twitter

[If this gets picked up in the feed, sorry!  This was the last post in the series and it never properly got finished.  Better late than never.]

So I’ve said a bit about what Twitter is and how it can be used.  This final post acknowledges that, thought Twitter is very useful for certain things (and not very useful for a lot of other things), that occasional usefulness can come at a price…the world can follow you and see what you are saying/thinking/doing.

Here are some of the guidelines that I stick to when thinking about how I use Twitter.

Openness

I guess the key here is that the world is watching, and you shouldn’t say anything that you wouldn’t mind being seen by anyone, including:

• a friend or relative;
• a colleague or employer (or a former or potential employer);
• the press!

Most of the interesting people I follow talk about a specialist subject like cycling in an impersonal way.  Either that or they share fairly trivial stuff about their lives.

If it really comes to it you can “go private” (so you need to authorise people to follow you), and don’t forget there’s a delete button if you Tweet something you probably shouldn’t have.

Real names and searches

Remember that your username and tweets can be picked up by searches and other tools too!  Do you want people Googling your name to find you on Twitter and subsequently everything you’ve ever Tweeted?

I, personally, am slightly enigmatic in my online presence, choosing not to reveal my real name.  Perhaps you’re happy with everything public, but you should at least think if that’s actually the case.

Followers

Some people think that follower numbers are the key.  The more followers you have the more popular you are.  I don’t buy this at all and would MUCH rather go for quality over quantity.  But if you may be wanting to promote yourself or an organisation, in which case quantity is good!

Even if your Tweets are public, Twitter will email you when you get a new follower and this is quite handy if you’re managing your followers.

And managing followers can be important.  Like email, Twitter is subject to “spam” or junk messages and followers and there are people you may want to “block” from following you.  This is easily done with the click of a button.

Spam was a real problem in Twitter’s early days, but it’s more under control now.  That’s not to say that it still doesn’t exist and can be annoying.

Closing thoughts

Some people deride Twitter for being a waste of time and full of irrelevant nonsense.  I can understand that people think this but I think it’s unfair of them to dismiss it so easily.

I’ve found it to be quite useful in sharing information both from my locality and with common interests.  I’ve found good tyre suppliers, made useful links with charitable organisations, been inspired by fellow cyclists and Christians, and I use it to keep up to date with a few friends too.

I find it simpler and easier to use than Facebook, and, in some respects, more fun.

But you do have to work at it somewhat.

There are dangers to being public (which, remember, is not compulsory), but with a little wisdom Twitter can be useful and fun.

As a final note, this post contained some wisdom – there is plenty more out there and some of it will conflict.  They key thing is to work out what you want to achieve using Twitter and use it as a tool for that.

See you online!

A couple of days’ delay, but here’s part three.

Today we find that you don’t have to use Twitter’s web site to use Twitter.

Unlike Facebook, the makers of Twitter have allowed you to connect using other tools, and given others the ability to develop programs with which you can interact with Twitter.

And people, in quite large numbers, have stepped up to the plate and developed lots of tools for using Twitter.

The Twitter Fan Wiki that I mentioned the other day lists many of them, but here’s a selection that I’ve used.  Note that I’m not a Mac or iPhone user and there are plenty of tools for those gadgets. Some of the best tools use Adobe’s Air technology which sounds scary but isn’t and is worth installing.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck is a pretty comprehensive Adobe Air tool that has many unique features.  It allows you to create groups to split your “follows” up.  It’s great if you follow lots of others and need to organise their messages.  You can include searches and visit user profiles from the tool too.  But, possibly one if the best things about it, is it now allows you to keep up with Facebook statuses too!

Downsides?  It takes up a lot of your screen and so is quite intrusive, and I didn’t find it particularly intuitive – and I couldn’t find a user guide!!

