In and Around the St. Croix Valley

Twitter

Beam me up, Scotty, there’s intelligent life at Twitter

By: Karin Housley

I’m going crazy. Twitter crazy. I alluded to Twitter.com a couple of weeks ago, but I’m going to dive in and explain further, because if you’re not tweeting, you’re missing out. Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

So why would anyone care what you’re doing, or better yet, why would you care what anyone else is doing? Odd thing is, once you start twittering, suddenly, you find yourself caring.

Here’s how it works. You go to Twitter.com and sign up for a username and password. It’s free. Get a username and you’re in. You can be StillwaterChick or ponyhockey4me or ilovetigerwoods…your choice. I was very creative. KarinHousley. Once in, you find people that you want to “follow” to see what they’re doing at the moment. Every wonder what your sister in

Atlanta

is doing? Go to your Twitter.com account and you can see that she’s hosting Bunko at her house. Wonder what your son in

Grand Rapids

is doing? He’s at McFaddens having a beer with a new girl. You can even upload photos of whatever you’re doing so you can show your kids that you’re at the doctor’s office and to quit calling!

To start out, follow people that tweet (post what they’re doing) a lot. Start with Ashton Kutcher. Last week Ashton uploaded a photo of his wife Demi steaming the wrinkles out of his tux that he was going to wear to Bruce Willis’ wedding. She was steaming in her bathing suit (no pun intended), to which Ashton tweeted along with the candid photo, “Shhhhhh, don’t tell wifey.” Those that followed Ashton knew something big was going on even before the paparazzi. Tonight Ashton commented on the bottle of ’86 Mouton Rothschild he was drinking as he sent a picture of it from their dinner table. Taylor Swift was at her brother’s Honer (sic) Society speech, and Kate Larson from

Stillwater

took a picture of her meal that she was eating at Luna Rosa. (I follow Kate too, ’cuz she’s funny.)

So what’s the excitement? Why do I care about Ashton, Taylor or Kate?

Because you get to be in a lot of places, live, without really having to be there. Whenever you’re doing something cool or fun, update it. Then you follow people that you think are doing something cool or that you’re interested in. You input your interests when you get a username. (You’ll get the hang of it more once you get started.) After that, search for people with similar interests and follow them. Put in keywords like

Stillwater

, soccer, Nascar, red wine, Christian,

Norway

, knitting, cigars and Obama or Limbaugh – they both Twitter.) When you do this you can connect with things happening right now that you might be interested in.

For example, this weekend was tweet heaven for me. First, I was at the UMD Bulldog hockey game. I updated everyone who followed with the score and a picture as soon as it happened. Now if you were at your Bunko game and were wondering how the Dogs were doing, you could quickly check your Twitter (either on your phone or on a computer), and voila, you could see my live updates and photos, and you’d know the score instantly without having to wait for the news.

My craziness got worse. On Sunday afternoon, when Tiger Woods was playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and my husband wasn’t able to see it live, I updated him (and everyone who was following) on the status of the tournament. My tweets looked like this as I kept taking pictures of the television screen.

Here’s the scoreboard – just finished up at 17.  <insert picture 1>

On the 18th, tee shots off. Johnson's - good. O'hair - good. Woods - kicks butt.

Second shots on 18: Johnson - on green. O’hair- on green. Woods - kicks butt on green 12 ft from hole. It's a par 4.

Edge of my seat. Can't handle it. To refrigerator I go. <insert picture 2>

O’hair misses putt. Johnson putts out for par. If Tiger makes this birdie...he wins.

Tiger did it!!! Tiger wins! <insert picture 3>

                                                                                                     

My twittering got even worse that night when the

Bemidji

State

hockey team played Cornell. My friends in

St. Louis

didn’t get it on their TV, and I did, so I updated them via Twitter every time something changed. (Congrats goes out to the Bemidji State Beavers, the lowest seeded team to ever make it to the Frozen Four! They were the16^thn seed, which is like the 64^th seed in the NCAA basketball to make it to the Final Four. If you followed my tweets Sunday night, you’d have gotten all that, plus photos.)

So how does Twitter work for business people? If mortgage rates drop by a quarter point and you’re in the business, you better let your people know. If you’re having a nickel wine sale (ahem, Haskell’s – starts April 1^st), you better let your people know. If you’re Michele Bachmann and you want to tell us what you’re going to talk about on Fox tonight, Twitter it. (And that she does.) 

Call me crazy, but I think it’s time you checked Twitter out.

By the way, I’m going along with five friends to the Frozen Four in

Washington

,

D.C.

April 9^th.…via Twitter of course! Go Beavers!

Karin Housley is realtor in the

St. Croix

Valley

. Visit her website at KarinHousley.com or contact her at Karin@KarinHousley.com or 651-430-0400. Be sure tune into The Karin Housley Show every Saturday morning at 10:00 on AM 1220, listen live at KLBBRadio.com or watch it on Valley Access Ch. 14 or MNSun.com.

