Twitter

Always assuming that they are already sane.

Quote :

I guess I will have to stop posting to groups or forums. Evidently I am not getting across what I mean.

When
I said, "Yep, that is how mine looks" I was referring to my sent box.
Then I went on to explain about why in 'your' sent box mine would still
say sent instead of read. I hope I explained that adequately. *sigh*

I guess you just didn't read far enough down, Shelagh. And to tell you the truth, I don't like your implication or your tone!

I won't be posting here anymore. I've had enough.

I have been Twittering for about a week, and am watching my stats there closely to see what is happening (and will also watch the results on blog hits, and book orders, etc). My approach is to offer a balance of some updates, and some statements that are like a "mini-blog" (although I have a long way to go with those).

You can easily tie your Twitter updates to Facebook (in your Facebook applications, add Twitter), and that way everytime you update your Twitter status, it carries on over to Twitter.

I am still learning on Twitter - the whole retweet thing (where you type RT@whoever said something cool) is a bit weird -- and initially I thought why do I want to repost what someone else said? But it is an interesting way to bring my "followers" (I laugh at that) info that might be a match with their interests.

You can get your Twitter stats by adding "TweetStats" to your list of who you are following, and then follow the link to their site.

There is a lot to learn with Twitter, this is just a wee look at it. Hope it helps.

I have pretty much given up on MySpace too -- I don't get business from there, and even with my settings very tight, I get a lot of "lonely hearts club" type messages. A bunch of them have copied and pasted some similar message that has typos in it, and gives me the willies. I am far happier hanging out in other places.

Shelagh,

I hadn't noticed the SENT box on MySpace because I send very few messages; most of them are parts of ongoing conversations, do I'm more tuned into my inbox where I can also note READ OR UNREAD if I can't remember what I've looked at.

As Sue was getting at, I think, if I get a message via Facebook, e-mail and MySpace and happen to read the FB message first, then I'm going to ignore that message elsewhere since there's no point in reading it multiple times. That gives a false impression if all you're seeing is your MySpace SENT box. It gives the impression we haven't read the messsage when, in fact, we read it on FB already.

I find that Twitter is the hardest to track because as far as I know, there's no way to tell who sees a Tweet unless they reply or send a DM. They may actually click on a blog link, read it and move on without leaving a comment, so I don't know who was there and who wasn't.

Malcolm

Hi Malcolm,

Individual friends opening or not opening private messages was not the point I was trying to make. If I send out close to 500 private messages (as I did) and two thirds remain unopened (as they do) then I don't require an explanation or reason for individuals not opening their mail.

When I sent out to my friends on MySpace in January 2005, they responded by opening their mail and then voting. In January 2009, they didn't open the mail and therefore did not vote. I was looking at the bigger picture. After spending days sending out unopened private messages, I wasn't looking for reasons why those messages had not been opened.

Approximately two years ago, I was sending out private messages when I first became aware that some of these were being left unopened. Many of the friends, who befriended me, belong to bands. I tried to send a message to a band member and was told his status was set to away, but I could read a message from the band. The message said thank you for sending a private message but the band no longer opened them but invited me to leave a comment because they still read comments.

Comments are good for promotion because it makes the band look popular, whereas private messages were probably from other musicians/poets/authors asking for help by voting/buying/helping in some way -- something the band members didn't want to know about. This feeling is now widespread and it is difficult to use MySpace for promotional means.

Btw. I have over 750 friends on MySpace and I sent out the messages alphabetically. I stopped sending at close to 500 messages; Ruth was the last to be sent a message. I didn't send any messages to friends with names beginning with S, T, U ...

This is a good example of how to build a fan base on twitter:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

deleted

Be sure to post your findings, DK. I have been hearing a lot about Twittering and tweets, but don't have any idea what it is all about.

I'm on Twitter but definitely don't understand it or how to link to anything else. I have had people explain how and I just can't get it, so I just follow some people, and even that not on a reg basis. I feel like I have to be there all the time to see what I am receiving and I just don't have the time for that.

