Why the hell did I sign up for Twitter?
Some of my friends swear by Twitter. Tweet tweet, OMG, it's a message on my cell phone letting me know one of my friends just ate a Twinkie.
Uh, oh, Zeke has the flu and Monique has the flu. ( I suppose they know each other.)
Some of my friends swear at Twitter. It's like teens text messaging only we all get to enjoy it.
"That was so funny I almost threw up my lunch. LOL"
"ROFLMAO, I haven't eaten yet."
"I wish I hadn't. (Left over pizza.)"
"Too much cheese? 
"
So what's a guy like me doing in a place like this (http://twitter.com/MalcolmCampbell)??
Somebody told me everyone's doing it. That was almost enough of a reason not to do it. That's the same reason I said I'd never be on MySpace or Facebook, but yes, I'm there, too, networking as I understand it. Writers are on Twitter as well:
"Have you seen my gerunds over at your place? LOL"
"I'm not at my place. Signing books at Borders."
"You get all the luck."
"25 years of work on the book ain't luck."
Sometimes I feel like I'm at the mall pretending to be a teen, something I haven't been for many years. I feel less like a teen on LinkedIn and Plaxo, but those guys are soooo serious, and I'm wondering if any of them are buying my book. Probably not, probably don't read anything other than "How to Make a Million Bucks in One Year" and "The One-Minute Manager." Depressing.
Look, if you're on Twitter and know how to find me, say something really profound to counteract the fact I now know that Bob in Boston left his clothes and Cindy's house in Cincinatti. And if you had any pizza today with too much cheese on it, for goodness' sakes, don't tell me about it.
Tweet Tweet, indeed.
--
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Submitted by Trick Falls on Wed, 11/12/2008 - 17:48.
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My sentiments, exactly, Trick Falls.
I signed up, because someone told me being on Twitter was essential. So far, I haven't figured out why.
__________________________If it is true that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, I must be a very slippery character by now.
Networking, I think
It appears that when we make interesting observations and provide helpful information and links, others will begin to follow us. They will comment on what we say and will provide information we can use. It's a back and forth dialogue--within a system of a lot of chatter we can ignore--that allows people of like mind to share information and ideas that helps them move forward with whatever it is they're doing.
TF
It all depends who you
It all depends who you follow. I follow some users like ProBlogger and John Chow and some other people I really look up to. I also have a large number of people telling me what they had for lunch. Both kinds of tweets are good. Sometimes you just want to tell the world that your corn flakes seemed to go soggy really fast today and other times you want to share a link to a fabulous article you wrote and hope people will give it a Stumble or Digg.
__________________________I added you Malcolm to my Twitter but I hope the quality of my tweets don't make you think less of me
Dana Prince's The Writer's Blog
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Dana Prince Writing
So far, your Tweets have been high quality
Some people seem to follow everyone and I wonder what kind of value that has unless everyone following back is a really big fan. Mostly I follow people who have great info and links.
I like seeing some human tweets, too, but after a while I stop reading the "I just ate a hamburger and need a nap" kinds of important info.
TF
Yes it depends on who you
Yes it depends on who you follow. Follow the wrong people and you can be assured of a lot of useless noise. Follow the right ones and make sure that your tweets aren't all senseless and it can be a great marketing tool. Having said that, so far it aint working for me. Still you can have fun. Start of with a riddle, and give the answer hours later and no-one will know what you are talking about.......oh well I find it amusing.
__________________________WassupBlog
What A Load Of BS!
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So far, I'm finding the tweets with helpful links...
...to be the best thing about being out there. Saves me the time of having to track things down from scratch.
TF
I am still coming to grips
I am still coming to grips with the whole thing, but find it useful in keeping track of friends posts and stuff. Reckon I will have to weed out some of the useless tweets I am following.
__________________________WassupBlog
What A Load Of BS!
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mob of people
Frankly, unless one has Twitter running live on his PC 24/7, I don;t see how anyone can follow 500-1000 people or more unless most of them are ignored.
So far, I don't have enough tweets flying past my head to worry about missing the ones I care about.
TF
Twitter
I signed up for Twitter and it's actually working for me, but it takes time. I pretty much limit my posts to things of interest for writers, like markets, writing prompts, news about books and authors, info for fantasy writers...and off topic I talk about Losing Weight from a Writer's POV. I have about 90 people following me so far. I think the key is to make your tweets relative. Maybe it works for me because my name there is birdiesquill--and birds know how to tweet.
__________________________Sorry, I just had to say it.
Donna
Donna Sundblad
Author of Pumping Your Muse, Windwalker and Beyond the Fifth Gate
Yes, it does take time to create relevant tweets
I think those wearing multiple hats are a natural for Twitter. Marketing and promotion folks usually have multiple blogs, events, products, sites, etc. And, since they keep up, they also know of a lot of resources.
I'm an author selling one book. That cuts down on the tweets since I don't want to say "buy my book" every day.
TF