I was talking to a friend last week about what I love and hate about twitter and there was a lot of nodding and laughing around it. I want to emphasise this is not directed at anyone in particular - but I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one who feels like this on any given point - so I thought I would share it with you and get your thoughts!
HATE:
1. Those auto responds to follows 'Thanks for following me, check out my page/sale/site at xyz'. That will make me unfollow every.single.time.
2. The people who try to sell me their post/product/competition more than twice a day.
3. The 'x amount of followers until I get to Y' tweeters. Does it matter? Isn't it better to have followers who engage with you? Really want to follow you instead of following you out of sympathy/obligation?
4. Uber taggers - those who tag everyone any everything - happens in facebook too - it happens too often to be sincere or credible.
5. Spammers. Enough said right?
LOVE:
1. Those witty and fun people who interact - entertain me or inform me. A sense of humour on twitter goes a long, long way.
2. The community - you call, they answer. Need a new domain host? I called out for one and I got real answers, in seconds. Love that.
3. Immediate feedback. Being that you're restricted to 140 characters, a message can be deployed and responded to very quickly..
4. Hashtags - oh my I love hashtags - It's helped be me 'virtually' somewhere I'm not or directly plug into the brain of people who are watching/discussing/experiencing the same thing. Love hashtags.
5. Twitter bravado - and what I mean by that is actually having interaction with those you would never have access to ordinarily - Ask someone you admire a question and getting a response can put you on a real high!
Tell me are you on twitter? What do you love/hate about it?
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12 lovely comments:
Whispers - too scared to share this on twitter now.
I'm new to twitter, so I may have committed a faux pas or two. One being I try to share posts of blogs I like. I am being sincere. (I'm not sure what else it would be?). I thought people had those share buttons becuase they wanted you to share their posts.
I'm still getting the hang of it.
I find the 140 character thing SOOO hard,lol. I find it hard to shut up. I couldn't make my dying words less than 140 characters. :D
@MelissaI think sharing other blogs is COOL Melissa! What annoys me is when people incessantly SELF promote the same post a number of times a day. 2 is my limit - 3 if it's UBER cool.
I'm new to Twitter myself too! And like Melissa, I'm guilty of perhaps one or two of those 'Hates'. I'm still getting my head around it all, but it's actually refreshing having someone spell out the 'accepted protocols' for us newbees! Thanks for the heads up as I try and find a place in this modern community x
I find twitter is where my readers come from but If i dont promote myself no one comes. I have only been blogging for a few months and it is hard to build up a reader base.
I will try not to plug my post's more than twice a day I find the 140 characters hard coz I love to talk.
Thanks for your love/hates.
(I dont like the auto DM either)
So if I share this I won't look like I"m sucking up? Because I do think it's a great post for Twitter newbies like myself and Carly.
I promote my own posts when I post them and then again after the kids are in bed. Gets a different audience.
Love Love Love Twitter. Really. Love the sense of community and the instant tapping into the hive brain when you have a question/problem/random request. I've found an incredible amount of support and encouragement from people I've met on Twitter, people that I would never have met otherwise and who I now consider to be real friends.
I agree with many of your points. repeated self-promotion, spam, people who only tweet links to their products/blog but never actual interact with anyone - those are all very annoying. It can also be an incredible time sink if you don't keep an eye on it. An hour can seemingly pass in the blink of an eye.
I love hashtags too - not only because they allow you to watch your favourite shows/sports with a big group of people from the comfort of your own home, but also for the nuances they can add to tweets. Some people have an awesomely quirky sense of humour and are brilliant at a finely tuned hashtag to round off their tweets.
Like you, Twitter is part of my daily life now. A place where I connect with friends and meet people who share my interests.
I agree with your 'loves/hates' though I am guilty of tweeting my post twice because as Melissa said, you get a different audience at different times of day. Still hoping to get more than 1 follower!
Also I've started to use the hashtag but I've become addicted to watching Twitter while watching TV shows that have Tweets and my attention is not 100% on either so I think I need to ween myself off Twitter a little and stop reading other people's opinions and make my own!
Another thing I could learn is how to Tweet with wit - I'm not bad in real life but 140 characters is hard particularly after reading others great comments (I follow a lot of comedians).
Yes Yes Yes to everyone on your list!
One thing I love about twitter is that I can share inane bits of my life with other adults when I have no other adults around... though I suspect those tweets royally peeve some of my followers who couldn't care less if my kid is sick or if my baby took his first step... but the other thing I love about twitter is that I can easily unfollow if I'm not enjoying someone's stream and people can do the same for me! :)
Lordy, it's like I've penned this list myself!
I am a teensy bit guilty of a couple of your hates - but I think you've done me a favour, because I suspect you're not alone in those hates, and I should cease & desist immediately from doing them...
Like most of your commenters on this post, I love hashtags too - not just the "official" ones (like those connected with TV shows e.g. #qanda, #masterchef etc etc. Sometimes a hashtag comes about that develops a life of its own. My two sisters and I have a hashtag for when we tweet about our parents (#mentalparentals) which now has its own following!
The only thing I question (a little bit) is the issue with spruiking blog posts (your own). Like one of your other commenters, I'm new to blogging as well,but a couple of people have recommended that tweeting it a few times a day - especially when the blog is new - is a good way to ramp up readership. Some of my very fave bloggers tweet their posts many times a day - presumably because not all their followers are on twitter all day.
Still, I take your point.
Great post x
I agree with so many of your points, Liss. And it looks like the "how many times to flog your blog post" issue is the one most up for discussion. I agree, it can be annoying to see the same post pushed several times throughout the day (if I'm on Twitter all day), but on those days when I can only jump on and off, it's great to see some of my favourite blogs and what they're up to.
But if someone cracks the perfect recipe, I'd love to hear it.
Hi Liss, I've been reading your blog since finding you on Twitter last week! It's only a few weeks since I signed up but already I've experienced most of the 5 things you hate about Twitter. (The first "Thanks for following" DM I got, I was so excited that someone had actually messaged me - until the second, third, fourth, all with "Follow me on Facebook" requests included - not so excited by that stage!!)
I'm sure that even in my limited number of tweets so far, I've made a few mistakes - and no doubt there'll be more.
You're so right though about all the things to love about Twitter.
There are so many great conversations happening there, so many people to connect with, new blogs and ideas to discover. Last week I followed some of what was going on at the Aust Booksellers conference. It's great to know that even if you're 'missing out' on a conference, blogging event or even TV show, you're not even missing out really!!
Looking forward to reading more of your blog and tweets :)
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