Serious question re: Twitter

[red321]

I just don't get it. I've started to try and use it more, or at least started to open it up to think about how I could potentially use it...it seems like one big giant clusterf&()*). It's like the world's largest gameday thread and the Angels are losing by 5 and being shutout after Scioscia has ordered Mike Trout to sacrifice bunt with 1 out. I've been updating my Patagonia profile, and apparently when I post photos to my facebook redinkphotography page it posts to Twitter. Cool..don't remember doing that, but apparently I did. So I get this retweet and I think that's nice, so I follow that person and now I just have a thread of retweets from this person...none of which make any damn sense.

 

And why am I seeing trends out Kim Kardashian? Like I give a flying rat's ass.

 

So, tech experts out there...or social media gadflys...what the hell am I missing? Is there any way to integrate this in to my social media workflow without it just looking like a giant goat ****?

[nate]

I follow sports writers.  It is where I get all my sports news for the most part.  As long as you follow the actual writers for SI/ESPN/Fox/Yahoo you don't get the crack pot crap.

 

I also have the local news on there and like AP.  Basically it works like a RSS feed.  If you use Chrome you can have the silverbird addon that is really nice.

 

[red321]

Ok, I can see that. Can you create groups? So, I'd have a news "feed", a photography feed, etc. etc?

 

And how would I use it? Right now I think it just auto feeds from my facebook page, and maybe my instagram. So, should I be "hashtagging" stuff on my facebook page so when it autofeeds those tags can be searched?

[nate]

I am not that advanced with it but I think there are some different tools out there that can separate them into groups if you know what their twitter handles are.  Tweetdeck is probably the most popular Twitter tool.

 

Silverbird lets you have different tabs where you can put search terms in each tab and it will only show tweets with those search terms.  I haven't messed around with it much more.  I try to avoid following the feeds that spam tons of information every day.  

 

I haven't messed with the auto feed stuff at all.  Silverbird just accesses your twitter account and constantly updates with new tweets from the people you follow.  It also lets you post information to twitter, favorite, retweet and quote tweets.

[Adam]

I follow horse racing guys. Delete/don't follow anyone else. 

[Blarg]

Twitter is the Mos Eisley spaceport of social media.

[red321]

Everytime I start to think about how I can better use Twitter...I get reminded why I don't bother with Twitter.

 

I think it's the same with trying to use something like Instagram to build a following as well. You have to try and give a shit and I don't want to do that. I don't want to look at other people's crap..or tell them how awesome their shitty photos are...I just want them to follow me and then find my website and buy my shit. But noooo...you have to cater and ego stroke folks. blah.

[nate]

Yeah I don't use Twitter to post content or talk to anyone.  Just to consume information.

[Blarg]

Everytime I start to think about how I can better use Twitter...I get reminded why I don't bother with Twitter.

 

I think it's the same with trying to use something like Instagram to build a following as well. You have to try and give a shit and I don't want to do that. I don't want to look at other people's crap..or tell them how awesome their shitty photos are...I just want them to follow me and then find my website and buy my shit. But noooo...you have to cater and ego stroke folks. blah.

 

*Puts Red on blast.

[Brandon]

Pretty much figured it out. I don't use Twitter because it's the annoying part of Facebook. I tried for the sake of poker, poker players (I will follow almost any pro because they update chip counts personally opposed to waiting on specific sites), and the industry but just couldn't hack it and wasn't someone people would give a shit about with updates or chip counts.

Sports guy is the worst. I still don't get why people do the play by play thing....if they are watching, they saw the same play, if they aren't they have no clue what you're talking about.

I kind of ditched the regular people and only use social media for companies, products, or special interest updates. You kind of hit the nail on the head that you have to give to get on social media even though no one really gives two shits.

The only other thing of interest is sports but I do my own due diligence or simply come here for breaking trades/transfers or other info. Not to mention, with sports people are more interested on being first than right and social media is a cluster ****.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Brandon

[nate]

Yeah I don't give a shit what celebrities, athletes, retail companies etc have to say.

