No Tag Backs!

The hash tag. It's a useful tool in spreading content or a message across twitter. If you are building brand and name recognition it can be one of the most powerful marketing tools available. It's fun and heartening to see others re-tweet you, spreading your message, content (or plans for world domination) even further across a hash tag. Communities had sprung up around some hash tags. #MyWANA being a big one that comes to mind.

But do people know how to effectively use hash tags?

Over  and over, I  keep seeing RTs going out to the same tags used in the original tweet. Sure, a RT to the same tags is fine, if a period of time has passed since the original tweet. Not everyone is on twitter at the same time to see the first tweet. But, RTing it immediately to the same tags? Not so much.

Example:

@wrytersblockDH wrote:

 Come read my new blog! #myWANA #Twitter

Then, user @AbcTweeter tweeted 2 tweets in the timeline later:

RT @wrytersblockDH: Come read my new blog! #myWANA #Twitter

Now, do this on a popular/busy hash tag, and the number of RTs can get obnoxious. The RTs mean well, and are sharing something they think is worthy, but there's no need to be beat over the head with it. What you can do instead is to edit the RT first, and change the hash tags. This spreads the tweet further and further, and keeps the hash tags you love from getting really annoyed with you. You can reach other tags that the original tweeter didn't think of, or didn't have room to include.

Think of RTing with hash tags like a game of tag you played as a kid - No Tag Backs!

Motivation and Inspiration

Rock and roll bands. It's not always about amplifiers turned up to 11 and  scoring chicks. Sometimes you get inspirational words to live by. And if there is anyone who understands how life can grind you up and spit you out, it's rock and roll bands. Here are a couple of my favorites.

The first comes from an Atlanta band called Drivin' N' Cryin'. D'N'C' released a 4 song ep in 91 with a cut from their latest album and 3 live tracks. The first live track contained this nugget of wisdom:

...We've been all around, and we've come back home with three very important rules of life. I'm gonna tell you what they are.
Said a toy never played with is not a toy at all
Said a day never lived in is not a day at all
Said a promise never broken is a strange thing indeed...

-- Kevn Kinney of Drivin' N' Cryin' song: "Toy Never Played With"

The second comes from a band out of New Orleans called Cowboy Mouth. CM's mantra is that life is really short, so make every day count. Sounds trite and overused, I know, but this is how their front man Fred LeBlanc puts it:

Sometimes it feels like everybody's against you. Sometimes it feels like the world doesn't care. But what you've got to do is you've got to get up. You've got to find your heart. You've got to find your soul. You've got to find those strengths inside yourself that make you take on the day. That make you take on the world. That make you appreciate what goes on around you. That make you glad to be ALIVE!

-- Fred LeBlanc of Cowboy Mouth song: "Why Ya Wanna Do Me"

Words to live by, no matter if you're a rocker, a roller, a writer, a painter, or just a human being trying to hang onto this spinning hunk of rock we call home.