Tag: twitter

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Twitter going down in flames

So is Twitter going down in flames or just hitting heavy turbulence? Personally, I think it is just having a rough patch. Shoot, even Jon Stewart mentioned Twitter last night! (although the way he conveyed it and the look on his face was more of "my writers are insisting I reference this but what the hell is it?") That’s practically main stream!

The API is being limited. Twhirl, which has been great since it catches the @ replies that Twitter isn’t showing right now, is useless today due to Twitter pulling back on the API. So with Twitter handicapped (or not responding at all), and Twhirl useless, I feel disconnected from the world. I am having a little trouble remembering just what it was I did before I had my Twitter aha moment (because no one gets Twitter when they first start using it).

Have you given up on Twitter? Not I. Are you using another service permanently or in the meantime? I’m thinking of toying around with Pownce. Just not in love with anything else at the moment and don’t really have time to experiment. I’d say that Twitter is dealing with its growth and after it gets over this spurt things will be much better.

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Hillary is going out..why is she following me?

Like The Whispers on LOST, I’ve heard hushed chatter all day long about how Hillary is dropping out of the race tomorrow. Naturally, I raised an eyebrow when my email informed me that @Hillary2008 was started following my Twitter account today. Back before October of last year, I started following presidential candidates wise enough to be using technology to their advantage. Edwards, Thompson, and Obama used it the best.

Now I can’t remember which one but one of the candidates even opened Twitter up for questions while he was on CNN (or some other live show); unfortunately I was walking out the door and didn’t get to fire off any questions nor watch the program.Joe Biden opened Twitter up for questions while he was on a live chat with The Washington Post. What a powerful way to use the Internet! Putting Twitter ahead of the reporters and phones!

Early on, it became evident that @Hillary2008 was not the real Hillary Clinton. Today Hillary2008 follows 787 people and is followed by 829 people. The real Hillary Clinton appears to be @HillaryClinton and follows 0 people with 4,140 people following her which means she doesn’t understand Twitter. (Randy, are you listening? 0/66) Barack Obama at @BarackObama is following 35,777 people and has 34,765 people following him; his updates are frequent and does not read like a staffer is trying to impersonate him. Seems early on in the campaign that @BarackObama even sent @ replies to followers (but I cannot find an example right now).

I personally belief that either the people behind Hillary2008 gave the account over to the campaign or decided to start working it as true Hillary fans that actually understand the technology. What’s to understand about Twitter? It’s bi-directional. We use our feed readers and RSS for push news and headlines. If all you are doing is using Twitter to push your urls and try to get people to your site, then for all practical purposes, you are a spammer. Even news sites like @Knoxnews responds to its followers. If you listen to them, they’ll listen to you! @SantaClaus is a hoot! Not only does he work the Twitter account around the holiday, but he responds to almost everyone that mentions him and he does year round! Interactivity is the key to Twitter. Of course, Leo Laporte breaks this theory by following 441 people and having 39821 people follow him. He’s this anomaly I just haven’t figured out yet. Of course, as much as I can’t figure out why you would want to follow him (and his ego), I find myself that compelled to follow more of him. Long and short of it, if you have a zero in either following or followers, you are using Twitter poorly.

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Twitter gives power to the people

I once walked into a McDonald’s yelling, "I want to see a manager and I want to see a manager NOW!" Granted, they probably had the right to get the police involved but in seconds I was in front of the 30 or more other grumbling customers shuffling their feet while waiting to get to the registers. I had the power of voice. I was not afraid to speak loudly and clearly.

I explained, courteously, loudly, and with a tone of agitation to the manager and every person in the restaurant that I was working at a software company nearby, on a tight deadline, and had sat in their drive-thru for nearly 30 minutes to receive a small order of french fries and a cheese burger. Upon returning to my office, I found the fries to be terribly cold and the cheese burger was nothing more than two buns with cheese and a pickle. How is a cheese burger a burger without the meat?! Before I finished, people started lining up behind me saying, "Mine is missing the meat also." "Me too!" etc.

Everyone heard my message and by the time I left, each person in line received their food with the cashier opening the paper on the burger to prove that there was meat between the bun. Not only did I have a voice that got heard but I had an immediate impact on the lives of other people.

Twitter gives us that same voice on the Internet. Twitter connects disaster victims to family and friends. Twitter connects businesses to clients for sales and support. Twitter keeps us out of traffic jams. And Twitter helps free people from jail!

James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone. [Source, CNN, Student ‘Twitters’ his way out of Egyptian jail]

Has Twitter made a difference in your life yet?

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American Red Cross Tornado Blog

American Red CrossThe American Red Cross (ARC) has set up a website in response to the Tennessee tornadoes. I learned this because I follow @Redcross on Twitter as you should.

This site is for public information about the American Red Cross response to the Tennessee tornadoes of February 2008. [Source, Tennessee Tornadoes, American Red Cross] [more info]

They had a similar site for Northwest Flooding 2007. If you are looking for loved ones or have been displaced by a disaster, please use the Safe and Well List to help inform family and friends. Safe and Well is easily accessible through your phone using Twitter.

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Joe Biden catches onto Twitter!

Presidential hopefuls should be making us their friends by talking candidly with Twitter.

joebiden Online now for a live chat via Washington Post until 5pm; submit your question: http://tinyurl.com/2ng8dj 2 minutes ago from web

joebiden Tweet a question @joebiden and a volunteer will submit it to WaPo. Include your city/state if it’s not on your profile. half a minute ago from web

Look at how close Twitter puts you to the action!

Narration with supplemental commentary: [audio:http://realityme.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/joebidencatchesontotwitter.mp3]>

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Quote of the Day

This made me laugh hysterically.

“We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.” Robert Wilensky

Thanks to JBB of Lumbering Through Life! As an aside, I disagree with stance that Twitter’s 140 character limit is in place as an etiquette and means of keeping thoughts concise. The 140 character limit is to enable Twitter to send message by SMS and keep the message within a single text message. I believe different people are finding different uses for Twitter. I have chosen not to follow a couple of people because of their topic choices and style. I think Twitter’s will fall into 3 groups: self-promoters and linkers (using Twitter to post URLs to blogs and websites), news/media alerts, and voyeurs/exhibitionists/chatters. The first group, the linkers, will use Twitter to promote traffic to their own sites or sites interest them. The news/media alerts will be a group sharing relevant information that is happening now. The chatters will use Twitter as a replacement or complement to IRC and the instant messengers. Not everyone will enjoy the style of all three groups.

Update: My wife agrees with jbb.

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Twitter is killing my blog!

If you ask me about blogging, I will tell you to pay for your own hosting, buy a domain name, and use WordPress (.org)! My primary reason for this advice is so that you have maximum control and ownership of the content you produce. When you host with Blogger, or even at WordPress.com, you relinquish control of your content to a third party. They might close your account for a violation of terms of service and then you have lost your content or access to your drafts. They might close shop and you also lose your years of hard work.

Getting the balance of posts right for your readers is tough. Post too frequently and your readers will skim or skip (or worse, unsubscribe!) and miss your best posts. Post infrequently and your readers will go away. When Twitter first hit the scene, I didn’t get it. Frankly, I still take issue with Twitter because we are relying on a third party to manage our content but Twitter is addictive! I find myself making those short updates to Twitter while reserving my blog for longer commentary. I used to make one sentence posts to my blog and liter it with frequent updates. Twitter has changed the way I blog. And people have noticed!

Blog early and often! [Jack Lail]

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Presidential Hopefuls and their phones

Everyone knows Rudy uses his phone. Someone needs to teach him some manners. What other presidential hopefuls are using their phones? Twitter is a short messaging service that lets you barrage your friends (and others) with the overly mundane in your life. People have found different uses for Twitter from marketing to exhibitionism (look at me look at me) to making announcements and sharing information on the Internet. Presidential hopefuls have accepted that they can reach a large audience and become closure to the constituents by using (or having their staff use) Twitter.

Democrats

Republicans

Uhhhh