fudge

Tuesday 3 July 2012

A Week With The Twits

Well, those of you who read my last post will know that I joined Twitter just over a week ago.

Why did it take me so long?  I guess I just felt I had enough things taking up my time and having a slightly addictive personality I wasn't sure it was a wise move.

Anyway, here I am, an expert on Twitter now so I thought it was time to share some pearls of wisdom with you all.

This was intended to be a humorous post about my experiences so far but I thought I'd show off a little and impress you all with what I've learned so far instead. (please feel free to correct anything I've got wrong and I will feel free to ignore you;).

Tomorrow I plan on posting something else Twitter related but quite different (another sleepless night for you K!)


1.  The first thing you need to know is that 99.9/100% of everything you write will disappear into a big black hole.  All those carefully thought out witty one liners gone, ignored, discarded, it's heartbreaking.

So, what to do about that?  Well, the simple answer is, duplicate!  Everything you put on Twitter you can also post on FB AND, if you have a blog, blog it too!    Of course that means that some lucky people might get to read it 3 times but hey, I'm WORTH reading 3 times!!! ;-)

2. Following - same as following a blog really.  You can follow the people you already know (many have links on their blogs) or you pick up people as you go along through retweets that catch your eye ect (more about retweeting in a minute).

Some people will follow you simply to get a follow back.  In my first 24 hours on Twitter I gained and lost a follower simply because I didn't follow them back.  How do I know that was the reason?  Well, they DM'd me (more about DM's in a minute).  Yep, he actually said 'I followed you but you didn't follow me back so stuff you!' I confess to a little 'lol' at that.

3. Retweeting or RT's - well, see something you like, want to pass on/share ect.  Hit the RT button and share it on your wall (or whatever the Twitter equivalent is called).  I'm pretty sure RTing is considered a huge compliment but as I've yet to experience it for myself I'm not sure (ref: point 1!).

RT can be very bloody annoying if you have someone who constantly retweets. You get obscure stuff from people you don't know and you have no idea what they are talking about.  Thanks to Lady Estrogen who wrote this great post just 48 hours after I joined Twitter (that woman is psycho or something) I discovered that you can turn off the retweets from individuals because yes I may want to hear your crap but no, I don't want to hear everyone elses ok.

4. DM's - Direct messaging.  A little like an email as it's a private message. Twitter still limits you to 140 characters which is very frustrating.   The other frustrating thing is finding them for the first time.  I had an email telling me I had a DM but there were no flashing lights or anything on Twitter directing me to it.  Then of course when I DID find it it was someone telling me to get stuffed, lovely ;-).

5. Conversations - I'm really struggling with this one.  Its all arse about face and I'm a bit thick so I struggle to follow them.  I should probably persevere but to be honest, its gonna have to be something I really want to read before I do.

What else .....  Oh yes!

Hash Tags - preface something with a # to kind of bookmark it.  You can use hash tags in a couple of ways (maybe more, I'm not sure).  You can use them to bookmark topics and anyone who wants to tweet on the same subject uses the same hash tag and then you can search on it for all related tweets and conversations.

You can also use them to inject a little humour - obviously this humour will be bypassed on the whole (see point 1) and if you over use you just become boring.

So far I've decided that I don't like Twitter more than FB where people actually listen and respond to me (did I just say I LIKED FB???) and I know I will never love it more than my blog BUT, it does have a place.  I have come across some people and blogs ect that I wouldn't have found otherwise and of course it's yet another stalking tool to add to my collection .... Hmmm, actually, THAT may not be such a good thing .....

Funnies tomorrow I promise (including the best of my totally ignored tweets ;)

3 comments:

AGuidingLife said...

I use different interfaces for different reasons. Facebook tends to be Guiding chatter, twitter is mainly for work but sometimes light relief, and blog is my OCD, I also tend to use them at different times of the day too. Twitter is so light weight I'll use it mobile and as a brief light relief from work.

a hashtag is more of a search key than a bookmark by definition. The database is going to index on the hashtag and makes searching on them easy which is why you can use it in a sort of bookmark way #justsaying

Sarah said...

You're right K, when I wrote that i thought Id used the wrong word. I should also add that i dont have a problem withRT's per say just indiscriminate use of them. Ive got lots to learn ;-)

Rowen said...

Twitter's always seemed a little overwhelming to me, I fancy having a go though, it's been building up on me, more so since reading your post. On another note about the overwhelming I was wondering if you'd check out a post I wrote about a charity challenge a friend and I took on.