[Update November '09]

Tweetdeck has quickly grown and now contains lots of extra stuff.  It can show you Facebook and Linked-In updates and pulls all that information together into a single application, which is quite neat.  The problem with this is that Tweetdeck is growing as an application.  It’s slower and still, in my opinion, a bit clunky.  It doesn’t always get things right!  Oh, and there’s an iPhone/iPod Touch app too!

Twitterfox

Twitterfox is a plug in for the Firefox Web Browser that sits in the corner and notifies you of messages being posted by those you follow.  It’s pretty simple and much less intrusive and sits really nicely alongside your web browsing.

[Update November '09]

Twitterfox is now called “Echofon” and has a pretty neat and free iPhone/iPod Touch application too.  Worth checking out.

Twhirl

Twhirl, like Tweetdeck, is based on Adobe Air.  It’s pretty and colourful and easy to set up and use.  Simpler and more intuitive than Tweetdeck, but less powerful.  A good tool for a new Twitterer.

TwitterGadget

If you don’t use Firefox but DO use iGoogle and want something integrated into your browser, then you can include the TwitterGadget on your iGoogle homepage.  There are alternatives but this is the best I’ve found and it works pretty well.  Though it’ll never be as good as a desktop application.

Twittai

At one point I wondered if there was a better way to do mobile Twitter than through a mini browser (You can go to http://m.twitter.com/ if you have mobile internet), and I found Twittai, which, as long as your phone has Java, and most do these days, does a splendid job.  It’s disappeared from the Fan Wiki, but seems to still be available at its own website.

There are LOADS more tools and I’ve not had anywhere near enough time to play with more than a few of them, but hopefully these tools are of some use to some of you.

[Update November '09]

My use of Twittai has dwindled as I’ve discovered Snaptu.  Snaptu is a Java app that you can run on your mobile that has little plugins for things like Facebook, Twitter and reading news and sports results.  It’s surprisingly good!

Welcome back. Part 2 of my Twitter introduction/reference.  Hey, this is as much for my benefit as yours!

Today, different types of message.

Status updates are all well and good, but sometimes you want to reply to something someone said, or pass it on to others.  There are conventions that allow you to do this.  Some result in special processing of your message by Twitter’s servers, others are just style or accepted convention.

@ Replies

Pronounced “at replies”, these allow you to send replies to a message posted by another user.  The format of an @ reply is:

@username Message

e.g.

@magicroundabout Hey, thanks for the tips!

These are specially processed by Twitter and you can see which “Tweet” (message) the reply was sent in reply to.  Plus, if someone you’re not following @ replies you, you will see the message in your timeline – on your homepage.  There is also a special section on the Twitter homepage that allows you to see all replies directed at you.

Recently, Twitter started processing messages as @ replies even if the @username wasn’t at the start of the message.

Direct messaging

@ replies are, in essence, public. There are rules (that I won’t go into here) about who’s @replies you see in your timeline.  But if someone else looks at your profile, they will see the @replies that you have posted.

Direct messaging allows you send a message to someone privately and is done by writing a message in the format:

d username Message

e.g.

d magicroundabout Ah, so no one else can see this eh?!

Direct messages are filtered into a separate “Direct Messages” inbox on the Twitter homepage, and there’s a neat little screen for sending “directs” to others on the Twitter site too.

Re-tweeting

Re-tweeting is a convention used when someone has said something that you want to repeat, with credit to the original sender.  A re-tweet is denoted by the letters RT and the username of the originator.  A typical message would be:

RT @myfriend Hey, send everyone this cool link: http://url.com/

Re-tweets are not, to my knowledge, processed any differently to normal messages – other than the fact that they are also an @reply to the originator.

I confess, re-tweeting, in general, annoys me.  If I want to hear what @yourfriend has to say, then I’m probably following them.  Plus, if I am already following them and you RT them, then I get the same message twice.

Occasional re-tweeting is OK, but it’s got a bit out of hand.

[Update November '09]

Twitter has now rolled out an official Re-tweet feature.  This seems to have reduced some of the noise by doing retweets more intelligently.  The details of how this works are over on the Twitter Blog.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a convention that’s not processed by Twitter, but IS processed by a separate website at http://hashtags.org/.