I have avoided it so far. I already have "Internet Addiction" enough.
With all the message boards, Facebook, Multiply blogs, several
newspaper blogs, MySpace, Authors Den and some I can't even remember,
and all of them send emails when replies are given, my time is limited.


Only Shelagh could keep up with more.

I joined Twitter because I was invited. I'm still lost on how to use it. I think there are a few of us who are following each other.
I would like to know how to use it before I decide to just drop it.

deleted

I'm not on Twitter and this thread reinforces why. Its major users are people who want to sell you stuff. The rest are stream-of-consciousness posters. I have no interest in receiving updates from either. Those whose only contact with me is for self-promotion quickly get blocked.

deleted

dkchristi wrote:

Did I miss something? My understanding is that all social networking sites are for communication, and a big part of that communication is to make information about oneself known: self promotion.

To me, communication and self promotion are not the same thing. Yes, promoters are communicating, but my friends don't just promote when they communicate with me. That the loudest promoters of Twitter are now marketers telling you how to reach more customers (it's even an AOL Welcome story right now) that implies, at least to me, that it has become a marketing site. The Twitterers who aren't selling stuff are telling you what cereal they're eating with their allowed 140 characters.

Re the promotion on this forum, I see a lot of website links in signatures, but I perceive that promotion as secondary to the site's main purpose of camaraderie.

dkchristi wrote:

Did I miss something? My understanding is that all social networking sites are for communication, and a big part of that communication is to make information about oneself known: self promotion. I sure see a lot of self-promotion on this forum and every forum on which people participate.

This forum is quite unique, DK. I allow promotion on every board and no restrictions on the amount of promotion. The forum software strips out any links in non-member posts, thus removing all spam. Without this, it would not be possible to allow posters to self-promote.

The point LC is trying to make is that businesses use sofware to send out the same information constantly. You or I might add a post on Twitter daily or once every couple of days but these businesses have messages that are posted electronically going out hourly. Mass communication. I am a member of Twitter (you knew that didn't you, Brew?!) but I don't use it much.

deleted

I would be amazed if you weren't, Shelagh. I have a friend on Facebook
who (I think) has his wall comments linked to "Tweet" him. Maybe an rss
feed?

DK,

I receive requests all the time asking how best to use networks. This is just one example:

From **** ***** to Shelagh Watkins
Sent Apr 16

First, thanks for having this group, it looks fantastic. The reason I am writing is I am not really sure how best to use the group for my specific circumstances. Certainly I can just read a lot of content and try to figure it out but I thought I'd just "ask an expert in the group" and see if you could shoot me up the learning curve.

Would you please read my profile so you know what my circumstances are and then give me some advice on how to proceed? Thank you. Have a great day!

This is my reply:

Make as many friends as possible and help them as much as you can. When you need help, they will respond in kind.

Good luck!
~Shelagh

If you want to explain the benefits of Twitter in a way that will help Twitter users like me to get more out of it than they are at the moment, then that information would be greatly appreciated.

dk,
you posted "deleted" three times. Does that mean you deleted your Twitter account?

Will Twitter and the numerous other time-wasting sites eventually bring an end to real writing? I just read a post on the Short Mystery Fiction Society board saying Twitter is sponsoring a contest for stories of no more than 140 characters. That's not a story, it's a blurb. How ridiculous can you get?

Maybe it's time that twitterers began realising that the only big winners as far as advertising goes is Twitter. They have done a remarkable job of convincing the gullible (where did I hear that before?) that Twitter is a must place to be. I think I would prefer to wander down David's garden path and meet Bogie. I know how to whistle.

Dick, I don't know about the effect on writing, but the effect on otherwise good websites is profound. When the marketers take a site over it becomes something else. In the early days of Usenet there were great message boards with productive exchanges of information. When marketers discovered the potential, they blasted them with ceaseless, self-promotional ads and just ruined them. The boards became vast wastelands of spammers talking at each other.