Monday, July 19, 2010

just twitterin'



Myspace...


Blogger/Blogs...


Facebook...


Twitter...


And the winner is...



To say that Twitter trumps the aforementioned things is an understatement. Twitter is the leader of the pack and it's not going anywhere. I've mentioned on this blog about my love for twitter. I guess you could call me a twitter veteran. I signed up for twitter in July 2008. I'll be honest...I had no clue what it was. It was foreign to me but cool. At the time, I only knew one person on twitter (@rawdawgbuffalo). No athletes were here. No celebs. No news sites. Just common people. Twitter was so random that we all would get each other's tweets via text messages. There was no SocialScope or Ubertwitter. Those were the some funny times.

What is twitter?

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read other user messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default, however senders can restrict message delivery to their friends list. Users may subscribe to other author tweets—this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers.

One of the reasons why I love twitter is because if you follow someone's tweets, you'll get SOME insight into who they are. Also, you can say something random and your followers will engage in a conversation that could last any where from a few minutes to a few hours. Two weeks ago, I sent the following tweet..."I hate watermelon." That one tweet spawned a 2 hr conversation between me and some of my followers.

Here are some of my other thoughts (and past tweets about twitter and it's dominance in the social networking game)...

1. Twitter is 10 times better than Facebook because it's not as personal.

2. If you've ever noticed one of your Facebook friends with 15 status updates during an event (awards show, game, tv program), tell em to get on Twitter

3. I don't follow celebs/athletes. Very few of them are interactive and they usually don't have much to say. In fact, the more that they say, the less you'll probably like em.

4. I follow people who I'm interested in. Thus, I keep the number of people whom I follow at a low number (currently at 177/being followed by 164). If I was following 2000 people, there's no way that I'd be able to keep up. I can honestly say that I know at least ONE thing about each follower that I have. Sometimes I wonder why some people follow me. Maybe one day I'll ask em.

I remember once when a woman said good morning on twitter to her followers. Before I could say good morning to her. She sent the following tweet..."I'm followed by 5,628 people. I say good morning and only 2 people responded?"

That's b/c they really AREN'T following you, clown. I immediately unfollowed her.

5. You can unfollow people. I've unfollowed a ton of people. I've never followed more than 190 people and I won't follow more than that. I wanna stay connected to my followers on twitter. It's ok to unfollow people on twitter. I've been unfollowed. You can't take it personal. If you deleted a friend from your Facebook page they'd be pissed! You can't take it personal if I unfollow you on twitter. Hell, I unfollowed my brother once. So, if I unfollowed him, I'll unfollow anybody! LOL. (i'm following him again...LOL)

6. Tweets can be protected. You gotta love that. That means you control who reads your tweets.

7. News can be found on twitter minutes...and sometimes hours before it appears on CNN, ESPN, or your local news station's website. For example, I learned of Michael Jackson's death 2 hrs before it appeared on CNN.com

8. Twitter never goes to bed. I can always tweet with people at any hour of the night.

9. Almost every blogger than I know is on twitter. And subsequently, we all blog less than we used to! LOL

10. Even President Obama used twitter during his campaign.

11. Most people who say they don't like Twitter...have not tried it. #fact

12. Twitter aint going nowhere. Get on board.

@12kyle

16 comments:

  1. #9 is a lie. Just because YOU don't read my blog doesn't mean I don't blog anymore. KYLE.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Jaded NYer
    Hahahahah! Whuteva

    ReplyDelete
  3. I still blog, too, Kyle. You just gon't go. *shrug*
    Other than that, I agree with this post. It's gets the "Smarty Approved" seal of approval!

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  4. theINTELLECTJuly 20, 2010

    I wanted to follow you but I kinda figured you for the type not to follow back...some bloggers have egos and don't except people who read their blogs on Twitter (why they don't I will never understand). Anyway football season is coming up and I am def gonna follow you.

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  5. @ Smarty
    Ohhh lawd! U know I read your blog allll da time. Thanks for the twitter approval

    @ the Intellect
    Follow me and I'll follow you! I love bloggers b/c most of us have similar thought processes. Football season is right around the corner! Are u ready?

