is anyone else tweeting?

kindlekitten · 09-23-2011, 01:05 AM

I just signed up for twitter this afternoon. I already have 12 people following me

. when I check their profiles, some of them have absolutely nothing posted, but follow several hundred other people. weird. kinda scary even

anyway... "social networking" is supposed to be good for marketing. *sigh*

xg4bx · 09-23-2011, 01:51 AM

i have a twitter account. i still can't figure out what i'm supposed to do with it or what its good for.

Sweetpea · 09-23-2011, 01:57 AM

Don't have a twitter account, won't even think about getting one either. I only have an account on LinkedIn. But that's how far I'll go with "social networking". (I must admit, I usually ignore LinkedIn too...)

melmac · 09-23-2011, 02:09 AM

I recently joined twitter and like it alot but I am still learning the ropes best thing to do to start with is follow the sites and blogs you regularly visit for example I regularly read the Barnes & Noble blogs so I follow @BNBuzz. You can link your twitter account to your profile here so that if people click on your profile here they can see your recent tweets and easily select to follow you.

I found this article really usefull as it gave me a better undestanding of hashtagging even though it's aimed at authors(which I'm not)
http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/...ter-tuesday-2/

The more you follow and the more followers you get the more interesting it is however you can sometimes get overwhelmed with junk in which case just unfollow

Tweet Tweet

Sweetpea · 09-23-2011, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xg4bx

i have a twitter account. i still can't figure out what i'm supposed to do with it or what its good for.

You remind me of one of our commercials...

Translation:

Spoiler:

So, now you know what to do with it

montsnmags · 09-23-2011, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I just signed up for twitter this afternoon. I already have 12 people following me

. when I check their profiles, some of them have absolutely nothing posted, but follow several hundred other people. weird. kinda scary even

anyway... "social networking" is supposed to be good for marketing. *sigh*

Twitter has spammers, just like everywhere else. You can BLOCK them, and if they @mention you (selling something) you can even "Report for spam". Chances are, if you've had no communication, they are just spammers.

People take different approaches. Because being "followed" by someone means no real impact on you, some people just let their followers go hell-for-leather, without trying to block anyone (unless they're being jerks directly to them). Unless they actually mention you you'll otherwise not really know a follower is there unless you specifically go through them all.

Myself, I like to keep my Followers list clean. If I can see no reason that they're following me (this is usually obvious with spammers, "networkers", etc - just check they're own tweets and you'll often see spammy garbage), I tend to BLOCK...a lot (blocking just stops them from following you, nothing else). If a bakery in Tucson starts following me because I happen to mention brioche in one of my tweets (i.e. they've got a search bot that auto-follows), they're immediately blocked. But if they're real people, even if I don't know them (sometimes you get them from people retweeting your tweets, or that 'friend of a friend" or "acquaintance of an acquaintance" thing), I also tend to follow them back. I follow way more than I am followed, but all folks who follow me are followed back.

I am followed by very few people (partly because I'm not gregarious in my direct tweeting).

You can also go private, so that people can only follow you if you approve their request to follow you (which also controls access to your tweets). I know good reasons some people do that, but for general use it might kind of defeat the general purpose of Twitter (but, of course, "general purpose"...~shrugs~)

I really like Twitter. It's where I mostly go for whatever one wants to call "socialising". It's a font of an enormous amount of interesting stuff for me, a way I keep abreast of major happenings (through pointers and discussion), a way to watch television with millions in your lounge room at the same time, and contains a simple brevity that to me belies its strength and immediacy and informative and intellectual and humorous nature (who and how you follow is important), as well as a supportive, empathetic nature (again, in who you follow) in a way Facebook, for instance, doesn't (for me...only for me...pure subjective, personal preference talking here).

But that's just me.

Oh, and twitter also has bots on it other than spambots. Some fun ones. There are bots where, if you mention a specific word or phrase, they will automatically @message you. If you don't know why, or understand the reference (eg. the "over 9000" bot, or the Na'vi bot) these can be odd, but some can be somewhat amusing, and harmless of course.

Also, you sometimes discover that some "celebrities" are actually human (and even friendly).

Note that my positive impression is utterly not biassed by the fact that a follower I "met" and became friends with on Twitter sent me cupcakes and balloons and party hats for my birthday. No, not influenced by that at all.

