Swahili Mom: What I Have Learned After 15K Tweets

I just found out I have surpassed 15K tweets. Wow! What a ride, what a journey!! Though this is not my first account but it’s my first personal account that I have used my real name. I first joined Twitter when it was just about four five months when at that time everyone was on My Space....:) I do remember during that time Twitter used to limit the number of tweets that one can post per day. So I used it for about a year or so and forgot everything about it. When I decided to join back the account I was using someone hacked it so I was not able to reclaim it. I'm so glad I was not able to use that account because it made me to create another account and that I decided to use my actual name.

What I have learned:-
1. Using a fictitious name is just wastage of time
The truth is when you use fictitious names you can say anything you want even if you don't mean it just to get the few minutes thrill, you can twist and turn your views just to follow the crowd, people will never take you serious, very few will even bother to read or reply to your tweets and a life of your tweet is just few minutes if not seconds compare to now I found people re-tweet my tweets even after six months.

2. No one likes to talk to an egg

In order to enjoy Twitter whether you tweet regularly or just observe it's better to create a simple profile. No one wants to be even followed by many eggs nevertheless to reply to one. Many people who care for quality followers do often block followers who do not have pictures or profiles to their accounts.

3. Tweet

That is right, you are on Twitter then you better tweet now and then. Make a plan if you tweet once or twice a day make it a habit. If you tweet once or twice per week do that but never just be an observer forever. In this world you need to have your voice heard. You can't just sit down and read different views everyday and agree with everything. Don't let your ego get in the way but it always good to defend something you truly believe in. Also many people use automatic software that delete inactive twitter accounts that they follow.

4. Don't be just a broadcaster
Twitter is about social interaction. You talk you listen. If you just tweet and don't take time to reply to people or you don't take time to read what other people say about certain topics or the things you tweet you are up for trouble.

5. Be quite once in awhile

It's very addicting to always be the one saying something. But there is a lot to gain from just quieting down and watching every once in awhile. Most of the times I just watch a conversation rather than getting involved, there is great value in observing. You don’t always have to be a participant.

6. Don't argue on Twitter
Once I started to gain more followers I found there are people who would just like to argue with me on whatever I posted. Stay away from those people who thrive on drama or crave your attention but do not know how to approach you. Just ignore them. There is no rule that you must reply to everyone.

7. Don't feel you have to reply to everyone
AsI said therre is no rule to reply to everyone also there are questions that could be answered by a simple google search so do not feel guilty if you don't reply.

8. Social media needs personality
Let Jane be Jane and you be you. If you fake it people will know it and will never take you serious. Bring your own personality. Tweet about the things you see that are funny or odd to your followers' taste.. Tweet about the things or links that you think can be useful to your followers. Share your opinions and stay true to yourself. I have learned staying in my "me zone" makes me happy no matter how few people reply or re-tweet any of my tweets.

9. People are likely to re-tweet you if you talk about them

You want some attention? You have to be the first one to do the back scratching. But do not be a nuisance just use your common sense. I find it to be a little cripple if a person reply or re-tweet my tweets everyday so imagine if I do the same thing to someone else.

10. You need something? Just ask.

You can ask almost anything and you will get a reply. That is the best part of the Twitterville

11. People do listen

You will be shocked by the amount of people who do not follow me but do listen to my tweets. 75% of my re-tweets or replies are from the people who do not follow me. I honesty understand why because like myself 90% of the time I spend on Twitter I don't read tweets from individual people I follow or that are on my lists but I read the hashtag topics or the keywords I'm following. Once I finish those and I still have some minutes to spare that is when I do go and read tweets from my lists and then the last place you will find me is on my home feed.

12. Use Hashtags
In order for your tweet to reach many people it's very important to use a hashtag. As I said many people who reply to my tweets do not follow me but they find my tweets through hashtags I'm using. If I'm not directing my tweet to just one person or few people I always try to find a key point of my tweet and put a hash tag on that.

13. People do appreciate

I'm always speechless when I receive a tweet, a direct message or an email from someone thanking me for the link I have posted. Remember it doesn't cost you anything to share with others something you find it to be useful but the reward is priceless. I do take time to appreciate other people too when I find a very nice link of information.

14. Twitter can make or destroy you

Like any other popular social media Twitter can make or destroy your life or business especially if you live in these countries that accountability, responsibility and honesty count the most it is very wise to think before you hit send.

