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Twitter: I just don't get it..

wfoster

wfoster

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 16, 2009
696
38
Plymouth, UK
I really am confused on how Twitter works, can any one help me out? I really want to join in the fun and start using it but just don't know the concept of it. I know how to use the features, but don't know what their function really is.

When I tweet, does everyone see it or just the people following me? Is there more activity when you're following a lot more people or they're following you?

Also, does the user need to be following you if you want to talk to the user?

Any other tips and advice is really helpful, thanks.

http://twitter.com/wesleyfoster/
 
wfoster said:
When I tweet, does everyone see it or just the people following me? Is there more activity when you're following a lot more people or they're following you?

Also, does the user need to be following you if you want to talk to the user?
Click to expand...

Anyone will see you tweets by going to twitter.com/username

Anyone following you - will see your tweets on their twitter.com page.

You don't have to follow someone to have a discussion with them - they can just keep track by click their @user option on their front page.
 
another thing you can use twitter for is a mini-RSS feed..

for example, in the world of Info Sec, i'm following a lot of Info Sec accounts.. i'm fairly up to date on issues.. (somewhat LOL)
 
MacNut said:
Hopefully Twitter will be just another fad and will go away soon.
Click to expand...

It's not for everyone. Like Facebook or Bebo or Myspace.

I find Twitter useful - a nice pseudo RSS feed, Psuedo blogging thing. It's fantastic, I don't know any other platform whereby I could interact with my governments Science Minister, the BBC F1 commentary team, some friends and organise a speaking engagement within a single browser window in a single afternoon.

Why you would want it to 'go away' I don't know. Does it sneak into your house at night and burn all your receipts for the financial year or something?
 
djellison said:
Why you would want it to 'go away' I don't know. Does it sneak into your house at night and burn all your receipts for the financial year or something?
Click to expand...
I don't like the way it is promoted by the media as a news source. Just let it be what it is without having to force it down everyones throat.
 
Wesley, I sent a request to follow you on twitter. I am kinda new to twitter also, I started my twitter page almost a year ago but just now getting into it. I like the facebook integration ;)
 
djellison said:
It's not for everyone. Like Facebook or Bebo or Myspace.
Click to expand...
Given all the dancing baloney soaking up bandwidth everytime I go to a Facebook or MySpace page, Twitter is a lot easier to use.

I find Twitter useful - a nice pseudo RSS feed, Psuedo blogging thing.
Click to expand...
It's taken over the duties of both my regular blog (which I feel a little guilty about) and email (which I don't).
 
dcy4pres said:
Wesley, I sent a request to follow you on twitter. I am kinda new to twitter also, I started my twitter page almost a year ago but just now getting into it. I like the facebook integration ;)
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I'm guessing you're Chris, right? Just received your e-mail while I was in lesson. Nice little beep from the iPhone, stupid teacher didn't know what it was.

Facebook integration? I'll have to look in to that! I'll accept your twitter request soon.
 
Twitter is only useful insofar as you use it. If you don;t use it often, or only log in to post asinine drivel, then you're not going to see any usefulness or indeed any return on your time in posting.

Twitter is an excellent way to connect with other people who have a similar interests - not microblogging as such - including colleagues and professionals in the same line of work, albeit in a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere. I've actually had offers for work come via Twitter.

And the Trends column also gives me a clue as to what's breaking news.
 
Twitter is by far one of the most useful services I have discovered in the past few years. Seriously.

To begin on twitter I suggest you find someone you really like reading about or digg their software (or whatever it is that they do...be it a celebrity, author, musician) and take a look at their stream. If you find it interesting, start following them. Then take a look at who they are following and do the same (take a look at the stream, then follow if you like what you read).

Instead of reading about people you care about or find interesting through a third party, you get to hear straight from them which creates a much more intimate kind of environment.

Lets assume for example you are a fan of Demi Moore. Typically, you would visit some sites to read about whatever she is up to or see some pics a paparazzi snapped. Well, if you follow Demi on twitter, you will be very surprised. She posts very cool (near-realtime) pics of her in parties or from a photoshoot or whatever she is doing, taken with her iPhone. Or may be talks about whatever book she is reading right now. This kind of intimacy and connection you won't find elsewhere on the web. Apply this to anyone on twitter that you follow and you will see where I am going.

