Whats so good about twitter ?

People are still trying to figure out Twitter and microblogging, and how it relates. Essentially, it’s like talking out loud to yourself. People interact with you in two ways: either they are interested in you, and follow you so they know what you’re about, or they are interested in a certain topic, search for people talking about that topic, and interact with them specifically on that subject.

I could go on and on about the possibilities Twitter presents from a business and promotional perspective. We’re ahead of the groundswell with Twitter. Like Facebook, it needs to age-in and see more strategy and tactical planning to better maximize the potential.

I don’t get the idea.. myspace and facebook already have a “this is what i’m doing right this moment type of thing”.. what’s the difference?

Well to start you’re limited to 140 characters. So you have to be brief and concise.

Personally I’m not so sure what’s so super great about it, but I do enjoy listening to my friends’ random thoughts, and compared to Facebook’s update status I enjoy having a full archive of my thoughts.

hmm .. nope.. doesn’t sound like something I’ll ever do.. xD .. thanks for helping describe it to me.. sounds like a truncated insta-blog.

To me it seems like a pointless website. Someone already said myspace and facebook have a detail where you can let the world know that your taking a piss or eating soup. I don’t see why we need another website to express the same info.

pontless in my eyes…. :/

It is. It will get more interesting as the search features become more fully utilized and the information “push” becomes better developed. The searchability differentiates it from microblogging on FB. For example, a friend used it to find the advance order code for concert tickets that he wanted. If you buy shoes from Zappos, and mention it on Twitter, they contact you and thank you for your business. I get news updates from our local NPR affiliate on it.

Twitter is structured in its simplicity to be a mobile based application, unlike FB. Twitter is really stripped down. It’s still evolving.

entertainment, networking, networking, oh yea and networking. & yoko ono dm’ed me! how cool?!

Each medium has its own personality and use. They are very different, and have entirely different uses. If you use text messaging instead of making a phone call, you will eventually evolve to using Twitter. Same psychological premise, but a different sociological need. Like @A_Beaverhausen says, networking. For many, this is a new way of being.

I think it’s really dumb. I don’t care what my friends are doing at any given time, nor they me. I stopped using it.

I’d be willing to go out on a limb and say people who slate any given service that doesn’t work for them are ‘really dumb’. Just because a tool isn’t relevant to how you use the web doesn’t mean it’s useless to the millions of others getting a lot out of it.

Well, then I guess the limb you’re on must have broken. I expressed my opinion. I’m sure people love it. I think it’s really dumb.

I like twitter. Not a lot of my friends use it so that’s not really what I use it for. I’m learning Chinese and a lot of Chinese (and Japanese) people use Twitter. I follow the ones that interest me. It serves as good reading practice and since updates are limited to 140 characters it’s not too much for me to handle. And during the summer when I don’t have class I’ll probably start writing my updates in Chinese so that I don’t end up forgetting everything over the summer. Also, a good chunk of my favorite bands and artists (not just musical) use Twitter and I do enjoy following them.

Here’s a link to a recent question I posted:

http://www.fluther.com/disc/36998/bear-with-me-but-why-do-i-want-to-use-twitter/

Personally I really like following interesting people as well as being followed. I also like being able to update my status with a simple SMS.

I only frequent 3 social networking sites and Twitter is one of them.

Let’s follow each other…!

I’m more of a fan of Identi.ca. My twitter feed has become so saturated with junk and it seems to me that identi.ca users offer more substance. It also has the “groups” feature which allows you to subscribe to dents (their version of “tweets”) about subjects you like.

One good thing about twitter:

when someone says they like it & use it often, that tells you something about them.

What it tells you depends on whether you agree w/them or not…..

What’s good about microblogging services like Twitter, and Identi.ca, is the simplicity and that all posts are available to everyone. This makes it possible to use these services in a number of different ways. On e.g facebook your updates are only seen by your friends, on twitter they are seen by everyone. This means you can listen in on things without having to be accepted as a friend, and in real-time even.

Myself I mostly use twitter and identi.ca to follow conversations and comments about usability and interaction which really helps me with my education.

Others use the services to promote their sites, share music, or keep track of their friends. Some use microblogging to maintain their schedule, or help them with physical exercise. There are so many possible uses and they multiply when you start to use external services, like twistory and the likes, and clients made for microblogging.

Twitter is very flexible, simple, adaptable and has asynchronous relationships, which is probably what sets it apart from other types of networks. Twitter doesn’t really support groups or community features so here myspace or facebook are much better for keeping in touch with friends, but if you mostly have friends on your twitter then it works for that as well, almost like IM.

It’s nice if you don’t like MySpace or Facebook and still have friends who would like to keep up to date with what’s going on in your life. If you’re a boring and/or assholish person with no friends who give a crap, I guess Twitter wouldn’t be that useful. :)

I am the biggest asshole you will find 2nd from George Bush that is lol. I have loads of friends non use twitter cause they think its pointless since Facebook, MySpace and Bebo even Tagged does the same thing .

Bad Twitter messages is similar to bad Youtube video. Some video content is amazing, other is crap. Lots of people are really interesting, and have interesting things to say; others are unaware of how boring they really are…

I set up a Twitter account because our Governor wanted to start using it for miscellaneous updates for California citizens. Since I am involved in CA tech support, it was encouraged.

So, I set up the account and “followed” him. While I was at it, I added the President. Within a couple days, I was notified, “Gov Schwarzenegger has requested to follow you!”, “Barack Obama has requested to follow you!”, “Darrel Issa [another CA politician] has requested to follow you!”.

Why the hell do any of them want to follow me? How many staffers are they paying to sit around and follow any yahoo with a Twitter account who might happen to post something that would remotely interest them? I didn’t approve their requests, nor have I posted anything because I don’t want to waste my time, nor theirs.

@ru2bz46, There’s automatic software that does that. They want to hear what you have to say. It’s a public relations move. Listen to what’s being said, and you are more agile to do damage control in a timely manner, or enter into conversations with people as needed.

@AlfredaPrufrock Yes, I know of the software (as a web server administrator), but the logs must still be examined after the software scans for anything useful. I cannot imagine the volumes of useless data our top leaders must receive.

I’m amazed at the number of people following me. So far I’ve posted that I’m thinking about buying shoes at Zappos. If you post anything about Zappo’s, the CEO follows you, and sends you a personal message. I agree. managing all the information is mind-boggling. I’ve been using Tweetdeck to make sense of all of it. There’s some great metrics services out there.

I think I just figured out what I’ll write as my first “tweet”:

“I think I’ll wait until I can see the purpose in using this service before I decide to use it.”