 

For sports though it is really good.  Ignoring any of the rumor shit.  The headlines you get are perfect.  Rather than go to five different websites to read through their shit all the information comes straight to you.  It is far more efficient if you use it correctly.

[mrwicked]

Red don't feel bad - this is the #1 complaint about Twitter.

It's just too much of a confusing clusterf*ck to actually use.

Also it's something like 2% of the users generate 98% of the content.

So the vast majority of people don't actually tweet, they just absorb stuff (that's all I use it for).

 

Just find a very small subset of interesting people/companies and follow them.

 

It can be a pretty useful thing, but it can also easily turn into a firehose of crap.

[red321]

Well, we all know that you are really a troll at heart cezero!

 

That sounds like it might be tenable wicked. I get the feeling it will just go back to being something I ignore.

 

I think the other issue I have with it is I hate abbreviations. Seriously, how hard is it to type you, laugh, California. Reading tweets is like having my fingernails pulled.

[AngelsLongBall]

I enjoy the porn stars sending out selfies

[Tank]

last year my principal made all of us create a twitter account so we could follow educational people and sites. seems like the majority of them do nothing but post links to big long articles, which makes me less inclined to read them when i'm on my phone.

 

there's one educator that i've heard several times at conferences. he's outstanding. always pumped his twitter account and all the fun things he does, so he was one of the first people i followed. dude hasn't done squat in a year and it's been a real letdown after how much he promoted it.

 

i've had a few people follow me, but i have no idea who they are and don't really know how to get rid of them.

 

i don't like twitter. it's a mess. i'd dump it if i could.

[nate]

last year my principal made all of us create a twitter account so we could follow educational people and sites. seems like the majority of them do nothing but post links to big long articles, which makes me less inclined to read them when i'm on my phone.

 

there's one educator that i've heard several times at conferences. he's outstanding. always pumped his twitter account and all the fun things he does, so he was one of the first people i followed. dude hasn't done squat in a year and it's been a real letdown after how much he promoted it.

 

i've had a few people follow me, but i have no idea who they are and don't really know how to get rid of them.

 

i don't like twitter. it's a mess. i'd dump it if i could.

 

The people following you are probably bots.  I have them too.  I just ignore it.

 

Yeah a lot of people I thought would be worthy of following were pointless.  It is really good for headlines though.

[Brandon]

I enjoy the porn stars sending out selfies

The funniest thing is when someone told me they have things like Amazon wish lists and people would buy them shit for free. That's awesome.

[mp170.6]

Can someone explain Instagram to me?  What does it offer that Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr don't have for sharing photos?

[Brandon]

Someone will explain it better, but it's just picture sharing.

I don't use it, but my better half does and I will say it seems dandy. The whole pin thing is great. If I have a style or cooking recipe question she can look it up there and see all the pins associated with the question and get visual answers, I think they also have recipe info with the cooking stuff.

[Rico]

I use twitter similar to how nate does.  I don't post anything, but I follow a bunch of sports writers.  Also a few celebrities that I like, Patton Oswalt, Anna Kendrick, Chuck Richter, Anthony Bourdain, etc. etc.  

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I have a Twitter account. I have tweeted once. I don't get the appeal either.

[mrwicked]

twitter laid off 336 people today.

lol. what a sh*t show.

[Adam]

I check twitter daily but I've posted like 4 times. There are a couple of horse racing dudes I follow that provide great content, but they retweet stupid political and celeb crap all the time. 

 

Can you turn off retweets?

[Tank]

i had to ask my daughter how to block people that decided to follow me, people i have never heard or seen before in my life. 

 

but i have to admit something embarrassing here . . . i decided to follow one direction on twitter so i could find out concert info in case my daughter asked. i think because of that some in the twitter world have mistaken me for some kind of serious fan and want to follow me. sorry, not interested.

[RallyMo]

I never understood all the people that said that Facebook was going to fade due to rise of Twitter.

Twitter has never had anything going for it that Facebook didn't already do better or couldn't adopt in a relatively easy manner.