Another example, is if you are software developer. If you follow other devs in the scene you will gain a huge wealth of knowledge. Given that tweets are short, they usually dont warrant a blog post. So most of the time you find users posting info that you won't find on any website just becuz it is not really too long enough.

I could come up with countless examples of how useful can be or different ways it can be used.
 
I'm old (and grumpy) and so I don't get it, and I have no use for it.

I could care less about people's minute to minute details of their lives.

I'm on facebook, only because my wife nagged me to know end and even that is mostly useless. Some of my friends put, "I'm eating now yum" or "I just stacked a chord of wood" really who cares.
 
I still don't understand how Twitter is different than posting a status update in Facebook... It's a short line or few lines of text. There's a page to see other people's status updates. Twitter sounds like the exact same thing as Facebook. Albeit, with Facebook having more features, should you choose to use them.

Myspace is different than both...it's a big visual, cluttered and slow mess.
 
maflynn said:
I'm old (and grumpy) and so I don't get it, and I have no use for it.

I could care less about people's minute to minute details of their lives.

I'm on facebook, only because my wife nagged me to know end and even that is mostly useless. Some of my friends put, "I'm eating now yum" or "I just stacked a chord of wood" really who cares.
Click to expand...

That is exactly the problem as to why so many people don't get Twitter. They don't want to/aren't smart enough to leverage it's potential (no slight to you). I wish the people who didn't use it as a tool would leave. Really, there's so much tripe posted. The good thing is that the nature of Twitter is that you don't have to read it unless you choose to.
 
Well I guess my lack of intelligence means that I choose to avoid reading/using twitter because its mostly about people's inane drivel. ;)
 
maflynn said:
Well I guess my lack of intelligence means that I choose to avoid reading/using twitter because its mostly about people's inane drivel. ;)
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That's the thing about Twitter: you choose what you want to read. If someone just posts "inane drivel" you have the choice to just not follow them. You follow the people you think are interesting and have something to say.

It's pretty ignorant to say that Twitter is stupid, like a lot of people do, just because some people post "inane drivel" while ignoring everything else of substance that is posted there.
 
Antares said:
I still don't understand how Twitter is different than posting a status update in Facebook... It's a short line or few lines of text. There's a page to see other people's status updates. Twitter sounds like the exact same thing as Facebook. Albeit, with Facebook having more features, should you choose to use them.

Myspace is different than both...it's a big visual, cluttered and slow mess.
Click to expand...

Facebook is different than Twitter. Facebook is meant for your friends. Twitter can be the same way but it is meant to follow interesting people. It is also the best tool in the time of crisis. Sometimes the best way to get news is from a person there and not the cable stations.


I would recommend to not follow celebrities because they have nothing to say and are not witty. Some good people to start off are:

@gruber
@daringfireball
@moltz
@SeoulBrother
@hotdogsladies (oddly enough even my iPhone suggested the phrase to me)
@annamariecox

If you're a Mac fan there are plenty as well from Macworld to devs. My recommendation to others is to see the followers of who you're following and follow them. Start to slowly build out from there.

Many musicians also tweet. You can check out Spin Magazine and they'll tell you some musicians who tweet. Many news sights also tweet.

The main thing is to experiment. Get your friends into it. It's not for everyone but you may be tweeting a lot and find new friends that you may have thongs (oops iPhone iFreudian slip) in common with.
 
anjinhamarota said:
That's the thing about Twitter: you choose what you want to read. If someone just posts "inane drivel" you have the choice to just not follow them. You follow the people you think are interesting and have something to say.

It's pretty ignorant to say that Twitter is stupid, like a lot of people do, just because some people post "inane drivel" while ignoring everything else of substance that is posted there.
Click to expand...

I have an account. I don't use it but if I did, your post is exactly how I would approach it. Offers tons to be enlightened by perhaps and ignore would be good. Still on the fence.
 
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