Cheers,
Marc

Shack70 · 09-23-2011, 05:03 AM

I've used Twitter for years. There is spammers but Twitter also tries to get rid of them when they find the accounts.

afa · 09-23-2011, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

when I check their profiles, some of them have absolutely nothing posted, but follow several hundred other people. weird. kinda scary even

Why is that scary? I myself might fall into that category (though I follow only a couple of dozen -- rather than several hundred -- people).

I don't think it's a requisite for everyone on Twitter to twit.* I have a Twitter account that I use to follow certain news updates, like CNN or BBC, tech (CNET, Engadget, etc.) or simply follow a few random people, like Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy) and few of my favourite sportswriters. (I don't follow 'celebrities', as I doubt they have anything to say that I would find either interesting or amusing.)

And I don't twit. At all. I just follow the people I follow, and don't twit anything in return. Partly, it's because I am somewhat introverted, and have never been prone to sharing stream-of-consciousness thoughts; and partly because... well, I just don't want to. Nothing wrong with that.

* Why is it 'tweet'? If the name is Twitter, doesn't that imply that it is a tool that you use to 'twit'?

vans · 09-23-2011, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I just signed up for twitter this afternoon. I already have 12 people following me

. when I check their profiles, some of them have absolutely nothing posted, but follow several hundred other people. weird. kinda scary even

anyway... "social networking" is supposed to be good for marketing. *sigh*

I am also new to Twitter and having a hard time trying to work it out. So far I am just following a couple of websites, which is the reason I opened an account.

Immediately I started having followers and for no good reason I blocked everyone. My wife thought it was funny that I did not want to have any followers. She said that I really didn't get social networking.

Amazon was one of the followers?

I have added a couple of responses to tweets, but I have no idea what happens to them.

Facebook is just as bewildering to me. I know many people who use Facebook, like work and ex work colleagues, but I don't send out friend requests because I am not their "friend". So I have a very small number of real friends.

rhadin · 09-23-2011, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Don't have a twitter account, won't even think about getting one either. I only have an account on LinkedIn. But that's how far I'll go with "social networking". (I must admit, I usually ignore LinkedIn too...)

kennyc · 09-23-2011, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Don't have a twitter account, won't even think about getting one either. I only have an account on LinkedIn. But that's how far I'll go with "social networking". (I must admit, I usually ignore LinkedIn too...)

This.

I signed up to try out google+ and deleted it after a few hours.

Even on linkedin I've got one person that does more spamming and selling than networking. Sheesh!

poohbear_nc · 09-23-2011, 08:17 AM

Twitter, and other social media/networking sites, reminds me of a Ray Bradbury SS I read years ago [can't recall the title] - which is set in a society in which everyone is in constant contact with other people - instead of cell phones, Bradbury had posited "wristwatch phone computers" which constantly relayed messages to you. The protagonist wanted peace & quiet, and was regarded as mentally ill for wanting to remove his wristwatch and be on his own.

beachwanderer · 09-23-2011, 08:27 AM

Back from the discussion about the uses of social networks (I'm only on Xing and Twitter myself, FB and G+ will see nothing of me for now) to the OP/kindlekittens question:

I'm on twitter, you'll find me @walfischbucht tweeting mostly in german and sometimes in english.

There are quite a number of other MR-members on twitter too.

(You'll know that you can find their tweets on their MR-profile if they did link MR up with twitter.

Yes. melmac did mention that already.)

Wetdogeared · 09-23-2011, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Twitter, and other social media/networking sites, reminds me of a Ray Bradbury SS I read years ago [can't recall the title] - which is set in a society in which everyone is in constant contact with other people - instead of cell phones, Bradbury had posited "wristwatch phone computers" which constantly relayed messages to you. The protagonist wanted peace & quiet, and was regarded as mentally ill for wanting to remove his wristwatch and be on his own.

The Murderer?

aceflor · 09-23-2011, 08:32 AM

Not tweeting. Stopped also posting anything personal on FB, but I am still posting once in a while about books or articles, or Happy BD messages to friends. My FB account got hacked last fall, by someone I know, so it got pretty scary. I am very conservative regarding my friends list on FB, and still, it happened.

I had no Twitter account at that time (thank god), but of course now I don't want one at all.

