I've been creating tweets and posting them on Twitter for the past 6 or so months. At first it was out of curiosity and reading that it was a wise marketing move, then, because I actually found writing a very short note about something I'm doing or that I'd like to talk about challenging and fun. Today, I had an unexpected outcome from my Twittering that made me see how social media sites can spread the word about me in interesting ways.

First, I started to follow people and organizations which I like and they, in turn, often linked ("followed" in Twitterspeak) to me. As a result, I made contact with a writer for the Journal News, the largest newspaper in my county, who was planning to write an article about local Twitterers. She interviewed me over the phone and then arranged to have a photographer meet me when I was out painting along the Hudson in Croton. Today, in the Journal News Sunday edition, there was the article and there was a picture of me   working at establishing the guidelines for my painting. The article included a paragraph or two about me and why I Twitter. Having learned to take one piece of publicity and use it again, I've Twittered about the article, talked about it on Facebook and am writing about it here.

If you'd like to see the article, here's the link to the online version on LoHud.com :  http://bit.ly/b81Z4