Sandy Appleyard's Blog, page 29

How to Make a Twitter List and Why You Should

Twitter lists are an integral part of staying loyal to your loyal followers. Especially if you are working with many followers (over 1000 is my suggestion).

Here’s how Twitter lists work:

You create a list of all the people on Twitter that you wish to stay on top of (for criteria, see my blog ‘10 Simple Ways to Use Your Twitter Time Wisely). I’ll get to the instructions momentarily.

Once you create your list, you view it daily, biweekly, etc. and it will only show you the recent tweets of those...

From Non-Fiction to Fiction: Anything is Possible

My first two books were non-fiction memoirs; the first ‘The Message in Dad’s Bottle‘ was about what it was like growing up with an alcoholic, and the second ‘I’ll Never Wear a Backless Dress‘ was about the challenges I’ve faced living with Scoliosis.

After completing, submitting to publishers and finally self-publishing both books, my non-fiction ideas were nearly dried up. However, as I continued to read excellent novels, one day I discovered a few story lines brewing in my imagination.

I wond...

To Follow or Not to Follow. That is the Question.

I generally follow all my followers, with few exceptions.

I do not follow when:

1). It is not a legitimate person. This is determined by a) if they have several tweets, b) if their tweets are legible (some are just lists of twitter handles, or hash tags, not actual language)

Also, if a person doesn’t have any followers or very few, yet they are following hundreds, I question if they are real.

2). It is NOT someone involved in the pornographic industry. You sometimes have to pull up their profile...

10 Simple Ways to Use Your Twitter Time Wisely

1). Don’t just thank or mention new followers. Retweet a post of theirs.

2). When people (followers or not) mention or retweet your post, return the favour rather than just thanking them in a mention.

You get new followers and retweets/mentions multiplying instantly (plus, thanking, in my opinion is a time waster. While polite, it just mentions the person’s name, the reader must click and search for their posts.)

3). Create a public Twitter list. When followers see you adding them, they may ret...

Grumpy Kids

Olivia, so miserably sick with strep throat, was acting out. She was complaining about everything. I’d given her a glass of milk and she turned to me with a sour look on her face and ranted, “But Mommy, my milk is dry!”

I was loading the dishwasher. Olivia was standing beside me, watching. I accidentally splashed her and she wiped her face and yelled, “Mommy, you got me with the wet water!”

Victoria said something that I couldn’t quite understand, so I asked, “Did you say I’m your mother?” she...

Jealous: One of the Most Misrepresented Words in the English Language

Have you ever heard someone sneer, “Oh, she’s just saying that because she’s jealous…” Or, someone jokingly rubbing a fact into someone else’s nose by saying, “Oh, are you jealous?”

Is being jealous such a bad thing? It’s a perfectly normal human emotion. I’m certainly not afraid to admit that I’m jealous of about ninety percent of the people I know. If someone has more money, a bigger/nicer house, is taller, has bigger boobs, better skin/hair or nicer teeth…yeah, I’m jealous of them. Why not?...

Better Together Than They Ever Would Be Apart

That’s the best line I’ve heard about marriage. Succinct, honest, realistic. I went to a wedding this past weekend, and the Officiant used very basic words to describe the union between two people who love each other.

Listening intently to the wedding service made me realize just how precious marriage really is. You have to take the good with the bad, and I think some people forget that. It isn’t all about you or the other person. It is about both of you.

We were especially reminded of this whe...

Just Plain Funny

While I was trying to fix Olivia’s hair one day, she was wiggling so much I had to tell her twice to stand still. I got frustrated and said, “What’s the matter with you? Do you have ants in your pants?” She didn’t say anything, but when I finished, she walked away and took a peek in the back of her underwear and looked up at me, satisfied.

After suffering weeks of illness in our house, I started voraciously cleaning and disinfecting everything day and night, to no avail as Victoria came down w...

Why Do We All Live and Die Through Facebook?

This is all my opinion of course, and not meant to offend. I’ve been on Facebook for about six years now, and I’ve seen-and done-my share of Facebook abuse.

Since becoming an author and blogger, I’ve noticed how dramatically my social media usage has changed. This change has also affected my personal life for the better. I’ve learned to keep private information…well, private. If I don’t tell you something in person, you certainly won’t find out about it through Facebook, that’s my rule.

Some pe...

How Productive are Twitter DMs Anyway?

When I began seriously promoting my Twitter account, thus following as many targeted tweople as possible, I noticed I was inundated with DM’s, or Direct Messages. Who really reads them? In the beginning, I read and responded to a few but found it very daunting.

As a busy person like everyone else, I’m honestly more inclined to pay more attention to mentions and retweets. Offering thanks with a return mention or retweet is the polite way to give back to your follower, whether new or not.

Direct...