So by now you’ve probably taken a ride (if even a short one) on the social media train. It just keeps runnin’ down that track, fast as lightning, as we try to keep up. Maybe your kids are on Twitter – either following or being followed – and the only “tweets” you know are the ones from the birds in your Spring-filled yard.

Wanna catch on? Wanna know a little bit more about Twitter? It’s really easy. Take it from me, the one who’s taken the slow train to social media. Put your little toe in the Twitter tub, and get it wet – because up and coming are some cool and easy chats about the stuff we parents like to chat about — stuff about chores (as in the kids doing some around the house), sleep, just plain tolerating this teen behavior, and good stuff like that. We’ll get the conversation rolling and take it where it goes. We can learn sooo much from each other. Who’s doing what, when; what works well and who’s figured what out. It really does take a village.

Join our online village on May 1 at noon (EDT). We’re talkin’ chores and how kids are doing them (or not) around the house.

Get your feathers on and get ready to tweet – it’s really easy.

Here’s the elevator speech of what you need to know about Twitter:

– On Twitter, you “tweet.” You tweet something, anything of interest to you, in 140 characters or less.

– You can follow others and they can follow you.

– Everybody has a username or “handle” (yep, just like the old CB days). (Mine is FactsofLifeBook). You choose your handle.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE HASHTAG?

Good question. A Twitter “hashtag” is this: #. It notifies users that the words that follow are keywords (this helps people search specific topics and interests in Twitter). I often use #preteens as a hashtag.

And one more thing, just for now. You can also use Twitter to send a direct message to another Twitter user. Simply type @ in front of his/her handle (like @FactsofLifeBook). Doing that links you to that user and his/her Twitter profile.

Whaddya say? Easy enough? Stay tuned for the next post – to lead you to signing in to Twitter. Don’t go away. Soon we’ll be tweeting away (Twitter chat scheduled for May 1 at noon) about ways our kids can help around the house.