15. Stay away from "under-appreciated " or “wanna be” people

If you want to make your life easy and have a much peaceful time on Twitter, stay away from those people who think they are under appreciate in real life. Those people who think they have done or they are contributing so much to the society but do not receive enough attention or appreciation. Also those people that are on Twitter to gain followers so they can use them to run for public offices or to keep their positions in public offices. If they post anything and you happen to disagree with them they take it person and they can really go off. Once I see someone keep talking about the same thing days just after I replied I don't bother to read his/her tweets anymore because I know right there they are not real. They are hypocrite.

16. Twitter CAN make you money

Not so much by using sponsored tweets but by connections. More connections = more opportunities and more opportunities = more connections. There are some projects I have done that I wouldn't have gotten them if it wasn't for twitter.

17. You can make real friends

With 15K tweets I’m blessed to say that there are people on Twitter I'm happy to call them my friends, my brothers and my sisters. These people I can pick up the phone and call them at anytime and they do the same thing to me too. The good thing about making friends on Twitter is that you find people of the same interests without even looking. When you meet or talk on the phone it is more about life and less about what is going on now on Twitter and you feel like you have known each other for years.

18. People don't care about you personal life

The less you tweet about your personal life the more people want to get to know you. If you tweet about anything and everything that happens into your life, the only people will be interesting on that are those that are bored or hate their lives and try to live on someone else's lives or the little kids that still believe in fairy tales.

19. Growing your list of followers takes time
Be patient it will take time to grow your followers. Do not buy followers because they don’t do you any good than showing off that you have a big number of followers. The good quality of followers are those of the like minded, listen and engage. You rather have 50 followers who engage with you often than 5000 followers who don’t even notice when you tweet.

20. Twitter is a parallel universal

You don' have to be famous for people to listen to what you say and don't think because you are famous everyone will listen to you. The first thing to keep in mind is that no matter your education or awareness always know people are very smart and there is always one person know the thing you know. So do not lie, be open to be corrected and if you posted wrong info admit. So if you treat people with respect they will give back to you the same. Yes being famous make a little easier for famous people when they first join Twitter but in no time no matter who you are or where you are coming from as long as you tweet on a regular basis, you stay on your interests and stay true to yourself there is always a person who will listen to you.

21. There is no need for paid tools
I have learned it is not about what tool you are using to tweet but what contents you tweet. Unless you are running complex campaigns with multiple users for corporate accounts, or managing multiple accounts for clients, there is no need to pay for any Twitter tool.

22. Twitter can be addictive
If you don't learn to control yourself, twitter can be just as addictive as any other hobby or drugs. In about nine months ago I decided to take the Twitter app off my phone and tablet. The quality of my life improved so much. Now I'm not running behind my schedules that much as I used to do because of the lack of sleep or that "let me check one more hash tag before I log out".

23. We all make mistakes

No matter the language you use to tweet in 140 characters it is very easy to do typos or grammatical errors. It’s not an excuse but it’s not the end of the world either. If you spot your mistake before anyone re- tweet your tweet, delete the tweet and do it over if not don't spend your whole day thinking of that and that let make people know that you are a human being and not a programming machine. And those who sit behind their phones or computers waiting to spot others mistakes are the ones that do not have the confidence to tweet anything. They look for other people's mistakes to make them feel better. But at the same time you need to remember if you are getting paid to tweet there is no room for mistakes.

24. Private lists
Do not get disappointed by the number of followers. You will be surprise how many people read your tweets on their private lists. if you run a business always your competitors will follow you to see what is new so they put you on their private lists. Sometimes there are people who have due to their jobs or position do not want to show people that they follow you so they put you on their private lists. There is a new site called sumall.com.. Though it is on its early stages but very promising. I really love this site because it tells you how many people see your tweet or a retweet, mention etc. My highest reach tweet so far is 82, 000 people and one mention reached 120,000...I am very happy because the things I tweet are not popular to many young people. If I was tweeting about the Kardashian or Mr and Mr Carter everyday I know I would have easily got so many people but those are not my thing and I can't pretend .

25. Twitter is priceless

The value of twitter is in the people that you meet. No amount of followers, no custom background design, and no amount of re-tweets are going to replace the conversations you've had and the people you've met. The value is in relationships you are able to create.