The Idiots Guide to Twitter
If you haven’t heard of Twitter then I would suspect that this might be your very first day on the internet. Twitter is everywhere and every blog you go to is writing about it, talking about it, using it and seems to be gaa gaa over the darn thing.
Up until a few weeks ago if someone said they wanted to “Twitter Me” then I’d have been ready to fight. You just don’t do that to someone where I come from. After reading about it everywhere though I decided to check it out and see exactly what it means when you “Twitter someone.”
What Is It
You are no doubt very familiar with Instant Messenger services or IMs, any boob who has ever managed to sign up for an AOL account has managed to figure IMs out. Twitter is a derivative of an IM type service or possibly even kind of like an online text message service.
It’s basically a website where you can sign up and create a profile for yourself and then send out or receive messages. You send TO your followers and you receive FROM those you follow.
After you “exist” in the Twitter world you need to find some people that you want to hear what they have to say. This is called “following” and you could describe it to kind of subscribing to their Twitter feed. If you”follow” someone then anything they broadcast will show up in your Twitter box.
If people elect to follow YOU then anything you broadcast will show up in their site etc. If you’re one of the more astute readers then you quickly realize that to be active on this service you want to both follow others and amass as many followers as you can. The wider your audience the more your message will be heard.
What Do You Do With It?
Getting set up and going is easy enough but the bigger question is what do you do with it? What value does it have? I struggled with this at first and I just really didn’t see the attraction to the service but I stuck to it to give it a fair shot.
Twitter can be tied into your cell phone so you can update your “followers” with a single message. You can share where you are going, what you are doing, what you are thinking, whatever you can fit in 140 characters or less.
I will warn you now, the more people you follow then the more messages you will get. Some Twitter users feel the need to share that they just burped with the world. It’s annoying at best because you want to continue to follow them but the useless stuff they post may outweigh anything of value.
Most of the people that I follow on Twitter use it to promote their content. They publish a tweet that points you to their latest blog posting. This seems irrelevant because typically anyone you follow on Twitter you will probably already subscribe to their feed anyways so it’s redundant in my opinion.
Is it the Next Big Thing?
Is Twitter the next big thing? Yeah I think it is, the popularity of it seems to be so widespread that I don’t see it losing any ground from here. I don’t think it’s anything revolutionary, if you were using GTalk or MSN messenger before you simply transition from there to here.
I keep reading about Twitter being addictive and people becoming wrapped up in it for hours and I have to say I think they are nuts. It’s kind of interesting, it provides a little bit of entertainment but I don’t sit there for hours waiting for tweets. If you do then seek help. Quick.
The real attraction I think is this, it’s very easy to sign up and start following someone like ProBlogger or DoshDosh. These are A-List bloggers that most D-List bloggers wouldn’t otherwise have access to and I think the D-lister thinks they are going to try to promote themselves on Twitter by sending tweets to their favorite A-Listers.
It’s an ego thing if you can get Darren to respond to you, suddenly you think you are friends. Reality will soon come crashing down because if you have to ask me, from watching from afar, it has to be pretty annoying to the A-Listers to have 200 different “little guys” tweating at them all the time.
I’d block them, in fact I already do. If you spam me with your useless crap I just block you and move on. I already get enough SPAM via email, I don’t need to hear about your groundbreaking new post “The Same List Post You’ve Already Read 100 Times but Worded Differently.”
5 Ways To Annoy People on Twitter
1. Meaningful – Send out annoying tweats that have no purpose. “Going to the bathroom, Eating Chicken Fingers, Watching a home movie” – Seriously who cares.
2. Groupie – Reply to every broadcast an A-Lister makes. “You’re so Right Darren, Good One Maki, Mark you’re so Funny, I agree Darren” – Replying to every single broadcast WILL get you noticed. It will get you noticed for being an annoying little twit. Do you really want that?
3. Spammer – Using the service for nothing other than post pumps. Seriously, most anyone that follows you will already be subscribed to your feed anyways.
4. Accidental Spammer – Not knowing how to use the Reply function will instantly make you annoying. If you want to respond to someone specifically then hit the reply arrow, otherwise every single one of your followers has to see your reply.
5. Insanity – Not Following Me – This is the best sign that you just don’t get Twitter. Make sure you correct that today.
Conclusion
Seriously Twitter can be a great social tool if you use it correctly. It’s a great forum to interact and communicate with your readers and those that you read. I can see it being a place where you can gather information for posts, opinions on posts, ideas for future content etc.
The best users of Twitter that I can see are those who don’t use it to Spam but rather to interact with others and develop a relationship. If you’re thinking about using it to drive traffic to your blog then forget it, if you want to use it to network and make some new friends then I would encourage you to give it a try.
I don’t know that Twitter will be around for the long haul as these things kind of tend to be a fad but in the meantime you can sign up for yourself and see what you can do with it.
I am sure that I might have missed some obvious benefits of Twitter and that may be why I am only a luke warm fan. If you love it, hate it or are lukewarm to it, then please tell me why.
