Tag Archives: Twitter

Monday’s Link Roundup.

If you’re a memoir writer, you’ll find some gems in this week’s Monday’s Link Roundup. My favorite, Just enough about me, is a charming first-person account of an 80-year-old woman’s experience at writing her self-published memoir. And don’t miss The meaning of memoir. The author argues that memoirs are still of importance in today’s Facebook  and Twitter universe.

  • Writing Memoir, Quotes, and Books. “Working on my memoir, I’ve turned to many, many (many many, too many) books with tips on how to get started, organized, and inspired.  I also read a lot of what other authors say about the process and will share quotes here, as well.”
  • The Legend Library: A video record of our theatrical legends. “This series of exclusive video interviews is one of our most important initiatives, capturing the stories of our theatrical legends. Conducted by actor/director RH Thomson, these comprehensive interviews will preserve our [Canadian] theatrical heritage for generations to come.”
  • Just enough about me. “It was a Sunday in May, 2010, and I was two-finger-pecking at the keyboard on my computer, composing another anecdote for my memoir, which I hoped to self-publish in time for my 80th birthday in May, 2011.”
  • Milestone Memories. “I’ve been thinking about milestone’s a lot recently. Late May through early July is major milestone season for my family and me. I graduated from high school on May 28. and began my first job on June 5, which was also the day I first met the man I married a year later…Milestone moments deserve to be celebrated and commemorated. Many call for celebration in person with others. All are compelling story topics on their own merits.”
  • The meaning of memoir. “Even in an age of tweets and Facebook posts and personal websites and talk-show bookings, there are things only a memoir — a sustained written meditation on an individual experience — can do. In his introduction to “Memoirs” (1972) by W.B. Yeats, Denis Donoghue wrote that Yeats “is not given to the intrinsic pleasure of confession, he is concerned with the meaning of a life, not with its mere content.”
  • Day One Stories. “In 2011, hundreds of people across the country were asked to photograph their first day of retirement. These photos and the accompanying documentaries capture a moment of transition in a life.”

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email.

From the Archives: 8 Reasons Why Personal Historians Should Use Twitter.

8 Reasons Why Personal Historians Should Use Twitter. [A tip of the hat to Diane Haddad at Genealogy Insider for giving me the idea for this article.]

These days there’s a lot in the news about Twitter. Some of you might be tempted to dismiss it as a fad and of little value to you as a personal historian.  I’ve been using Twitter for awhile and see its potential.  Here are eight reasons why I think you should give it a try: Expand your network … Read More

Monday’s Link Roundup.

In this Monday’s Link Roundup, check out How to Use Twitter as an Adult if you’re nervous about entering into the Twittersphere.  And a  truly original way to document life stories can be found in Worn Stories.

  • Funeral for a Friend. “I started to distrust telephones the instant they stopped working. I can’t pinpoint when that was — the first time I “dropped” a call, or someone said, “I’m losing you” — and I don’t know why the telephone, the analog landline telephone, was never formally mourned. I do remember clearly what life was like when telephones worked.”
  • Junk Drawers, A Portrait Through Trinkets. “You can tell a lot about a person by their most invaluable possession — those quirky trinkets and sentimental keepsakes we all keep in a box or drawer somewhere, a timecapsule of all we’ve ever romanticized and treasured.”
  • How to Use Twitter as an Adult. “So you’re still not entirely sure about this whole Twitter thing. You get its popularity, but you’re also an adult who doesn’t want to submit to an overwhelming fire hose of tweets. Web VIP Derek Powazek explains Twitter for Adults.”
  • Up to 200 Users in a Really Simple Voice Chat. “I have found an online voice chat service that would be great for holding training sessions, genealogy meetings, chat rooms, talking with relatives, online games, or even for general chit-chat. Voxli is an application designed to allow groups to hold a voice chat over the Internet without running up huge phone bills.”
  • Stories In Song. “It has deep history in Britain, but story-telling through song is relevant today, according to Rob Young, author and Editor-at Large of The Wire magazine.”
  • Worn Stories. “… a collection of stories about clothing and memory. It is updated every week or so and edited by Emily Spivack.”
  • Silence Speaks. “…an international digital storytelling initiative supporting the telling and witnessing of stories that all too often remain unspoken — of surviving and thriving in the wake of violence and abuse, armed conflict, or displacement, and of challenging stigma or marginalization.”

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email.

8 Reasons Why Personal Historians Should Use Twitter.

twitter

A tip of the hat to Diane Haddad at Genealogy Insider for giving me the idea for this article.

These days there’s a lot in the news about Twitter. Some of you might be tempted to dismiss it as a fad and of little value to you as a personal historian.  I’ve been using Twitter for awhile and see its potential.  Here are eight reasons why I think you should give it a try:

  1. Expand your network. Open up to a whole new group of personal and family historians. Go to the search box on Twitter and enter “family stories” or “life stories”. All kinds of folks will pop up who have some connection to these topics. When you’ve found some people to follow, check out who they’re following. You might want to follow some of these people as well.
  2. Drive traffic to your blog or website. The Google search engines like activity. The more they see, the more your site will rank higher on Google pages. You can feed your blog posts to your Twitter account and attract a whole new group of readers. I’ve noticed a definite increase in visitors to my blog since I started using Twitter.
  3. Get great ideas. Many bloggers (including yours truly) find a wealth of ideas for material to write about in their blog. In addition, there are creative ways that people are preserving family stories – ways that you might never have considered.
  4. Ask questions. Twitter is a good way to get some feedback. You can ask a question of all your followers or direct it to one person using @ and their user name  like this: @dancurtis.
  5. Find how-to advice. There are lots of great tips and links to useful online articles.
  6. Be on top of the latest personal history news. Twitter is a huge interconnected web with millions of users picking up news and often “Retweeting” it before a story hits the newsstand or airwaves.
  7. Find bargains. Whether it’s travel, supplies, or equipment there are great deals and giveaways often exclusive to Twitter users. You can  go to Twitter search and type in #bargains where you’ll find a goldmine that would warm the heart of any “shopaholic”.
  8. Your own “virtual”water cooler. If you work from home, it can sometimes be lonely. With Twitter you can jump in at any time of the day and follow the conversations or join in yourself. It can break the sense of isolation that can too easily be part of self-employment.

Okay, so have I convinced you to give it a try? If you’re already using Twitter, are there other benefits I forgot to mention? Drop me a comment and let me know.

Flickr upload by Rane

You can follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email.