On the business side, the business we are in is very conservative, our clients and pairs do not use FB (or maybe they do, on the private side, but it would be considered very unprofessional to communicate with each others through FB), so we have no professional use for social networking.

09-23-2011, 01:05 AM	#1
kindlekitten Professional Adventuress Posts: 13,368 Karma: 50260224 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: The Olympic Peninsula on the OTHER Washington! (the big green clean one on the west coast!) Device: Kindle, the original! Times Two! and gifting an International Kindle	is anyone else tweeting? I just signed up for twitter this afternoon. I already have 12 people following me. when I check their profiles, some of them have absolutely nothing posted, but follow several hundred other people. weird. kinda scary even anyway... "social networking" is supposed to be good for marketing. sigh

09-23-2011, 08:27 AM	#13
beachwanderer - Posts: 2,602 Karma: 16748808 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: At the Baltic Sea Device: Some	Back from the discussion about the uses of social networks (I'm only on Xing and Twitter myself, FB and G+ will see nothing of me for now) to the OP/kindlekittens question: I'm on twitter, you'll find me @walfischbucht tweeting mostly in german and sometimes in english. There are quite a number of other MR-members on twitter too. (You'll know that you can find their tweets on their MR-profile if they did link MR up with twitter. Yes. melmac did mention that already.) Last edited by beachwanderer; 09-23-2011 at 09:09 AM.

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09-23-2011, 01:51 AM	#2
xg4bx Are you gonna eat that? Posts: 1,633 Karma: 23215128 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Phillipsburg, NJ Device: Kindle 3, Nook STG	i have a twitter account. i still can't figure out what i'm supposed to do with it or what its good for.

09-23-2011, 01:57 AM	#3
Sweetpea Grand Sorcerer Posts: 9,707 Karma: 32763414 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krewerd Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6	Don't have a twitter account, won't even think about getting one either. I only have an account on LinkedIn. But that's how far I'll go with "social networking". (I must admit, I usually ignore LinkedIn too...)

09-23-2011, 02:09 AM	#4
melmac Wizard Posts: 1,399 Karma: 5573651 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Perth AU Device: Sony PRS650, Sony T3, Kobo Forma	I recently joined twitter and like it alot but I am still learning the ropes best thing to do to start with is follow the sites and blogs you regularly visit for example I regularly read the Barnes & Noble blogs so I follow @BNBuzz. You can link your twitter account to your profile here so that if people click on your profile here they can see your recent tweets and easily select to follow you. I found this article really usefull as it gave me a better undestanding of hashtagging even though it's aimed at authors(which I'm not) http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/...ter-tuesday-2/ The more you follow and the more followers you get the more interesting it is however you can sometimes get overwhelmed with junk in which case just unfollow Tweet Tweet

09-23-2011, 05:03 AM	#7
Shack70 Guru Posts: 777 Karma: 1043626 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: York, Pa Device: Kindle Paperwhite 11th Generation	I've used Twitter for years. There is spammers but Twitter also tries to get rid of them when they find the accounts.

09-23-2011, 08:17 AM	#12
poohbear_nc Bah! Humbug! Posts: 64,186 Karma: 135242149 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	Twitter, and other social media/networking sites, reminds me of a Ray Bradbury SS I read years ago [can't recall the title] - which is set in a society in which everyone is in constant contact with other people - instead of cell phones, Bradbury had posited "wristwatch phone computers" which constantly relayed messages to you. The protagonist wanted peace & quiet, and was regarded as mentally ill for wanting to remove his wristwatch and be on his own.

09-23-2011, 08:32 AM	#15
aceflor Wizard Posts: 3,472 Karma: 48036360 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: where the sun lives, or so they say Device: Pocketbook Era, Pocketbook Inkpad 4, Kobo Libra 2, Kindle Scribe	Not tweeting. Stopped also posting anything personal on FB, but I am still posting once in a while about books or articles, or Happy BD messages to friends. My FB account got hacked last fall, by someone I know, so it got pretty scary. I am very conservative regarding my friends list on FB, and still, it happened. I had no Twitter account at that time (thank god), but of course now I don't want one at all. On the business side, the business we are in is very conservative, our clients and pairs do not use FB (or maybe they do, on the private side, but it would be considered very unprofessional to communicate with each others through FB), so we have no professional use for social networking.