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  6. Maybe I'm a blogger with not much to say. I have Twitter, FB and Blogger and there was/is always one that caught the 'back burner' and it was usually twitter. Can't remember the last time I used it.

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  7. AnonymousJuly 20, 2010

    I love Twitter. It gives me life!

    I like Twitter better than Facebook because I can say things I wouldn't dare say on FB. I have older relatives as friends on FB. I have to keep my halo in tact.

    I follow some celebs/athletes. Only the ones who tweet people back.

    I don't get how people are following over 1000 people. Like you, I like to be connected to my followers. I follow a lil over 300 but out of that 300 around 150 tweet as much as I do (which is everyday!)

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  8. I used to be so anti-twitter and then a really good friend recommended I sign-up. Initially, I couldn't understand how to operate it and I wasn't a fan. But, I gave it time and although I am still learning to use it, I've grown to like it better than FB. I agree it is less personal than FB and that makes it better to me as well.

    Folks still gotta be careful about there content and some folks say waaayyyy too much on all of these social networks, but it's fun and I will probably hang out on Twitter for longer than I did FB...lol.

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  9. Twitter I see is something I'd want to only follow a few. On facebook, I've disabled the online status so that I'm only responding to whatever I feel a desire to.

    New to twitter and just like anything new, I have to get use to it.

    @ facebook comment, at this point I still like it for all it's different elements. Being a person who like a challenge, I thoroughly enjoy finding new and old people on my friend's list to play the games. Although I have to sift through some nonsense, I enjoy imparting of wisdom, and doing a double-take I absolutely love looking at some of the pictures women post.

    I'm just saying!

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  10. @ Kay C
    I feeeeel you! For me, the one that ends up on the back burner is Facebook...then blogger. *sigh*

    @ Southern Girl
    Your tweets are always interesting! I don't think they should be on FB, either ;)

    @ swtstiletto
    I agree! Some people feel like they can say whatever they want on Twitter. They have forgotten that freedom of speech aint free!

    We are glad that you joined the Twitter revloution!

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  11. I love this post! Quite different from my "Life before Twitter" post. I agree with most of this. I had too many people I knew personally following me on twitter and vice versa which like you said led to me unfollowing their asses. Only downside is because they do know me personally they'll probably still get pissed. Oh well. I'll never know. So for the ones I unfollowed haven't unfollowed me. The next step is BLOCKING them.

    Honestly I'd prefer to just follow bloggers, writers and news related twitterers. Oh and anything relating to San Diego or Architecture :)

    I have been waiting for some of my old favorite blog-heads to post something new. Thanks...now heading over to Daddy's Diaries I see he has something up!

    Also, I can only get new followers when my page is public which is usually on Friday's only! Twitter has been screwing me royally on this. See you soon @SincerelyGo

    Smooches,

    Go

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  12. Good points.

    Boooo to FB! Thumbs up to Twitter and only for folks who actually understand the concept. I'm trying to pick up the blogging pace...sigh.

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  13. @ Tee
    The FB pics are always cool. I think it's grown too old for me, tho. I haven't deleted my FB page...yet. LOL

    @ SincerelyGo
    Following you on twitter is...crazy! I say that in the nicest way ;)

    @ Curvy Girl
    Thanks for holding down the fort! LOL

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  14. Laughin@ hadn't deleted facebook yet! Don't, bad move.. I giving your blog radio show a plug via my facebook. Put it to the side but rid self of it, nah.

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  15. I blame you for my twitter habit, you were like a drug dealer. I joined and my daily posts went right out the door. I'm trying to do better.

    Wait is that a beep...gotta go someone is tweeting me.

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  16. AnonymousJuly 24, 2010

    You hit it right on in this post. I'm fairly new to Twitter and when I wasn't on it, I didn't get it. I don't even follow as many folks as you do and I have to have interactions as do you.

    I follow a couple of musicians only cuz I get free music downloads & mixtapes. The other 98% of folks are real.

    I haven't blogged since May. Twitter is the new blogger, lol.

    With that said, I'm looking you up!

    @dba_jurista

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