not everyone likes twitter
Wow. Someone doesn't like Twitter. Or liked it initially, and then got tired of it. Misha over at Three Minds writes a really good post about how he's so over Twitter.
A really good post - related to attention spans and experience curves. But I think he's wrong.
A quick look at Misha's Twitter profile shows that he's only following 4 people. Four people is far too small of a picture of the world.
When I hear the comment "I'm trying Twitter, but I don't get it," my first question is always "how many people are you following?" If you've just started Twitter - FOLLOW people. Once you've got between 40 and 100 people on your list, you'll get it. Trust me.
Misha finds that his 4 people weren't that exciting. I say follow other people.
Here's some cool experiences that I've shared in the last few months, through people I followed:
+ Experienced behind the scenes at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
+ Found the best parties at SXSW
+ Learned about the Frozen Pea Fund
+ Experienced behind the scenes of a music video shoot
+ Met new friends (in real life!) that I would have never known about
+ Got answers to technical questions
+ Learned key points from conferences that I didn't attend
+ Shared restaurant, hotel and shoot location ideas
+ Brainstormed
+ Got to know clients better
+ Met new partners, vendors and clients
+ Received news before CNN, newspapers or TV
+ Found incredible links to inspirational, educational and entertaining sites
So, if you're new to Twitter, or unsure about Twitter, FOLLOW people. Look at who your friends are following. Follow them. There's a whole group of new friends waiting for you. I swear.
Labels: social media, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:45 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
| Darryl Ohrt |
| David Plain |
| Justus Johnson |
| Rob Biddiscombe |
| Matt Hunsberger |
| Steph Fuda |
| RJ Fenn |
| Sara Champion |
| ATOM Site Feed |
Thanks for the push. I'm following about a dozen people and have been expanding carefully. Trouble is, I've found a few brilliant people -- such as Robert Scoble -- who are so prolific on Twitter that they overwhelm with messages, and then others get lost.
How do you really handle the information feed from 100s of people and 10,000 messages a day?
Great question, Ben. And here's where it gets difficult. I also follow Scoble (and love him), which can sometimes be difficult.
I have a tab open on my browser, dedicated to Twitter at all times. When I'm bored, when I'm on a conference call, or need a fix, I click over and see what's up. I usually will only click back a page or two, which on my timeline is about an hour of Twitter activity, on an average day.
So - I do end up missing a bunch of tweets everyday. But what I get is more than worth it.
I've also tried Snitter - which is an awesome service that gives you a little popup everytime someone tweets. I tried it for a day. Cool that I had a very active Twitter day, sucked that I got absolutely NO work done.
So - tab on the browser is my suggestion.
Is there a word it when Person A reveals to the world that Person B has a low number of Followers/Following/Friends on a social network?
If not, I'll nominate "snouting"
And I guess I'll pre-emptively snout myself and admit that I've just dabbled in Twitter and am embarassingly low in the Followers/Following department.
Hey Dan -
I didn't mean to 'out' someone, or judge them by the number of followers. Really hope this post didn't come across like that.
In fact, one of the few things I HATE on Twitter is when people brag about the number of followers they have. As if that would make them a more interesting person. It doesn't.
My only point is that in my opinion, for Twitter to be enjoyed (or understood) by most users, it requires that you follow a fair amount of people.
Not a reflection on anyone's popularity - because a user can choose how many people they follow.
Make sense?