CPAPtalk.com

I'd like to clear the confusion up about Twitter and the new feature of CPAPtalk.com.

SPAM
First of all, the intention is NOT to Tweet (or twit) SPAM. The Spam button is still being used to report Spam to johnny. The Twitter button on the other hand sends a link and a few words of an interesting CPAPtalk topic to Twitter for others to learn from.

What is Twitter? and why use it?
Twitter is about social networking and mini-blogging. Members have 140 characters to type what they are up to, what is happening in the news, some cool fact to check out, a movie to see, a song to listen to. People can ask questions to the Twitterverse and get major responses. So when someone inevitably writes "I'm snoring and always tired, what should I do?", Twitter members can offer answers and advice directly to them.

Our goal is to use Twitter to highlight lessons learned here, to offer the good CPAPtalk advice to CPAP users using a new medium and to above all welcome more members to our community. Twitter users are active and engaged... and they're brief!

So what ARE they saying on Twitter? Right now, this is what's being tweeted:

YouLookGreat (your daily passive-aggressive affirmation) says: that which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger and leaves you with a shitload of medical bills.

Bill Cosby says: Watch the MSNBC special 'About Our Children' here: http://bit.ly/JKT2l Then, let me know what you think!

And this morning we said, CPAPtalk says: Some sleep apnea patients report decreased migraine severity & frequency after beginning treatment with CPAP.

Twitter is very different and very much the same to a lot of the new tools out there. The key is, it's successful. People use it and it has become a FANTASTIC resource for links to news, health information, humor, you name it!

Now that we have a CPAPtalk.com twitter, I've been able to answer many questions about CPAP that others have. And I've been able to refer more to CPAPtalk.com. Twitter has brought CPAPtalk.com a few new members, and a few more visitors. It's something new, and is proving to be a way to communicate with the many many CPAP users of all age groups.

Main Take Away
The Twitter button is another tool we've created to help you continue your good works on CPAPtalk.com by spreading a little knowledge and encouragement out to the CPAP users on Twitter. Who knows? We might even make a few friends in the process.

Successful tweeting requires a strong regular presence. I had wondered how this would work, but I can see that Katherine is on-the-job.

In business, tweeting is usually done by someone in marketing, someone young enough to be into it, someone who has the time to make it work.

So, from the point of view of posters and readers here, we highlight the cool stuff that should be shared, and Katherine does the rest to publicize the forum and bring traffic back.

Re Twitter, for those not familiar with it, it is a way people can carry on net conversations where there is a limit to the amount of info typed.
Sort of like speed dating which was a way of getting to the point very quickly in a modern scenario only twitter is speed conversation - flows fast can be viewed as it occurs.

For some people it can be just too fast. It does tend to cut out the clutter that can permeate some interactions.

The reference to social networking is that in todays net world, people have devised whole new ways of communicating. The SMS facility on mobile phones is an example & tends to be very generational (as in that your kids may use it as their primary means of keeping in contact vs how prior generations did).

Social networking encompasses things like Facebook, MySpace, MyFace, MyChurch, MyLife, Twitter, IM (instant messaging), iChat etc: etc: etc: etc:

DSM

#2 this link helps explain twitter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

midnightdweary wrote:Forgive me. I'm old and out of date.
I'm way way behind on technology. Only had a cell phone for awhile. Always keep it on vibrate. (don't know why)

Oh, many of us oldies, especially women, know why you should keep the phone on vibrate!

(We're getting deaf, of course......what else were you thinking? Shame! )

Some comments on how we can use twitter here at cpaptalk ...

If you have gathered that Twitter is basically a way of tweeting (propagating) short messages via SMS, text or email to a list of registered 'followers' then that is a good start.

Twitter allows people & orgs to join up & to send 'or create tweets' (short messages). Members can also 'follow' the tweets (posts) of any other members. Because twitter 'tweets' (posts) are limited to 140 chars max, twitter is often used by people or orgs to alert the other members who are registered as their followers, to more information that may be available in a blog or a discussion group or a news service etc: etc: .

So Twitter allows anyone to sign-up and once signed up, to both register for the 'tweets' (short messages) tweeted (propagated) by other Twitter members. For example, cpaptalk joined Twitter & cpaptalk sends out a 'tweet' (message) each time anyone here clicks the twitter button on a post. The title in the tweeted post becomes the tweet text & a link back to the cpaptalk post is passed as part of the text, this allows the receiver of the tweet to link to the original topic here in cpaptalk. Thus any people following cpaptalk.com in Twitter are able to link directly to posts (the text content of the tweet they received is the post's title).

