Topic: The value of Twitter?

[Libertas]

Not on it myself, but the discussion is interesting.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-16/top-10-questions-about-twitters-real-value

[LadyVirginia]

I like twitter. I like its immediacy. I use it for friends, acquaintances and for people I've run across on twitter who are interesting. Yesterday it allowed me to access media across the country to see how the story at the navy yard was playing out. I found that interesting. I don't follow family. That's weird.

I'm not in the younger group that supposedly uses it which is funny because some of my kids are and they don't like it. As twitter becomes more commercialized they will have even less incentive to use it.  That's why they don't use FB as much either. But they do use FB some which I think is only because that's the only way some of their friends communicate.

I don't care much for FB because I don't like how it's set up.  I only get on it to either get free coupons or when one of the kids tells me they posted a cool picture.

Pinterest is interesting but odd to me. It's like a giant bulletin board.  I joined that too but don't use it much. I can see how easily that will become an asset in generating business.  But if it becomes too commercial I can see that turning off some people.  My kids don't use that one either.  lol

I think one of the reasons that I and my kids don't use these things more is we're BUSY. Most of the content you can live without. It's like tv or videos games, you can let it take over your free time or you can access on your terms. Plus we're not ones to constantly be on our phones accessing these things. We all seem to prefer to text on our phones.

[Weisshaupt]

Not on it myself, but the discussion is interesting.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-16/top-10-questions-about-twitters-real-value

Still not a fan. That you have to have an account just to check a trending hash is reason enough.  It was mildly useful during the flooding to let us see pictures of different areas (Step dads house, his apartments, my old houses etc) and I did learn some of the longer term govt links for monitoring the situation from there, but I am pretty sure a web search would have found those too - but someone  on twitter put them all together. The short length predisposes the service to short bursts of info - enough to send you somewhere with more info. But other than that, I still don't get it.

[IronDioPriest]

I like twitter. I like its immediacy. I use it for friends, acquaintances and for people I've run across on twitter who are interesting. Yesterday it allowed me to access media across the country to see how the story at the navy yard was playing out. I found that interesting. I don't follow family. That's weird.

If you could offer some suggestions on how it works and how to use it, you'd have at least one grateful soul here.

Here's the main thing I don't get. Let's say I have 300 people I follow, and 200 followers, just to put some numbers to it. If I don't look at Twitter for a day - or an hour, for that matter - it seems to me that whatever those 300 people may have said in that day or that hour is scrolled WAY off my list, and digging down to see all the Tweets I missed is futile. Is that about right? And likewise, if, in that moment, I Tweet something, it seems that only those of my followers who happen to be looking at Twitter at that moment will ever see it. Is that about right?

So that leads me to ask, is Twitter worth anything aside from seeing what people are Tweeting at any given time?

I resisted at first, but I set up an account, oh... maybe 2 years ago now. I hardly ever look at it, because it doesn't seem a practical way to communicate.

Can you offer any advice LadyV?

[LadyVirginia]

You are correct about missing tweets if you're not constantly on it.  That's something I quickly learned to accept. It's much like not seeing every program on tv or not hearing every story the news runs. A few things can mitigate that. You can  click on the @connect on the top left to see who responded to anything you tweeted.  You can also use the search function to look for a particular hashtag to see all tweets on that topic.  And you can go to anyone's page and see their tweets.

Here's another way I manage it that my kids think is so funny.  I have multiple accounts.  To do that you obviously have to have multiple email accounts and make up different user names. I have one that's for family (that I never use) and then the other accounts are based on what I'm interested in following. I have one for LadyVirginia, for example, that I use though lately I haven't tweeted much mostly just following others. I set up one to follow bands and singers I was interested in so I could get their tour dates as soon as they posted them. The downside is that you do have to sign in to different accounts to see tweets instead of just one but it keeps the info manageable. 

As for followers missing what you post I would say that they probably use the tactics I described above.  I have people retweeting and commenting on things I tweeted months ago.

[LadyVirginia]

I forgot !  to add that you can create lists on one account to segregate people you're following so you can just look at a particular list if you want and skip all the others thus limiting the tweets you check.   You can make your list public or private. I don't make much use of lists.  I still prefer separate accounts.  But that's the easiest and best way to manage the info on one account.

