About this "Twitter" business...

[shereads]

Okay, I'm becoming hep to this World Wide Web thing all you kids are talking about. So I signed onto Twitter. So far, all I know how to do is update my "What are you doing now" field (yawn).

If I want to, er, tweet on a topic, how does that happen? Do I have to choose one of the, er, tweeters in the thread and post a public reply to that person? I don't want to stalk anybody; hell, I don't even want to meet anybody right now. I just to want to post in a thread.

Without the "reply" button I'm so lost.

 

[midwestyankee]

Okay, I'm becoming hep to this World Wide Web thing all you kids are talking about. So I signed onto Twitter. So far, all I know how to do is update my "What are you doing now" field (yawn).

If I want to, er, tweet on a topic, how does that happen? Do I have to choose one of the, er, tweeters in the thread and post a public reply to that person? I don't want to stalk anybody; hell, I don't even want to meet anybody right now. I just to want to post in a thread.

Without the "reply" button I'm so lost.

I'm interested in this as well. Colleagues keep telling me that I should be on Twitter for my business, but I'll be damned if I can see how to get much leverage from it.

 

[impressive]

If you want to contribute to a particular topic, use a "hashtag" (preface a keyword with a #) at any place in the message.

(If you use Firefox, the Twitterfox add-on is wonderful.)

 

[shereads]

If you want to contribute to a particular topic, use a "hashtag" (preface a keyword with a #) at any place in the message.

Thank you.

 

[trysail]

Yet one more useless and unnecessary toy that fritters away time for a population already suffering from horrific attention deficit. Narcissism has run amok in this country.

Why is it that little Johnny can't read, write, add and subtract?

 

[shereads]

Yet one more useless and unnecessary toy that fritters away time for a population already suffering from horrific attention deficit. Narcissism has run amok in this country.

Why is it that little Johnny can't read, write, add and subtract?

I can't read, write, add or subtract because I spend too much time online. Can't speak for Little Johnny.

 

[midwestyankee]

Yet one more useless and unnecessary toy that fritters away time for a population already suffering from horrific attention deficit. Narcissism has run amok in this country.

Why is it that little Johnny can't read, write, add and subtract?

Perhaps because he's color blind and his eyes can't resolve selfishly large green text.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Perhaps because he's color blind and his eyes can't resolve selfishly large green text.

I am color blind. I thought he was posting in red...

 

[midwestyankee]

I am color blind. I thought he was posting in red...

What a communist! [hijack]

 

[TheeGoatPig]

What a communist! [hijack]

Just because communicating with idiots makes me see red, doesn't make me a communist!

I just know the wrong person is going to find this offensive, but I am pressing submit anyway

 

[midwestyankee]

I'd like to expand the discussion slightly.

Just the other day I joined a social networking site that's specific to my profession. That makes the fourth social networking application in my online presence. It takes some real time to keep up with all of them. Twitter would add more time (or take it away, more accurately) and I'm still not entirely sure that I see how to get significant benefits from it all.

Any thoughts, especially from someone who is using social networking to promote a business?

 

[shereads]

I'd like to expand the discussion slightly.

Just the other day I joined a social networking site that's specific to my profession. That makes the fourth social networking application in my online presence. It takes some real time to keep up with all of them. Twitter would add more time (or take it away, more accurately) and I'm still not entirely sure that I see how to get significant benefits from it all.

Any thoughts, especially from someone who is using social networking to promote a business?

What he said.

 

[impressive]

Any thoughts, especially from someone who is using social networking to promote a business?

From my perspective (as an author), all online networking (social or otherwise) boils down to two words: NAME RECOGNITION.

If I am sufficiently pithy, I may just attract a new reader or three.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I've been advised to join linkedin.com for business connections rather than twitter. I may just do it.

 

[jomar]

I'd like to expand the discussion slightly.

Just the other day I joined a social networking site that's specific to my profession. That makes the fourth social networking application in my online presence. It takes some real time to keep up with all of them. Twitter would add more time (or take it away, more accurately) and I'm still not entirely sure that I see how to get significant benefits from it all.

Any thoughts, especially from someone who is using social networking to promote a business?

I have a facebook account and created a page for my business. I don't expect much traffic, but maybe someone in my local city network will stumble across it and come to me. Like imp said, just another portal to get the word out.

But I don't see how twitter could help me businesswise as it does imp, though.

ETA: If you have a service or retail business (restaurant, for example) you can tweet and post on upcoming specials and events.

