Tweets, Twitter, Tweetchat and Hashtags.

Tweeting and writing this blog during my road to RAGBRAI has opened me up to all kinds of great social groups. The Mullet’s to Mars ride resulted in a handful of really entertaining twitterers and a few fun Facebook friends and through my followers on Twitter I’ve discovered some really great activities to take part in.

So, I was sitting at my desk, tweeting about biking, minding my own business, and I fall into this Tweetchat. Follow a few links and I find myself signing up to bike every day in April… Sometimes I sign up for things like 30 Days of Biking and RAGBRAI and later think to myself, who do I think I am?

Well, here’s the deal. According to their website: http://30daysofbiking.com The only rule for 30 Days of Biking is that you bike every day for all 30 days in April—around the block, to work, 20 mile workout, whatever suits you—then you share your adventures online. Tweet it, tell your Facebook friends, write a blog, call your mom… Whatever suits your fancy, tell the world about your adventure during 30 Days of Biking.

It’s the second year of the adventure and people seem to already be excited about it. I heard about it on #bikeschool. If you don’t know what’s up with the #, let me give you a tutorial on #hashtags.

Hashtag is a social media term that Twitter followers uses to categorize tweets and make them easier to search. #Bikeschool uses a hashtag to create a chatroom-type atmosphere in TweetChat with a few chosen people asking the questions, and everyone else answering using the hashtag: #bikeschool.

The chatroom updates at http://tweetchat.com/room/bikeschool and automatically refreshes the page with tweets that you and others have hashtagged.

Like #bikeschool, 30 Days of Biking will use a tweetchat to organize the tweets of participants using the hashtag #30daysofbiking.

If none of that makes sense to you, don’t fret. 30 Days of Biking can be done by anyone anywhere with or without complex twitter understanding, a twitter account, or even a computer! If you do, in fact, have a computer, go to http://30daysofbiking.com/bike/register and register with me, under the team name WHO Riders (there’s a space to enter it at the bottom). It’s just a little physical activity and some camaraderie. Now where’s Jeriann, I want to make sure it’s gonna be warm in April.