I’m pretty shy when it comes to interacting with people online. So when it came time to venture into Twitter Land, I needed to do it in a way that would feel safe and fun.
I thought I’d tweet the Dalai Lama.
Did you know he’s on Twitter? He tweets about love and compassion and peace.
It seemed like a good place to start. So I went to @DalaiLama.
Oh, my gosh, a gazillion people were sending him messages. As much as I wanted to dip my toe into the Twitter stream, it was moving too fast for newbie me. I chickened out and didn’t start tweeting until a month later when my online friends surrounded me with so much encouragement that I finally took the plunge.
Still, I got to read great messages of kindness and love from His Holiness.
Thank you, Dalai Lama.
Maybe it’s an assistant that does the actual tweeting, but I like to think of the Dalai Lama sitting out in the sun on the temple steps, that twinkle in his eyes, his iPad on his knee, thinking ‘Hmm, I’ll just see what my Tweeps are up to,’ just before he goes inside to meditate.
So if you find Twitter intimidating, check out the messages from the Dalai Lama, and maybe even tweet him. You may not get an answer, but it’s likely you’ll get a little peace.
How did you first approach Twitter? Dive right in? Sit back and scope things out first? Surround yourself with friends? Read a manual? Close your eyes? What new things have you tried lately? A triple chocolate mocha caramel iced cappuccino? Raspberry dark chocolate give-me-all-the-sugar-and-cream-you’ve-got ice cream? A new-to-you author’s latest book? A new-to-you rock band’s latest single? Who was your first tweet? Your second? How do you approach new things? What do you really, really want to do but haven’t yet?
Sharon Louise is a world-traveling hiker, a spy story and romance novel fanatic, and the author of the romantic suspense novel Spy Babe, in which MI-6 agents and U.S. Marshals fall in love while battling the bad guys.
Paris is often described as the most romantic city in the world, so when I went there to research locations for my romantic suspense novel Spy Babe, I thought it would be fun to discover why.
