Twitter Writes Me A Breastfeeding Post!

I have been using twitter for a little over a month and as of today I am excited to report that I have 906 followers. Now if only they would all subscribe to my blog I’d be rocking! For those of you who don’t know much about twitter, it is a social networking site that is used to send messages (called ‘tweets’) up to 140 characters long to the people who choose to follow you. And most of the time you don’t really know the people you are tweeting in real life. In fact when I signed up I only had one other real live friend on there. But twitter isn’t about socializing with friends, the same way Facebook is, although I do feel like I could call some of the people I’ve “met” on twitter friends. It’s about getting followers and following others. It’s like stalking with permission. Like my mom, who when I told her Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) her cycling hero, is on twitter and she could “follow” him, immediately signed up and now tells me about Lance’s daily tweets as though he was sending them directly to her. Oh well. This is why other celebs like Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk for those of you who are interested) have over 664,000 followers.

I am beginning to discover all sorts of uses for twitter, and as I continue to learn more about how to make it work in my life the more I have come to see it as an essential social networking tool to build exposure for on-line businesses and blogs. To illustrate what I have learned I will share with you some fascinating stories about what other people have been able to accomplish with twitter.

Paul Smith, a 33 year old UK native recently relied solely upon the kindness of twitter users following him to fund a 30-day round-the-world trip, while raising money for charity. You can read about his exciting trip and social experiment here.

A fellow mom blogger, Angela of Seven Dogs and A Baby posted on her blog page and on twitter that she was looking for someone to sponsor her to go to this year’s BlogHer conference. She listed the airfare costs, hotel accommodation expenses and the price of the conference and within three days she had sponsorship!

I heard another story of someone who tweeted that he was flying into a city he had never been to before and where could he get a good meal there? Well, not only did he get restaurant recommendations, someone offered to pick him up at the airport and drive him to his hotel. A perfect stranger. Random acts of kindness at their finest! This is what I am really starting to love about twitter. People helping people.

I have used twitter to request breastfeeding photos for my Book Project. As well, I have used it to employ a graphic designer and find companies I want to represent on my blog. Add that to the general beauty of meeting like-minded individuals, posting urls to my latest post to expand my readership, clicking other people’s urls for inspiration when I have writer’s block and the learning that goes along with being exposed to articles I otherwise wouldn’t have found on my own, and twitter becomes indispensable! In fact, as an experiment in seeing if I could rely on the kindness of strangers to essentially write me a blog post, a few weeks ago I tweeted a question and watched the replies roll in. I have saved this post for a rainy sicky day and as I blow my nose and watch the rain come down, today is it. Thank you twitter friends for making my experiment a success!

The following answers have been edited for spelling and grammar and I have deleted people’s names, but I have left the abbreviations people use to give you an idea of how to tweet within the 140 character allowance.

This was my question: “Where is the strangest, funniest or most uncomfortable place you have ever breastfed?”

• In the bus in NYC (while knitting, I might add, so no hands!)

• In church, in the pew with the pastor and choir watching. No one knew for months and months.

• It wasn’t me but I was inspired by a lady bf her 6 week old in church at Xmas morning mass!

• Yesterday I b’fed on the route 57 bus with a gaggle of teenagers opposite me.

• I’ve BFed on a lazy river at a water park. That was fun. And while I voted. pretty much everywhere.

• Gas station bathroom

• While doing yoga. He had to have it. Yogi said it was a first for her to see in her class during class

• I bf-ed my 4 month old on the pavement in a parking lot when she refused to nurse unless we were side-lying! My DH was horrified. (this is my personal favorite!)

• Never ever uncomfortable!

• I’d have to say the most uncomfortable place was in the car. Man was it flippin hot!

• I could never bf walking around. I always had to be seated in a comfortable position. I would see women doing it and wish I could!

• I’ve bfed in Sacrament mtg at church plenty of times; while walking thru/checking out of Target; in a movie; while vis. Teaching

• On my breast

• Tie between while floating around lazy river at Wyandot Lake, and at the zoo while feeding parrots w/toddler in sling

• Most uncomfortable? In the back seat of our car, while dh was driving, and ds was forward facing so I had to twist semi-backwards

• When visiting workplace during mat leave, in front of former clients.

• Strangest place I’ve pumped was in a bowling alley where my company was having a meeting!

If anyone wants to follow me on twitter I’m @bfmom. See you there!

Are you on twitter? If so, leave a comment with your twitter name and tell us what kinds of things you have used twitter for?

Related posts:

1. Why Women Post Their Breastfeeding Photos
2. We Interrupt This Breastfeeding Post…
3. Monday Musings: How Strict Are You About What You Put In Your Body When Breastfeeding?

Tags: Facebook, twitter