Hope this all makes sense.

[LadyVirginia]

and then there's Pat Sajak on twitter:

Putin: "I'd like to buy a vowel."

 Sajak: "Only an O left." 

Putin: "Never mind. I already own that one."

[AlanS]

and then there's Pat Sajak on twitter:

Putin: "I'd like to buy a vowel."

 Sajak: "Only an O left." 

Putin: "Never mind. I already own that one."

Dammit, boy!

[RickZ]

That tweet doesn't surprise me.  Sajak's a conservative, and a Vietnam vet to boot (he did radio over there).  I remember reading his website a number of years ago, and he had some pretty damn good columns (IIRC called 'Sajak Says') from a conservative viewpoint.  That section was quickly pulled while the rest of the site remained intact, probably due to his tv game show contract, but that's just a guess.  Can't alienate the libbies, but alienating in the other direction is just fine.

[Pablo de Fleurs]

Funny tweet from yesterday:
@jjauthor
Obama's approval ratings are so low - the Kenyans are accusing him of being born in the United States!
__________________________________________________________________________________

I Tweet (@PablodeFleurs). I like it better than ALL the other social networks. I follow, basically, 2 groups of folk: Leadership/Leadership Development (my business) and Christian Apologists/Theology. I don't follow everybody who follows me and, if I see someone who tweets every 5 minutes...I don't go near 'em (as it clogs your feed & pushes normal tweets off the page).

There are many tweets I miss & that's part of the deal. But as Lady Virginia said, you can pop someone on a list (without "following" them) and then catch up by pulling up that list and reading back-tweets (I only do this for those I consider essential to my professional or theological ( I teach adult Sunday School) growth).

Hashtags are one key. Last night I viewed an online streaming forum. The host @RatioChristi asked for active tweeters: so I sat @ my home office with the stream, MS Word & TweetDeck. I was taking notes, condensing them into tweets & posting via TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/).
The event hashtag was #ethicsweek; other useful tags were #liberty, #marriage, #culture, etc. Hashtags become reference points by which an interested party may look up specific content. Earlier this year, David Bowie released an new album, 'The Next Day' - tweeted reviews ensued using #TheNextDay as the hashtag.

Sample Tweets:

• #ReligiousLiberty fares best within a culture of marital #trust, #fidelity & #ethics (#OneFlesh+Commitment) #ethicsweek
• When we redef. #marriage we usurp nature's process & make choices for children which will leave holes in their psyches (mom+dad) #ethicsweek
• @ForAmerica: Internet security expert: #ObamaCare exchanges are ripe for scams dld.bz/cRD6Q #tcot #teaparty #MakeDCListen

I've also added Twitter widgets to my blogs (example: http://apologeticsworkshop.wordpress.com/ )

Cool people to follow: @AllianceDefends; @Heritage; @BlueLetterBible; @tedcruz; @BenFranklinUP; @Evidence4Design; @CSLewisInst; @iowahawkblog; @LIFELeadrship; @stickyfaith ...

View of TweetDeck desktopapp:

[LadyVirginia]

P, you're way in more than I am! lol

[Pablo de Fleurs]

P, you're way in more than I am! lol

  (it's easy to access via Blackberry; let the dogs out, check Twitter...)

@PablodeFleurs:
LOL-Reading @AdWeek of #BurgerKing's name change to #FriesKing + tweets begging 'em 2 change their Twitter name.
Who follows #fastfood??

[oldcoastie6468]

I have an account, but I have no idea of how to use it. It would be just one more thing to check, and I really don't need that.

[Pablo de Fleurs]

Obviously, if you have zero interest in Twitter, then this isn't for you. 

Here's another screen shot, describing "Lists". You don't have to follow someone in order to add them to a list. Listing them keeps their tweets out of your main content feed. Then, when you make time, check their list to see what they've tweeted in the past "x" amount of days.

[radioman]

Pablo, thanks for showing me that Lists exists on Twitter and how to create and manage them.

[Pablo de Fleurs]

Pablo, thanks for showing me that Lists exists on Twitter and how to create and manage them.

You're welcome Radioman -- just started following AND listed this:
@biblesummary: I'm summarising the Bible - one tweet per chapter, one chapter per day.

Ambitious project! Sample Tweets: