Monday, April 12, 2010

Twitterville Day 1

It's the end of Day 1 on Twitter.

I have 11 (HA-12 since I wrote this an hour ago..) followers now and I'm following 11 people.

It would have been 13 but my dear friend ,(and Jr. Prom Date) Todd (815 Followers and 6,112 tweets (that is not a misprint) tweeted (seriously) no less then 85 times before lunch. Work stuff.... I clicked the un-follow button. (I think this is less insulting than unfriending someone on Facebook but I'm not really sure.) To be fair, he was at a conference. At one point his tweets were coming so fast I needed to Direct Message (Twitter lingo for short email) him to ask if he was, in fact, even listening to the presentation. Superior tweeter that he is, he responded promptly that he was, and went on to tweet some more. Lots more. I think I was done with him by 1pm. Sorry Todd, I'll catch you over on Facebook.

I have 6 direct messages (short emails) but they are mostly from the same person.

One person that I am following called to tell me that she hopes I'm not expecting any interesting Tweets from her because it's not going to happen. (At least she didn't say she was going to send me 85 tweets in one day.)

I have tweeted 8 uninspiring and meaningless things. No one cares what I had for lunch, and I feel like a pretty boring person having nothing better than "D@mn, Out of Roasted Red Pepper Sabra Hummus at Wegmans." to say today. Note, I didn't actually SAY that. My best tweet was a RT (re-tweet) from my friend's husband :
           
I question the premise that there ARE so many songs about rainbows and what's on the other side.

But this is just because I like funny irony. I have no idea if anyone else thought this was funny. Probably they did not. How many people are actually out there who enjoy Muppets humor?

I read my new book, Twitterville, where the author swears with many many stories that Business Can Thrive in The New Global Neighborhoods. (It says so on the cover.....) but I put it down because it was feeling tedious (Twitter ROCKS, I got it....) and read a Charlaine Harris mystery for a while instead.  My husband, who is convinced no one cares what I had for  lunch saw the cover of the book (not the mystery) and shuddered:

"Twitterville, now that's a neighborhood I don't want to live in. I want to live in the old neighborhood."


God, he's such a History Teacher.

Actually I think he's still sore because the other day on Facebook he posted something about the tragic death of the Polish President along with his wife and many cabinet members. No one responded. His friend posted something about the death of Dixi Carter and he got all kinds of thumbs up. Now I'm not sure the death of the Polish president or Dixi Carter is something to thumbs up anyone over, but still. You would think a head of state would get something.....

Maybe my husband just has dumb friends who care more about 80's TV shows  than world politics, no disrespect to the beautiful and talented Ms. Carter mind you.

One day in and I'm not certain I've caught on yet.  Tonight I'm going to spend some time coming up with some tweets that make me sound more interesting to the world-at-large. (Or at least to my 11 followers)

At the very least I'll make sure I eat something interesting for lunch tomorrow.

6 comments:

Todd said...

No worries, Chris! I thought a bit about touching base with you about twitter when I saw that you had joined. My use of twitter (and most of social media) is usually work related and very tech-heavy. That said, it's a tremendous tool for engaging the broader community in what one is doing. I've learned a lot about social media online from my father-in-law, who is among the leading luminaries in social media tech (although he would dispute that). Twitter is a conversation. You need to engage and say meaningful things that people will want to hear. You don't always need to say brilliant things, but avoid being inane. Much like being at a party: If you're a bore, self-absorbed, arrogant, or obnoxious, people won't want to be around you. The same is true online.

Hoping you're well and looking forward to touching base on FB.

T

Christine said...

I believe you, your FIL's book is mentioned in this Twitterville book that I'm reading.

As I mentioned, it's hard for me to say meaningful things in 140 words or less. Perhaps I trap people at parties for longer than I should, I think I should investigate this behavior more ;-)

That said, I'll keep plugging along. We'll talk soon-I have a few questions that would be better over the phone.

shelisrael said...

Sorry it felt tedious for you. Where did that happen?

Christine said...

Oh my, Shel Israel....

Busted....

Frankly it was dragging for me during the Dell/Comcast chapters but that could be partly because of the ennui I was feeling after reading 85 tweets from TAC_NISO.

My larger frustration was due to the fact that I'm having trouble tying Twitter to something I'm trying to do in real life.

And obviously I'm missing something still....

Karley Ziegler Mott said...

WELCOME to Twitter, Christine...for me, it's a business thing. When I post something about my shop or to come and look at X or X, half the time I get a sale.

Otherwise, it's NOTHING like the feeling I get from blogging :)

I'm following you, though!

Christine said...

Thanks Karley!

I IS nothing like my comfortable old blogging where I can go on and on and on to make a point ;-)