While there is a strong Laura Ingalls Wilder presence on Twitter there can always be more people talking about Laura so we hope you join in. If you haven’t yet come across Twitter, it’s a social media service that’s unique because instead of finding people who you know, you find people to talk to based on discussions about topics that interest you.  It’s a free service and while you can use it on portable devices like a text-enabled phone or a tablet of whatever brand, all you really need is access to a regular computer. You can signup for an account with just an e-mail address, a name that will be your Twitter handle, and a password. Shorter, easier to remember handles are better. An individual message is called a tweet which has to be 140 characters or less.

You can also ReTweet or send on a tweet by someone else to your followers. People will follow you and you will follow people. They won’t necessarily be the same exact people. You can favorite a message to find it again and every Friday some people put out #FF or Friday Follow messages recommending who to follow.You can also search by topic or hashtag which let you pull up all messages around a certain event. For example #LIW12 is the hashtag for the LauraPalooza 2012 conference.

Sign up for your free account.

This video walks you through Twitter basics.

For more Twitter basics to answer your questions, read this very informative blog post.

To get you started talking Laura on Twitter, try following some of these Twitter accounts:

Our official account is @BeyondLitlHouse

Our hashtag (a way of marking posts by content) for the conference is #LIW12. When it gets closer to conference start looking for more regular tweets about the conference from people whether you are going or not. You can search on the hashtag for tweets that have been marked for that subject whether or not you are following the person. Tag us in (tweet putting our handle @BeyondLitlHouse at the beginning) for a question anytime.

To talk Laura on Twitter look for:

• Laura researchers like @TrundlebedTales and @Pioneergirl
• Laura Museums like @LIWMuseumWG  and @lhotpmuseum
• Laura events like @WilderDays and @LaurasPepin
• Actors and actresses from the NBC TV show @DeanMButler @Arngrim @MelissaEGilbert @PLabyorteaux

There are also a strong humor element on Twitter. The most prominent Laura humor account is Half-Pint Ingalls @HalfPintIngalls . Voiced by Wendy McClure of  The Wilder Life, if you like her book, you’ll like her tweets.  Many other people have  created accounts as characters from the TV show. They will often talk amongst themselves in character. Since they are voiced by different individuals content and type of humor with vary widely.

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube and Blog Talk Radio
Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association, Vice-President and Membership Chair