Hashtags allow you to include your messages along with other messages about a similar topic.  A hashtag basically says “This message is about….<topic>”.

A hashtag is a word, with no spaces, preceeded by a hash (#) character, and can appear anywhere in your message.

A good example of this was in February when we had lots of snow in the UK and it caused lots of disruption.  People used “#uksnow”  to state that their message was about the UK snow. e.g.

Snow’s about 8 inches deep here in Swindon #uksnow

or

Got stuck in the #uksnow this morning.

Why would you want to do this?  Well, the hashtags website mentioned above tracks hashtags and shows lists of messages that contain a particular tag, “trends” (what people are talking about a lot right now) and statistics about tags.

The Twitter search function (which I’ll cover another time) also does trending and allows you to seach for messages with a particular tag?

“Where to tags come from?”, I hear you ask.  Well, anyone! Just make one up, start using it, or pick up an existing one and use that.

Note that, apart from direct messages, you can combine as many of these things as you like.  You could, for example, write:

RT @yourfriend Hey, pass this on #coolretweets

How any old user is supposed to work out these things I’m not sure.  Probably people say:

@magicroundabout What’s all these # things flying around?

and I reply

@friend Ah, that’ll be #hashtags then: http://hashtags.org/

It wasn’t long since I was wondering whether or not to stick around on Twitter. I’m still mulling over the purposes, uses, and usefulness of Twitter, the instant short-messaging system that is capturing more and more of the media’s attention and is growing rapidly.

So, if my last post might have put people off, this one, and the next few, are intended to encourage people who’ve joined Twitter, or are thinking of joining, and who are wondering what it’s all about.

I won’t be the first to post tips on how to use Twitter, and the Twitter Fan Wiki is a much better resource than I’ll ever be able to produce.

But my aim is to have some bite-size posts here that I can refer people to when they say “what’s this all about then”.

So, Twitter. Instant short messaging? Micro blogging? Search engine? Cultural phenomenon? Waste of time? What is it?

I imagine many more of you use Facebook and you’re probably aware of the concept of status updates. Short notes that describe what you’re doing, thinking or feeling.

For me, status updates (and photos) are the two most useful parts of Facebook. They are simple hooks into what people are up to that enable a conversation to start. I’m more in touch with what my friends are doing now because of such things.

And there is an element of art in status updates too. There is a skill in crafting short, clever, interesting messages.

Twitter is, in effect, the status updates from Facebook, with everything else stripped out.

But there’s a key difference: Twitter is (mostly) public. Anyone can see your updates. With Facebook only your friends can see your updates.

There is a concept of “Following”. Updates from people who you follow appear in your “Timeline” (on your homepage).  Equally, you can be followed and your updates will appear or be sent to your followers. However, unlike Facebook, you can follow anyone and anyone can follow you.  You don’t need to be mutual friends.

Twitter does allow you to lock down so that your updates are protected, but you miss out on a lot by doing this.

Twitter’s “open” nature means that people can come and scour the messages flying around and process them in useful and interesting ways.  I’ll deal with some of these in a future post, but as a pretty example, take a look at Twistori.

It is this ability to process the messages that gives Twitter its power.  And its this power that I’ll be exploring in subsequent posts.

However, in my opinion, Twitter’s extensions have taken over slightly and people use it for more than just status updates and this has made it more impersonal and less valuable to me as a person.

The other problem with the cultural phenomenon of Twitter is that it’s turned into a words and numbers game.  Can I get hundreds of followers? Can I get my chosen topic mentioned to much that it’s classified as a trend.

Such things have diluted the useful posts with many meaningless ones.

I think Twitter IS still a useful tool, if you don’t get caught up in the numbers game, keep your followings managable, and mostly follow real people that share interests with you.  That’s why I’m still there!

Stick with me for a few days and hopefully you’ll see why.