LOL! Maybe I should redirect all my readers who don’t get Twitter over here!
Jay
Jay’s last blog post..Getting Noticed with Twitter (and Get Some Good Traffic!)
Yeah. I also had to go see what the Twitter buzz was all about, and try it out. It’s not for me. I’m sure it is a helpful service for many, however for me it is about ‘prioritizing my time’. It’s easy to get involved with everything to be found out there, but in trying to maintain it all, it runs the risk of being done ‘halfway’. I certainly don’t want it on my phone! I need some peace and quiet to get work done. It would drive me crazy, and cause me to be all ’scattered’.
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Twitter is interesting and the more I’ve used it and the more people I get hooked up with in my industry the more valuable it is… but it’s still just kind of ehhh in my opinion.
I really only try to post interesting news or something cool randomness… I do get tired of the people that use it to post about what they are eating or the fact they are going home… really who cares…
Kyle James’s last blog post..Links of the Week March 28th, 2008
I have twitter installed, I find it interesting, but like you, I dont quite get it. I understand it, but I havnt fallen in love with it.
I have helped people out on there and it is quite nice to get that more personal connection with people. All in all, it is just something to look at whilst procrastinating for me still. Hopefully I will discover what everyone else sees sooner or later.
Tom Beaton’s last blog post..Take a step back and examine your business
I am glad I am not alone. You’d think the way some people talk about Twitter it was like running water invented all over again.
It’s mildly useful at best, at least from what I can see.
Bill,
If it was you stopping by my blog earlier, thanks. I appreciate your skepticism. I have answered your comment there. If it was you I would like to reprint your comment when I post my March earnings on Tuesday. If I were in your position I likely would question the veracity of my claims. I would, of course, link back to your blog.
If not, my apologies for the intrusion on your blog.
I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only person who has no particular use for Twitter. I have a limited amount of time to spend on blogging and absolutely zero interest in inane small talk.
timethief’s last blog post..How to make html tables for your WordPress blog
@Aaron – yep it was me. I thought I linked back to myself but apparently not. I regret my choice of words maybe but my opinion is unchanged.
@timethief – You’re not alone. I think most people pretend to like Twitter because they think they are supposed to. If the A-Listers say it’s good then it must be. It’s high school all over again.
Great, I thought it was from you. It speaks well of you that you “owned” the things you said.
I think you will be convinced but not amazed at my post tomorrow. I never claimed I had magic, I only claimed to have earned a certain amount after a month on my new blog. As of today I increased that by almost $600 to over $4,500 or so. I’ll post about it tomorrow. You are certainly free to comment on the post. Either I was telling the truth and I earned about $4,500 on my newish blog this month or I am lying as you said.
One more thing…
On my blog you openly accused me of lying. I realize you now “regret” the choice of words. I appreciate that. I think I would have a similar reaction based on the data were it someone else’s blog.
If, after my post tomorrow, you believe you were in error in calling my a liar I would appreciate a retraction. It is only reasonable.
Aaron – honestly these drive by comments aren’t my style. I wish I had just bit my tongue and moved on but honestly I would have to say you really couldn’t post anything tomorrow that I would believe so it doesn’t much matter.
I will retract what I said because I shouldn’t have said it, but I don’t honestly think you could post a thing tomorrow that would make me change my mind. I am not after a war of words or a comment section showdown so this is where it’s done for me. Good luck.
From this point forward comments will be related to this post only.
I’ve always hated twitter. But then again I haven’t used IM in years and I’m not much of a texter either…
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I just signed up for Twitter myself and my initial skepticism regarding its usefulness was well-founded. Maybe I just don’t know enough people to make it “more interesting.”
I don’t really care to follow the A-Listers, but I am interested in connecting more with readers and the like.
As far as updating people about everyday mundane activities… I thought that was the whole point. I mean the message above the text box is: “What are you doing?” So it stands to reason that most people simply answer that question. Was Twitter ever meant to be used as anything more? I get that people are finding new ways for it and that’s great because it takes things to another level, but the original concept (I thought) was just sending random updates as to what you were doing.
Eh, I suppose I’ll stick with it and see what happens. Great post!
Jillian’s last blog post..When Moms Attack
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I have recently just got into the twitter game and it is a must have for any business, almost all network marketers are on it now and can build up great friendships, potential customers and even business deals. such a great tool.
Bryan
Bryan Dennehys last blog post..3 Tips You Must Follow To Succeed In Network Marketing
Nice post thanks for sharing.
[...] The Idiots Guide to Twitter @ The Blog Entrepreneur [...]
How do you make money using twitter???
Twitter is for the brain dead…which may explain its popularity. The news orgs push Twitter relentlessly….definitely an alterior motive there. Brainwashing for political and social purposes.
twitter is definatly for people with absolutly no intelligence or brain whatsoever. twitter would bore me to death in just 11 seconds which it did. why would anyone want to use crap like this i have no idea. the world is going down the shitter and all the idiots are using twitter lol complete garbage.
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