jon Rankin – super cool Olympian (I know, amazing, right?), and most importantly, founder of The Run Project. We had a great time catching up. And before you knew it, it was time for the Ben and Jerry’s truck!

Jana and Dan called to tell me they were there. I ran outside to help them decide where to park. Then I ran inside back to tell everyone they were here. We watched out the window as the parked, and we all ran outside for some free Greek Yogurt (which was delicious if I might add).

I was so happy I got to try the new Liz Lemon flavor! I’d read about it, but hadn’t been bold enough to buy a pint. (I guess that’s why the truck is roaming around.)

Not only did they give us free frozen goodness – they gave everybody free Ben and Jerry’s sunglasses!

Then they took some great pictures and tweeted about us! What a day – to be fed and famous!

There are so many great cartoons that come up in a Google image search for “Facebook birthdays,” I can’t even use them all over 2 posts!

Picking up from yesterday -

So, I took that status down probably within the hour I put it up. Instead of feeling special, I was just feeling annoyed. No one cared that I implored them not to write on my Facebook – even to the point of blocking everyone from writing on my wall. They all just commented on the very status asking them not to.

I am not as great at birthdays as I’d like to believe I am. I actually do keep some birthdays in my actual calendar, ’cause it will always be important to me to know people’s birthdays for some other reason than Facebook told me so.

I am usually pretty good about calling someone or at least sending a text on their birthday. (And obviously, even those are not the best options. I should be sending cards!)

But just as I’ve already mentioned getting lazy and Facebook posting about other life events, it can’t surprise me that it’s happened with people and birthdays.

I’m making an active effort to change my behavior now that I’m really noticing it. But, the world is how it is, Facebook is how it is, and we are how we are.

I can’t expect everyone else to mold around the way I like things to be done. And – what I believe to possibly be an underlying point to these posts – I can’t expect anything that I don’t give.

The truth is, as much as I like to try to remember other people’s birthdays, I don’t remember a very long list of people’s birthdays. So, if I’m not sending a million cards/leaving a million messages, how can I expect that to happen to me on my birthday?

But, talking for a moment more on why it’d be so great if we did all get better at it… You know something else about birthday messages? When people say nice things to me, I usually like to keep them if I can. I might save an old sweet voicemail to listen to again every once in a while. I have a scrapbook of cards and things from high school.

If people make the effort to say something nice to me, I try to hold onto it if I can, so later I can get that same warm fuzzy feeling from it when I reminisce about it.

It’s hard to keep something someone says on Facebook. Things get lost on a busy wall (which is one reason why I try to clean out old stuff I post on mine so it doesn’t get so overwhelming).

And even if you take a screenshot of something nice – it’s always going to be a screenshot from Facebook. (And the only thing I’ve ever felt when I see the layout of that website is “I don’t care you about you.”)

But that’s really what Facebook is… a place for people who don’t really care about you. Maybe some of them do, but for the most part, you’re a blip on those people’s radars (or at least that’s how I feel there).

Making peace with the fact that it is a place for acquaintances and superficial friendships – I have put June 25th back on my profile. (And I haven’t blocked people from writing on my wall this time.)

This year, instead of getting upset if no one calls me, I’m going to accept what Facebook is. I’ll take the superficial happy birthday wall posts.

Since I’m removing all expectations, and setting the bar so low that I’m just throwing it on the ground; I might even actually crack a smile about a wall post if some person I knew a long time ago (or barely got to know, but really liked), says happy birthday. It may only take 5 seconds, but at least it’s 5 seconds they gave me.

(Or at least that’s what I say now. But I would bet money that I don’t keep this attitude, and I get too annoyed to keep my birthday up there before that day is over (and possible before the day starts).

And if I’m really upset that no one cares it’s my birthday, I should:

a) be happy that no one really cares about a random day, and keep working hard to make my own special days with projects that are important to me.

b) work much harder to make people feel special – send more cards, remember more things, and be a better friend. You won’t always get back what you give, but you’ll almost never get back something you don’t give (and even if you did, it’s so much better when it’s reciprocal).

So, I guess let’s all just be better friends to each other until it’s a never-ending loop of giving. Yeah?

But, since it fits into the series of somewhat related posts of this week, I’m gonna go ahead and do it now.

I have always been staunchly against putting my birthday on my Facebook profile. (Not ’cause I’m so weirdly protective of my age (since you live and die by your age here in L.A.) – no, without the year involved, I’ve been very against putting the month and day up there.)

The reason for this is because I want to believe that people care about me – and care enough to actually remember my birthday.

But, do you know what’s happening to people now with everyone relying so hard on Facebook birthdays? A year or two ago, one of my very best friends in this world (whom I’ve known since we were kids) called and said, “Happy birthday… I think. I thought it was your birthday, but when Facebook didn’t tell me it was, I wasn’t totally sure.”

Someone who knows me better than most, and certainly longer than most, wasn’t even sure anymore ’cause that’s how much we rely on Facebook.

Now, I’ve already admitted in an earlier post this week that I have been rude before by congratulating people on Tony noms through Facebook. Obviously those are way, way, way – a million times bigger than birthdays. So, I should absolutely lump myself into this judgement I’m about to do here.

found this in an image search, but KickInTheHead.org is pretty funny. Think about checking it out if you get a chance.

But, what I don’t like about Facebook is how complacent we’ve all gotten. I think it is crazy when a million people write “Happy birthday” on someone’s wall.

(First off, really? Just “happy birthday”? How about at least “happy birthday, [name of person]” – or better yet a nice, personal message celebrating that person ’cause that’s sort of the deal with birthdays.

(Even though it’s a little silly to celebrate birthdays ’cause we didn’t really do anything special that day, but that’s be a whole ‘nother post. It’s a social norm. It’s fine.)

So, anyone a bunch of people write these super impersonal messages in the most impersonal way possible (on a Facebook wall – gosh, even a tweet would be better!). And then people have statuses that are all, “Thank you so much for all the birthday love! I feel so special!”

What, really? ‘Cause a computer program told all of your acquaintances it’s your birthday. Then they took 5 seconds to write happy birthday on your wall. They didn’t even have to leave their home page to do it! (They can just do it in that birthday space in the corner.)

(If you’re someone who has done that very status, I’m sorry to insult you in the blog here… But uh, even if I like you, I still can’t ever get over those statuses.)

Last year, I was so awkward about my birthday. (I don’t know why I specified last year when I always am.) But, last year especially – I tried something new in this crazy world of social media.

“Why god, why?!” (This was SUCH a good show.)

I put that my birthday was on June 25th. And I blocked people from writing on my wall.

Then I put up a status with something along the lines of, “Yes, it’s my birthday, but I hate Facebook. If you care enough to say happy birthday please send an email or a text.” (And I gave my email address.)

But then, instead of anyone actually doing that – everyone just started commenting on that status!

(Side note that drove me crazy – someone who really doesn’t know me very well at all (has met me at a race or two) wrote something like, “So you’re ___ now, right?” (with an older age!). And when you phrase it in that kind of declarative way, people think you are that age. (Or at least that’s what paranoid me thinks.) Come on, man! Why would you do that to an L.A. resident? (Especially when you really have no idea how old she is! A birthday is a time to make someone feel good about themselves, not make them think they look old. Right?)

(And a side note about him, he actually seems like a pretty nice guy – just one who doesn’t always say the most polite/appropriate things in public forums.)

I’ll continue with this mess of a story and thoughts tomorrow.