 

[Belegon]

You can link Twitter and Facebook so that when you Tweet it updates your Facebook page... I use that as a "shortcut" because I also have too many social networking things.

 

[CharleyH]

Okay, I'm becoming hep to this World Wide Web thing all you kids are talking about. So I signed onto Twitter. So far, all I know how to do is update my "What are you doing now" field (yawn).

If I want to, er, tweet on a topic, how does that happen? Do I have to choose one of the, er, tweeters in the thread and post a public reply to that person? I don't want to stalk anybody; hell, I don't even want to meet anybody right now. I just to want to post in a thread.

Without the "reply" button I'm so lost.

Ah you little bird. Twitting is like being a pied piper... follow or be the piper. Follow US!!! PM coming.

 

[john-the-author]

I'm interested in this as well. Colleagues keep telling me that I should be on Twitter for my business, but I'll be damned if I can see how to get much leverage from it.

Same here, MWY. More to the point, it just seems to be One More Thing that's fun but will suck off an hour or two a day of my time. I'm already on LinkedIn (which pays off handsomely for contracts), FaceBook (just joined last month and play a lot of Mousehunt and catch up with friends), my blog, and a bunch of other professional sites. If I get on to Twitter as well, I'll be spending a lot of time doing masturbatory things with networking and no actual work will happen.

 

[john-the-author]

I've been advised to join linkedin.com for business connections rather than twitter. I may just do it.

I would suggest it, VM. It's been profitable for me and the depth & quality of the interaction seems higher. That being said, ANYTHING can and will work for one when marketing, I know. As one great marketer said to me after he explained how he got a $2M contract by using a couple hundred really cheesy day-glo flyers tucked under peoples' windshield wipers, "Do something. Do anything! But do it!!"

 

[CharleyH]

From my perspective (as an author), all online networking (social or otherwise) boils down to two words: NAME RECOGNITION.

If I am sufficiently pithy, I may just attract a new reader or three.

All I can say is what Imp said.

 

[john-the-author]

BTW, I'm doing a radio appearance tomorrow on a Manhattan radio station to talk about Social Media and business promotion. I'm very interested to hear about anyone's experiences in this regard and PARTICULARLY if you have social media/social networking sites to suggest.

I can't promise anything because it depends on how the interview goes, but I may, MAY be able to give people a brief plug. Ping me in a PM if there's something I can possibly do. Again, I make no promises; I've gotta see how the interview goes and what the interviewer wants to focus on, but any business use of social media is fair game here.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I've signed up on twitter, but so far it's been nothing but a waste of my time.

 

[damppanties]

I'd like to expand the discussion slightly.

Just the other day I joined a social networking site that's specific to my profession. That makes the fourth social networking application in my online presence. It takes some real time to keep up with all of them. Twitter would add more time (or take it away, more accurately) and I'm still not entirely sure that I see how to get significant benefits from it all.

Any thoughts, especially from someone who is using social networking to promote a business?

I work with small businesses and I am gradually building a specialization in the field of online marketing. One important thing: online marketing should be a part of and integrated into other parts of your marketing plan to work effectively. Maybe three people are going to notice if you build a facebook page and update specials on it. (And they will probably all be in your family.) Thirty will if you have a 'join me on facebook' blurb on your business cards. Three hundred will if you have the link on your webpage, the blurb on your business cards, distribute flyers that have it on there prominently...and so on.

Also, not all social networking sites are great for any type of business. You need to decide what will give your business leverage and where the type of people who patronize your business are bound to be. That said, facebook and blogging are the top two ways you can advertise online right now. Twitter is catching, but personally, I just don't trust it yet as something other than a passing fad.

 

[SeaCat]

All I need to know about Twitter for right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PeUDX9_iLI&feature=related

You have to listen close to what they say.

Cat

 

[DesertPirate]

Of course anything can be exploited.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/26/2129246

"In a paper set to be delivered at an upcoming security conference, University of Texas at Austin researchers showed how they were able to identify people who were on public social networks such as Twitter and Flickr by mapping out the connections surrounding their network of friends. From the ITworld article: 'Web site operators often share data about users with partners and advertisers after stripping it of any personally identifiable information such as names, addresses or birth dates. Arvind Narayanan and fellow researcher Vitaly Shmatikov found that by analyzing these 'anonymized' data sets, they could identify Flickr users who were also on Twitter about two-thirds of the time, depending on how much information they have to work with.'"