Facebook & Twitter

Facebook, Twitter and That First Puff – Beware the Temptations

By: Karin Housley

I have never tried cocaine, marijuana or any drug for that matter. There’s a reason, and not just because they’re illegal. I knew that if I took just one sniff of the stuff, I’d be hooked. You too know who you are, the easily addicted souls. There’s no tipping your toes into the water, it’s all in, and no one ever sees you again. Oreo cookies were one of the first signs of my addictive behavior. Before anyone could say, “A kid’ll eat the middle of an Oreo first….” I’d already finished off a whole row.

When the internet came along, as hard as I tried to resist by keeping my antiquated Mac computer, I was lured into its exciting little trap. I was crazy. I had a library of information at my fingertips and I couldn’t get enough. Up ‘til the wee hours of the morning, and right back on after the kids were in school. It took years of Surfers Anonymous meetings to wean me from my web addiction and I finally got my life back into balance again.

Then, like an alcoholic caught in the middle of the St. Paddy’s Day Parade, everyone around was tempting me to come back. With a devilish smirk they’d ask, “Do you have a Facebook, Karin?” “Do you Twitter?” “Oh Karin, we don’t do business cards, I can just fine you on Facebook can’t I?” “Where’s your profile? How come I can’t find you out there on anything?”

If you’re out of the loop, they were talking about “social media” websites –  sites you can get login, find people and connect with them – people that graduated with you, or a distant relative in

Montana

or the guy that you shared horsey sauce with back when you worked at Arby’s. These temptations were everywhere.

“I’m sorry,” I’d say. “I can’t do Facebook. It scares me. I scare me.”

“But it’s really easy, you can sign up and get an account in seconds,” they’d reply while they dangled the forbidden fruit from their Macbook.

“I’m sure it is,” I’d say, “But I have a family. I have a job and I have a life.”

“Oh, but you should get one, it’ll make all of those things even better!!” These strangers still looked like my real life friends, but they were acting like descendents of Lucifer.

 My head was spinning, my arm was twisted and I felt a gun to my head as I heard them say, “Just take one puff!!”

Hi my name is Karin and I’m a recovering internet addict who fell off the wagon. You can find me buried in Twitter or drowning between the pages of Facebook. I’m embarrassed to say I did it, but I did it.

WARNING: If you have the tendency to eat more than just one Lay’s Potato Chip, or find yourself watching the sun come up every time you go out for a beer, stop here, return to go and do not collect $200. The remaining words will ruin your marriage, your parenting skills will become non-existent and your vocabulary will change by the tweet. For the brave and strong willed, I’ll explain these social media websites briefly, and then you can calculate your next move.

Twitter – it’s the latest rage. Go to Twitter.com and get a handle (it’s okay to combine CB lingo with the new age.) Then, start looking for people you know on Twitter and follow them. On Twitter you “follow” people and they can “follow” you. You read what they type and say (tweet) about what they’re doing right at that moment.

So why on earth would you want to follow anyone, and why would you care what they’re doing? Because it’s fun and addicting, and you have no life, why else?

There are two kinds of people you can follow, celebrities and non-celebrities. I started by following Ellen DeGeneres. Her handle is the TheEllenShow. Ellen tweets whatever is on her mind, like, “Did you see me and George Clooney on ER last night?” Or, “I just had my wife on the show, watch on Monday!” Sounds a little stalker-ish, but they want you to stalk. Matter of fact, Ellen is begging us to stalk. She’s trying to get more followers than MCHammer.

When it comes to following people you know, it’s just as fun. Two of my kids are in college, so I can drop in on whatever they tweet they’re doing. In snippets, I can feel a little bit more a part of their lives without having to hound them via the phone, or beg them for an email. Though reading bits and pieces like, “I’m out celebrating my recent drop of my PoliSci class,” or “I’m the Beer Pong Champion of Duluth!” isn’t always want I want to know. But, religiously, five times a day, I get little tweets as to what my little sheets are up to.

Facebook – on Facebook you can have extended conversations with your peeps. You join Networks of Friends, like St. Olaf College Class of 1980, or Stillwater Area Boys High School Hockey Alumni or Keller Williams Real Estate. It’s there you can write longer quips, catch up on the kids, and exchange business information. It’s the extended conversation over coffee at Starbucks, where Twitter is a quick “hi” and “I’m on my way to the kids’ ballet,” in the grocery store aisle.

It takes some getting used to, the tweeting and twittering because it’s a whole new world, but it’s here to stay and it’s not going away. As much as I prayed to silence the demons, they got to me. They’ll get to you too, and the sooner the better.

Follow me and I’ll follow you. (That’s how we’ll talk.) Bring some wine would ya? I promise we’ll only take one puff.

Karin Housley is realtor in the

St. Croix

Valley

. To search for homes in the

St. Croix

Valley

or anywhere in the Twin Cities, visit her website at KarinHousley.com or contact her at Karin@KarinHousley.com or 651-430-0400. Be sure tune into The Karin Housley Show every Saturday morning at 10:00 on AM 1220, listen live at KLBBRadio.com or watch it on Valley Access Ch. 14 or MNSun.com.