Thursday, June 28, 2012

Lost in Cyberspace


Those of you who know me realize I'm a cyberspace case. I struggle with all things techie, even the remote control. I joined Twitter a year ago and just this week learned about making lists when I read Amber West's blog post You've Got Questions - Everything Twitter.

In the comments section of Amber's post, Renee A. Schuls-Jacobson recommended we also check out this link to Nina Badzin's five-part blog series about Twitter.

I learned some Twitter etiquette, how to make lists, and how to do a proper @ reply retweet. I had no idea a period should go in front of the @ for certain replies retweets. Either a word or a period @ should be used at the beginning of a retweet. Did you know about that? Thank you, Amber, Renee, and Nina, for helping me find my way around the Twitterverse. I've always struggled with it.

(NOTE: Nina Badzin left a comment regarding the above paragraph, which I got wrong. It's RETWEETS, not REPLIES that this info applies to. I'm glad she caught that, so I changed it.)

Guess I need to tighten my cyberspace seatbelt cause I'm constantly heading out into foreign territory.
Running into unfamiliar terrain is an ongoing experience when dealing with the internet and technology. This is how I feel:

Lost in Cyberspace
I'm wearing my Funny Bones getup in this.
I played around with iMovie's special effects options
(which I just discovered last month), and this is what I ended up with.
My oldest daughter said I look like a Muppet!
YouTube clip - 47 seconds long

Are any of you old enough to remember the television show Lost in Space? It was pretty cheesy but I was a big fan of it when I was a kid! It was on CBS from 1965 through 1968.

Danger Will Robinson - Lost in Space
YouTube clip - 31 seconds

There was no such thing as cyberspace way back then!

Amber West (A Day Without Sushi) is now accepting questions about Twitter and other social media things in her new series, You've Got Questions. Feel free to ask her about anything you need help with. The links listed above are definitely worth checking out. 

So, how about you? Do you ever feel like a cyberspace case, or is it a cinch for you?

P.S. If you want to check out some of my other YouTube videos, click here!

15 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Why should a period go in front of the @? I'd never heard that.

Anonymous said...

Lynn, that video is just excellent! You know, for someone who says they struggle with the techie stuff, you do a might fine job! And yes, I'm totally indebted to Amber and Nina for their tips. They're fantastic :)

Old Kitty said...

I haven't a clue about twitter! Haven't a clue - I find new blogger confusing as it is!! Take care
x

Anonymous said...

I used to keep blog post link shout outs to 1/3, but since joining Triberr, it's been hard to get a good balance since it is so easy to send them out. I cut back after one of my daughter's friends complained and suggested I do more random tweets! I forget that some that aren't following many see all of my tweets!

Susie Lindau said...

I forgot to tell you that I love your new video! So much fun!
I was a huge Lost in Space fan!

Susie Lindau said...

I am anonymous!

Renee Schuls-Jacobson said...

Hi Lynn! Thanks for the kind mention. Twitter can be daunting, but with people like Nina and Amber out there offering awesome tips, it is manageable. Kind of.

@SusieLindau, I have to admit, I miss your more personalized tweets. Triberr is kind of... meh. I think those personalized tweets make you so appreciated (and make you stand out) in the Twittersphere. At least, this twit thinks so.

And I'm happy to help anyone who would like a little help with Twitter. I've helped plenty of people over the phone. Twitter can be hard for people to get the hang of without someone to treach you the ropes...especially if you are not a techie. @ClayMorganPA taught me, and so now I pay it forward as much as I can. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hi! THanks so much for the MAJOR shout out to my Twitter posts.

I agree with Renee re: Triberr. I think it makes someone's Twitter stream very congested. I can always tell when someone joins because there are constant tweets coming out of their stream all of the sudden.

As for the .@: it's NOT for a reply. It's for when you're trying to RT something. In fact, I encourage people to use more @replies without a period in front since I don't think 1000 people need to read about one person getting thanked.

This isn't making sense. It's better in the posts!

Also--Blog tip--turn of the "word captcha" thing. Hard to leave comments.

See- I'm full of tips! ;)

Kelly Polark said...

I hadn't heard the period thing either on Twitter (unless you wanted others to see your reply to someone else...)

Love your video! See you've got tech skills!!

Anonymous said...

I second the "word captcha". Make commenting as easy as possible and you'll get more comments (and surprisingly, not a lot of spam :) ).

Thanks for mentioning me here - so glad Rene commented on Nina's posts.

Happy to help!

Sheila Seabrook said...

I love the techie end of cyberspace, Lynn. Learning a new program or figuring out tweetdeck or Wordpress is like a chance to play and have fun. :)

Jennette Marie Powell said...

Well, I'm a techie person (web developer) so that side of Twitter, Facebook, etc. isn't a problem. What is a problem, is finding the time to manage it all! A year after I started, I STILL don't have a handle on that! I'm either not on social media at all, or on it too much and not getting anything else done.

nutschell said...

never heard about that period before the @ sign either. You've come a long way, Lynn and learned so much about blogging, tweeting and cyberspace already! You are amazing.

Happy Weekend!
Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Unknown said...

Hello LynNerdKelly,
thank you for your kind words on my blog. You are talented yourself! ;-)
Great blog!
So nice to meet you!!!

cleemckenzie said...

Live and learn, I say. I hope I can stick around long enough to get some of this techi stuff down. I know it's futile. I think I'm caught up when some ten-year-old engineer creates a new "time-saving" APP or a program that converts one thing into another thing.