I dont really "get" twitter...

[MichaelHiles]

Originally Posted by John Cabral

My point exactly. So you have 50K followers who maybe a handfull will ever read your post.

In order for you it to work all 50K woold have to be real accounts that people actually read tweets and they all would have to get less than 50 tweets a day or whatever shows on the first page. Maybe second page...

When you google for something do you look at 300 pages or maybe just the top 5?

Same concept applies to all social sites.

I realize everyone says "it's about building relationships it's about building relationships" when using Twitter.

Well, the last time I checked, that required communication. And if all you're allotted in that communication is 140 characters, the kind of communication you're reduced to are witticisms, quips, puns, jokes, and the occasional link to another site.

Twitter is a realtime link exchange with slight topical relevance thrown in.

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

I realize everyone says "it's about building relationships it's about building relationships" when using Twitter.

Well, the last time I checked, that required communication. And if all you're allotted in that communication is 140 characters, the kind of communication you're reduced to are witticisms, quips, puns, jokes, and the occasional link to another site.

Twitter is a realtime link exchange with slight topical relevance thrown in.

If you really want to communicate you are better off with text mesaages and you get 160 characters. lol

Only really profiting is Twitter or soon will be. Maybe when it first came out is was goo but not after IM'ers took over LOL

[Alminc]

It seems that Twitter takes a lot of time if you tweet manually.
I just built over 2000 followers on complete autopilot, but
maybe just a half of them are targeted.
Don't know what to do next, I'll probably outsource building
a following to about 20000 or so.

[MarkLloyd]

I use twitter search to find people in need of my product than connect with them

[Matt Fulger]

Well, I don't really care a whole lot for twitter myself either and just very recently signed up an account (which I only did in order to work on a team project). I have a hard time getting into twitter. The interface is annoying and hard to read for me and there's no way I'm following 1000s of people, automated or not.

However, my fiance also just started using twitter and it's helped her tremendously in the search engine results. Within 2 days of tweeting her new site, it was listed as #2 in google for her targeted keywords! WOOT! So it may also be a good SEO tool to launch/announce your new sites and/or projects you are involved in.

I think that twitter could be a good tool if used correctly. Unfortunately, I think many people here are going to destroy the whole point behind twitter with automation tools. As others have mentioned, automation tools are going to be talking to other automation tools. It's already happening.

When I opened my account, I had a follower within seconds, literally. This was obviously done by an automated tool. Who needs robots following them? What a total waste of time.

That said, I'm not at all against twitter. I think it could be a great tool for REAL people. But internet marketers are on the fast track to destroying the usefulness of it for the almighty dollar.

Just my opinion.

Peace & Prosperity,
Matt Fulger

[Shana_Adam]

I find it very very disturbing that people start following you the minute you sign up - when I have not even had a chance to follow any one yet.

What a waste of space and time. Why do people need updates on what you are doing? If some one asked you every half an hour what you are doing in real life you would think they had some serious mental issues.

But its OK to cyberstalk and advocate it......

Same with facebook people spend their time poking and serenading one another with icons. Apparently these people are ones friends.

How can some one you never met and probably never would meet in your life be classified as a friend? Half way accross the world or god knows where.

Are these people there for you in your time of real need? Nope they couldn't care less!

People are very aggressive in real life, you just glance at some one on the subway the wrong way and you could end up in hospital with a serious bruise. Yet behind the computer every one is loved up and friends.

Why are people not like this in real life?

You only get to see what they want you to see and know - people marketing themselves for the sake of being popular...God forbid you have less than 5000 friends on face book you have never met - you must be a real loser.

Real community is not in cyberspace - its with humanity people face to face working towards a better world. Making our communities safe teaching our children how to stay safe and not getting hooked on the drug that is the internet.

Real business people are running businesses not sitting around wasting valuable productivity time on activities that dont have a ROI.

[deannatroupe]

I couldn't read this thread without posting a comment. Twitter is like everything else in life. You get out of twitter what you put into it. Are you going to sign up and make a million dollars overnight? Probably not. Is everyone who decides to follow you going to read ALL of your tweets. Doubtful. However, I have gotten traffic to my website from twitter. I have made sales from twitter that paid for my Internet service one month. I don't see twitter going away anytime soon. If you don't like the spammy messages, just ignore them. It takes time to see a ROI from social media, but it's definitely there.

[TristanPerry]

* This isn't a post on my use of Twitter for IM purposes. It's a quasi-rant/musing over my general experience with it *

I don't fully understand Twitter either. Well, I understand it.. I just don't "get" it, I guess. I have an account, but barely use it.

My main issue with it is that the whole networking with celebs thing seems to cause more problems than it's worth.

A few examples:

1) Today Stephen Fry, a UK actor (amongst other things; he writes and presents too) - who sadly suffers from bi-polar disorder - publically went on a strop, saying he'd leave Twitter. He's one of the biggest celebs to be using Twitter, with almost 1 million followers. Anywhoo, all that happened was that some random person said:

I underdstand @stephenfry's tweets but, much as I admire and adore the chap, they are a bit... boring.... (sorry Stephen)

And then Stephen Fry went in a huff and after a short exchange threatened to quit Twitter. Plus this made the BBC website front page (which is absurd), and the guy who posted the above (fairly innocent) Tweet has had loads of abuse and is "totally aghast at how far this has gone"

Seems very odd, especially since he mainly complimented Stephen Fry!

Again, it's sad that Fry suffers from bi-polar, of course. Although this Tweeter did nothing wrong (IMHO), and since Fry publically went in a huff and threatened to quit Twitter, this Tweeter is now getting loads of abuse and it made the BBC news front-page. Just seems absurd.

2) Apparently not a hoax, sadly, but this person: Will Miley save Fuzzy? is honestly threatening to kill and eat their pet cat (they've put up a recipe page and everything) unless Miley Cyrus re-joins Twitter. There are some sad people around.

3) I remember seeing a relatively famous actress I follow on Twitter get quite annoyed (again, in the very public Twitter) at someone who innocently said they weren't a fan of this actress in a particular film she was in. Obviously not a too wise thing to say, but the overall Tweet was again positive. We ('normal folk') take minor criticism all the time, so I'm not sure why some celebs get so annoyed to minor criticism on Twitter? *Shrugs*


I'm not sure if these are exceptions, but it just seems that loads of celebs and all are getting annoyed at using Twitter, and ending up quitting.

Plus since I originally thought that Twitter was a celeb-networking site (of sorts), I'm still struggling to "get" it.

[Online Bliss]

I am mostly frustrated from all the Twitter tools, and other Info
for sale that arrive in my In Box. A lot are definately rehased products
and from well known Marketers.

[Michael Gentry]

There are so many ways to using Twitter. I found a profitable way and not having to Tweet at all.

[divinewind]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

Which begs to the question, what's the freakin' point? A big circle jerk of people following and unfollowing?

Everyone talking at once. Nobody really listening.

Automation tools talking to automation tools?

Not impressed.

Pure chaos.

I agree... I've messed around with twitter quite thoroughly and I found that it's hard to get real people on there... besides that, it's then even harder to get those people to click on your links. Those who you do get, will 99% bounce from your site. I had a tool though that followed the conversation of other people, pulling out the topics that were most popular, then spat out a news article on my site, and tweeted it to the followers. It worked and i got a couple hundred visits a day, but they would never convert cause they were just there to read the article then go back to their tweeting addiction.

there are some people, who are addicted to reading articles all day about this and that, and then there are just bots like mine, lol.