What the twit is this all about?
We like a nice friendly debate at PoLR and recently we have been discussing our thoughts on Twitter. For those of you who have been avoiding social networking let me first (briefly) explain what Twitter is. It’s an online outlet that lets you update your current status (or tweets) and follow other people under the guise of letting you stay connected…
We are a divided camp when it comes to discussing the usefulness of it and so we’ve decided to air our disagreements in public. Much has been written for either side of the fence but we have yet to touch on the subject so, now it’s our turn. This debate is Lynne (@polrweb) v’s Calum (@Calummacleod ) with Calum’s post coming tomorrow.
Are you ready for the scrap to begin..?
I myself have been a member of twitter for the last 18 months or so. Having given up after the first week I decided to revisit my account and see if I could make more use of it second time round.
I’ve been on my second try for the last three weeks now and much as I hate to say this – I just don’t get why there is still such a hype about it.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t understand how it works, more that I just don’t see WHY..? When I revisited Twitter I decided to go the whole hog and linked it up to my Facebook and Bebo accounts for maximum twittering at minimum effort. The result being that I have reduced my status updates in Facebook not increased them in Twitter. I’m far more conscious of updating it on Facebook with something only friends should hear and suddenly remembering it’s fully accessible on Twitter.
Another thing I don’t get about Twitter is the following of people you don’t know. I began on Twitter just following friends but recently gave a shot at following one of my favourite authors (Danny Wallace @misterwallace). All it resulted in was reading about him being on a train which, to be blunt, I wasn’t particulary interested in. I then felt foolish for following him in the first place and rapidly unfollowed. I mean, is it just me or does it not strike you as nosy that strangers follow strangers?
I get that some people are having a ball with their tweeting and getting loads of traffic to their blogs from it. But, I have to wonder just how long you’d have to be using Twitter to get this kind of result. By that I don’t mean how long you’ve been signed up but rather how much time you have to put into updating, following etc on a daily basis? I spend far too much time on Facebook as it is to really have time to devote to Twitter and maybe that’s where I am going wrong. Maybe I should spend some time getting to know Twitter better, sharing interests and seeing if we don’t just get on…maybe in a few weeks I’ll be singing a different tune and this could be the start of something beautiful. Maybe.
Related posts:
