Closest Ever Look at Martian Moon http://ow.ly/1mU5G,” tweeted Saksham Gakhar, a Class X student in Chandigarh a month ago. Sitting pretty with 88 followers, this member of the social networking site Twitter, tweets once/twice a week depending on the time he gets off from his studies. “My sister, Meenal, a college-goer is better off. She is not only frequent, but has many followers,” says the teen in awe of Twitter. So, what makes Twitter so popular with Gen X? “Well, to be exact, the Internet is time consuming, Twitter is not — as one is only microblogging!” reasons Gakhar, an avid follower of Sachin Tendulkar (sachin_rt with around 2 lakh followers), the latest celebrated entry on Twitter!
Not just Gakhar, but many his age are fast turning into the hottest tribe of ‘followers’. Of course there are a few members who are on the site for fun; while others enjoy the charm of microblogging that makes you say only what you mean! Ojasvi Goel, a Class VIII student of Vasant Valley High School, New Delhi, is currently not on the site because he is younger than the mandatory age. An avid Facebook user though, he knows that a tweet has more impact — certainly more than an entry on Orkut or Facebook. Nurturing the dream to be a blogger one day, Goel says, “My only concern (related to sites like Twitter) is that people our age need to balance tweets with studies,” he cautions.
So how does one make the tweeting experience balanced and better and far reaching? Here’s the dope.
First, never get obsessed about what a friend has just tweeted! And if you are wondering whom to follow and how to get more Twitter followers, here’s what you could do. For one you may pick people you relate to. These could be journalists like Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai to authors like Chetan Bhagat or anyone else you admire. When it comes to building your own followers remember it’s not really about how you tweet but who you are. When you are a beginner with no claim to fame — unlike a celebrity — getting a bunch of followers is not easy. So rather than quantity, look for quality followers — your friends, parents or others who not just visit your profile but share interesting links and comment on burning issues. So, build your profile well and work towards sending more and more visitors to it. Once they visit and like it, they will follow you. Also, while tweeting has become a tool to create controversies and thus a way to get attention, avoid all this in your tweets. Happy tweeting!