close

Your Cart

Your Cart is Empty
  • Subtotal
    $0.00
    Shipping
    Free
  • Total (before taxes)
    $0.00
A Cloth Diapering Moms Guide to Twitter (Updated!) #clothdiapers
May 10, 2010 2:40 pm | by
Have you ever craved an opportunity to connect with other cloth diapering parents, but not known how? Connecting with other cloth diapering parents is so much fun and Cotton Babies has made it simple and easy for you to meet with other cloth diapering parents every single week. If you’re into short and sweet, just go to TweetChat.com around 8pm (CT) tonight and have fun! Otherwise, keep reading for the detailed explanation…

Did you know that there is now a #clothdiapers twitter party at 8pm (CT) every Monday night on Twitter? This event was started by Cotton Babies last year and over the course of the last year, the Monday evening chats have become a popular time for cloth diapering parents to discuss issues about cloth diapering, natural parenting and even current events. Other cloth diaper businesses (manufacturers, media, bloggers and retailers) have made the event a fun place to be with frequent giveaways and special promotions that are only available during the #clothdiapers twitter party.

What is a Twitter party?
A Twitter party is much like a bunch of people texting (ie: tweeting) to each other. Twitter hosts all the tweets. Everyone who is participating in the chat will “tag” their tweet with the #clothdiapers hashtag. This links all the tweets together so they are easily searchable.

 
Do you want to come to the #clothdiapers Twitter party?
You should! It is so much fun to hang out with other people just like you from the comfort of your own home. Most participants are moms, business owners, bloggers or manufacturers. To participate, all you need is a computer with an internet connection or a smart phone (like a Blackberry, Droid or an iPhone), a Twitter account and some free time around 8pm (CT).
 
How to party most effectively.
All you have to do is watch the #clothdiapers search term (or hashtag) on Twitter. Technically, you could search through Twitter.com, but that is hard to keep up with when a party has many participants. Thankfully, several third party websites have made Twitter parties easy to attend. TweetChat.com is my favorite Twitter party website. The interface is simple and stable. Log in if you want to participate. If not, you can just sit and watch the chat take place. The screen automatically refreshes for you. TweetChat also automatically includes the #clothdiapers hashtag for you when you post.
 
What happens after the party?
TweetDeck.com is an application you can download for your computer. TweetDeck monitors tweets throughout the day. Set up columns to notify you when your favorite people post or whenever anybody posts to the #clothdiapers hashtag. This hashtag is where most cloth diaper manufacturers and retailers will post their special offers during the week, so keep TweetDeck open on your computer so you don’t miss anything!

Still wondering what it all means? This is our Twitter dictionary… let us know in the comments if there is anything we should add.

Tweet – (verb & noun)

As a noun it is the the 140 character message that you put on Twitter (if you use Facebook, think of it like a status update). “I posted a tweet about my chicken sandwich.”
As a verb, it is the action of posting a tweet.
Usage: “I tweeted about cloth diapers today”.

Followers (noun)
Like “friends” on Facebook, followers are people who see your Twitter updates.
Usage: “I have 24 followers on Twitter.”

Follow (verb)
You can “follow” users and then will see their updates on the homepage of your Twitter account when you log in.
Usage: “I follow 10 people on Twitter.”

@username (verb & noun)

This is your username. It is also used to reply to or mention someone in your tweet. Spoken, you would call this a mention, “at-ing” or “at” replies. Use @ when you want to communicate with someone specifically. When you mention someone’s @username in your tweet, it automatically shows up in their personal feed.

DM (verb & noun)
Direct Message. you can send a direct message to someone that will be sent to only them, no one else can view your direct messages.
Usage: DM me. Shelly send me a DM.


RT (Retweet) (verb) – use RT in combination with @
username when quoting someone else’s tweet. Here is a great blog post all about the art and ettiquette of RTing.
Usage: Retweet me please!

#Hashtag (noun) – a hashtag allows you to participate in a conversation on a specific topic. Putting #clothdiapers in your tweet makes it readily viewable to anyone who is searching the clothdiapers topic or participating in that conversation. Here is a great blog about using hashtags.
Usage: Are you coming to the #clothdiapers (spoken: pound clothdiapers) twitter party on Monday night at 8pm?

Cotton Babies offers occasional unannounced Twitter promotions! To be eligible to win, you must be following the @cottonbabies and the @bumgenius user on Twitter. Don’t have a user account? Visit Twitter today.

 
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments. Have fun at the #clothdiapers Twitter party!
 
On June 15, 2009, I published a Cloth Diapering Mom’s Guide to Twitter. The online twitter world has evolved so much since that guide was written. This post is an update to that guide.

About the Author

Jenn is the founder of Cotton Babies & creator of bumGenius, Flip, and Econobum, worldwide leading cloth diaper brands. She has four children (Andrew, Oscar, Elsie and Louis) and holds an MBA from Washington University. When she's not working full time, she enjoys teaching business leaders how to implement sustainable economic & social change.

Comments

7 Comments

  • Ranganath said...
    May 19, 2011 at 3:44 am

    Hi, Some one from facebook refereed your link i have book marked it nice blogs you write see Free  how to grow twitter followers here

  • Mama Ash said...
    March 7, 2011 at 9:13 pm

    Love bumGenious! They were the first I ever used 🙂

  • designer fabric said...
    September 5, 2010 at 3:07 am

    Weee. Thanks for the guide. I love it! Very useful information.

  • Jenn said...
    May 17, 2010 at 7:47 pm

    Yes, a tweet to someone using @username will show up on their list of tweets that were “to” them (even if your tweets are protected). They have to specifically check their “@” replies though. They won’t see it in their regular twitter feed.

  • Andrea said...
    May 12, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    Ok, I think I’m having a hard time using twitter….if I do this @username (not my own, but someone elses) blah blah blah, would it show up on their page if I’m following them? At first I thought things weren’t showing up because I had my tweets protected, but they aren’t protected anymore and I’m not sure if I’m doing this right…thanks in advance!

  • The Extraordinary Baby Shoppe said...
    May 10, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    Oh geez, I hate Twitter too. I’ve tried to follow these things, but it’s close to impossible to understand what’s going on. I have officially given up on Twitter.

  • Miranda said...
    May 10, 2010 at 2:55 pm

    I’m one of those people that just can’t get into twitter. I don’t know what it is about it but I prefer facebook.