This may seem a bit odd, but the fact is Twitter is one of the faster growing phenomenon on the Internet and is becoming very popular for doing exactly what cpaptalk have done. In reality, Cpaptalk are broadcasting invitations to come follow a thread, these invitations go to those people who have registered to follow cpaptalk.com at Twitter. Anyone can join Twitter & register to 'follow' the twtees (posts) of any other Twitter members. (obviously it helps to know whose tweets you want to follow ). In the bottom image below you can see that cpaptalk.com already has 134 followers, that number can be expected to grow, hopefully very quickly.

We members here are the instigators in that any time we see a post or topic in cpaptalk.com that we believe will be of real interest to those people tracking cpaptalk.com in Twitter, we can trigger the sending of a tweet to them. As explained, the cpaptalk.com tweets contain the topic title & a link to a post here and as such are an invitation to link to the original topic at cpaptalk. Followers can read the title then link here to follow the thread just as we regulars do.

Here are some screen grabs on how I as a Twitter member was easily able to locate and register to follow cpaptalk.com and to receive cpaptalk.com tweets in my email....

The normal Twitter Home Page ...



Registering to follow cpaptalk.com twits ...



Here I am now registered to receive cpaptalk twits ...


#2 tidied up
#3 removed refs to twits

dsm wrote:Here are some screen grabs on how I as a Twitter member was easily able to locate and register to follow cpaptalk.com and to receive cpaptalk.com tweets in my email....

Why not just send me an emale?

Oh never mind - its a rhetorical question. Never mind.

"I am sitting on the patio" lmao. Not this is worth tweeting.....lmao.

Somehow I just can't get interested in "tweeting."
However, if it brings even one person over here who wouldn't have found cpaptalk, otherwise... ok.

This gave me a chuckle, though. I added the red arrow.

GumbyCT wrote:

dsm wrote:Here are some screen grabs on how I as a Twitter member was easily able to locate and register to follow cpaptalk.com and to receive cpaptalk.com tweets in my email....

Why not just send me an emale?

Oh never mind - its a rhetorical question. Never mind.

"I am sitting on the patio" lmao. Not this is worth tweeting.....lmao.

Gumby,
It is easy to wonder why people join twitter - I gather though that lots of famous people from sports stars to various celebrities, find it easy to provide links to their blog posts etc: Also, this link is a good example of Twitter at work - ALDI are a German grocery chain that operate in many countries of the world including Australia. ALDI signed up to Twitter so they could send out 'tweets' highlighting specials they have on offer from time-to-time - this link shows that about 1,266 people in Australia have registered as followers of ALDI at Twitter. They clearly see a value in getting the notifications. Cpaptalk.com are looking at Twitter in the same way.

http://twitter.com/aldiaustralia?WT.z_s ... ut-Alt-Tag

RestedGal,
I saw that kraptalk & chuckled - was also wondering why anyone would register to get tweets from such a member ?? - I didn't even want to try

DSM

Now that we have a CPAPtalk.com twitter, I've been able to answer many questions about CPAP that others have.

So it's you that's doing it!

One thing you might want to keep in mind - you sent me an @ message to something I had posted sending me here, if I needed help adjusting to CPAP. The only thing is, I never mentioned needing help adjusting. It honestly appeared sort of spammy. It's only because I know and adore cpaptalk.com that I figured it wasn't spam.

I applaud what you're doing, but you might want to make sure messages you send to people directly addresses questions they have or problems they're going through. If you just want them to check out the site, then say that, but don't answer questions they didn't ask because then it comes across like you're just spamming to get followers.

Hi there!

Many thanks for the feedback. After trying many approaches, I know you speak the truth!

I have also noticed that a few times I've assumed and tweeted when I should have listened.
Om Om Om
Slowing down and making sure I stay human no matter how many machines, or Web 2.0s I start to use.

Glad to have you here and SO glad you were able to love CPAPtalk despite my tweetbot-esque approach.

Am adding this link here so anyone can click it to see what the list of 'tweets' are that have been sent from Twitter:cpaptalk and who initiated each one.

Just click the link & it will list all cpaptalk's tweets - most recent at the top.

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=cpaptalk

DSM