My top five things I love and hate about Twitter

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I have been on twitter for well over two years now and it's part of my every day life.  I adopted twitter well before facebook because I felt that could just float in and out as I felt, I didn't feel an obligation to do this or that and it the 140 character limit was definitely up my alley.  I'm a more of a 'get to the point' person.

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?

The surprising world of twitter...

Yesterday in my emotional haze (had a very personal guest post of mine published at Mamamia - very gratefully so) I was checking my tweets - and I received this one:

" I just noticed you do not follow me back, please follow me or I have 2 take you of my list as i have reached my follow limit "

Now this read a bit weird to me.  I haven't heard of this person, I don't know this person.  Perhaps they were following me, sometimes I don't have time to check who is.  Maybe I should?  I followed because I felt I had snubbed someone.. but then I had thoughts like 'hang on, this is stupid!'  I'll unfollow and then look them up later when I know who I'm following, do I want to follow people like this? All the expectation is why I don't do facebook!!

On a positive note, I received a lovely Direct Message tweet from Henry Roth on the weekend who I do follow (and now follows me without me even having threatened him!) and enjoy living vicariously through. 

1henryroth hey there, just looked up your blog AND how adorable are you and your family, henry x

I mean seriously, what a lovely thing to say right?  Warmed my heart and put a skip in my step for the rest of the day.

So who said Twitter was crap?

If it was you, you'll be sorry to learn that Jetstar offered its' twitter followers 1 cent fares last night.. yes ONE cent including taxes each way. $10 extra for 20kg baggage each way and $6 credit card fee per passenger. So five of us are going to the Gold Coast next February for $50.10 AUD - including 20kg baggage (which we proved last time can be done if you get an affordable apartment with a washing machine)

So even though we are struggling through the Global Economic Crisis we now have 9 months to save for fun passes, accommodation and hire car - we still get a holiday! We did it super-cheaply this year so I'm sure it's achievable! Thanks to Twitter, and Jetstar!

We went to the Gold Coast this February and had a wonderful time looking forward to going again and hopefully just relaxing a bit more!

Follow Jetstar on twitter - JetstarAirways

Follow Virgin Blue on twitter - VirginBlue

If anyone else has any travel twitter tips, share them in the comments!

Who needs tresillian when you've got Twitter?

Ok, you don't need to force me, I'm willing to admit I'm a twitter-fanatic. Love it. No commitment, no one needs to see you online, no feeling like you need to respond to anyone, is something you can do for 2 minutes or less, here and there - it's like one-night-stand-fest online.
But that's not all - 140 characters can reveal so much. And for a mere-fly-on-wall experience of following celebrities without feeling like a stalker is pretty cool. It also allows you to understand the 'celebrity' as a person a little too. Like Ben Stiller... he's an insomniac, loves playing with his kids, is probably a little bit accident prone, exists on sugar, and seems every bit like that guy you would love to have him and his family over for a friendly barbie.

Dave Hughes (co-incidentally with the same name as my Dad - weird!) well known from his work on Rove and Nova Melbourne (we don't get it but I knew that) and it seems a nervous and tad excited Dad-to-be. Now us twitterers are world-wide and many are Mums and Dads pounding the halls with bubs over the shoulder or been-there-done-that-got-the-condor-marks-on-the-back-of-all-our-shirts parents. Hughesy without even realising it has all of those Mums and Dads on tap.

I mean, who wouldn't want to help out a first-time Dad? He could go on twitter and say 'Baby driving us nuts, won't stop crying, what do we do?' and we'll probably say either 'the head goes at the top' or 'have you fed it yet?' or maybe some more practical advice.

I'm not discrediting what Tresilian does at all - and by all means people should use all the support available to them, but when insomnia hits or it's 3am in the morning - you don't need to watch Jerry Springer or spend money on the shopping channel buying a rotating duster - you can twitter.

So folks, if you want to lend Dave a hand, be on hand to answer any questions he and his wife (by default) may have. His Twitter ID is DHughesy