Who's using Twitter?
 

and what do you use it for?

I use it as a news feed mainly - I follow people who have similar interests.

It's also fun. I have some old friends on it and have met some new ones.

Using a Twitter client that is location aware allows one to keep up with local stuff - even very local, like in the neighborhood.

Follow me here.

My opinion of it has continued to evolve, but it has a high utility value to me.

FWIW.

I've pulled back from all the social networking sites. I still post here and at a few other BBSs and blog but at some point I got tired of the whole "facebook status" thing. It started to feel like high school all over again - cliques, who has what friends and what are they doing, etc. I canceled my facebook account and ignored the other ones. As a result, twitter, which I never really got into, is now a non-starter for me. But ymmv.

Twitter is for the people who are just way too socially busy w/ all of their crap to maintain a Face Book or whatever page. I find twitter to be one of the most annoying things on the net. Essentially, it's "Face Book" for the text happy crowd. 1/2 of the executives are on it here at work. You can tell from their posts, how "productive" they are. Their lack of respect for the company they work for and the folks under them, may have slightly tainted my view. Then again, I'm someone that still hates cell phones.

Twitter is like a religion at my employer, which is why I stay away from it.

No social networking for me other than LinkedIn and I rarely use that. I even avoid texting mainly because the devices (phones) make it a PITA... I like IM on my computer for work tasks as my development team is usually spread over the country. Communicating with friends and family is 100% voice.

Still chasing the dime.

Tweet.

The only thing I use it for is tracking the location of the Kogi Korean Taco Truck!

Luddites.

Is twitter for twits?

No, I am to busy wasting time here.

No, I don't bother. I looked at a couple of people's pages, and there's nothing that can really interest me in that small of a space. It's not like Facebook where I use it to send much longer personal messages back and forth to people I grew up with.

I am surprised you feel this way, Todd.

A very small percentage of the folks or organizations I follow on Twitter use the service for "status updates." It's a source for fast-breaking news and announcements. I follow the ARI (Rand Institute), Ars Technica and a brain surgeon working on an iPhone app, among many other interesting people/groups. Not many "I am eating a popsicle now" updates.

Besides, it's 100% opt-in, i.e. you have total discretion over whose stuff you get.

But, like you said, "YMMV."

Take care,

I use twitter. I follow the few of my friends that have it and several bands and some graphic artists and demonbaby. Mostly it serves as minor comic relief throughout my day. Might start following kurt now.

Not only do i not use it, i've never even heard of it before.

Doesn't work with Sprint SMS.

I've registered, but haven't really found much use for it yet. I'm not on Facebook at all, because I doubt anyone would care what I'm doing at any point in time, and I feel the same about them. I am already on information overload without this stuff.

Tinker for Twitter goes live Tuesday.

Basically, you set-up key word based events that trigger a Tweet to your account when the key words are found in a Tweet. This is going to be a big deal if truly real-time news is important to you.

Source: TechCrunch

FYI.

Chuck Norris' Twitter account.

I've been into various social networking tools for a long time. Maybe it is just burnout, but since moving into my current work I don't feel the need to chase "fast-breaking news". That used to be the focus of my work, but now I actually have to get stuff done ;)

I get enough data in my brain every day. I also don't do email push. I want to control when I get my email. And if I want to get up to date, I'll go to a handful of places when I want to rather than have them pushed to me. To quote my son, it is about "controlling the question."

L O L

Bogus, IMO.

I think it's real, but that's just a guess. No activity on the account at all. Maybe the Twits are reserving it for him but he doesn't want it . . . yet.

Chuck Norris on Twitter:

"Round-house kicked a grisly bear for fun. Ate its heard for breakfast. Vanquishing my enemies no longer brings the satisfaction it once did. Perhaps a trip to North Korea next month will bring some enjoyment. Round-house kicking Castro two years ago didn't bring the press coverage I thought it would."

"Got visited by the Secret Service today. Something about my fist and feet posing a systemic risk to the president. I glared at the two guys until they burst into flames. Perhaps a trip to DC is in order..."

I am, therefore I Tweet.

Since I'm in Internet marketing, I use it to keep up with the thought leaders in the category.

Descartes called and said you might be dislexic. :D

My counterpoint to this is that it is easy to spend too much time keeping up with others and not enough time doing one's own thinking.

Yes, well, that may be a danger, but I can risk 10 minutes a day.

Excluding web forums, the only social networking site that I have an account on is LinkedIn. Most of my network (90%) is company/trade/business related - ie: IBM SAN storage content.

That being said, I really don't understand the appeal of all these myspace/facebook/tweety...etc sites. And blogs? Aren't they just someone account in great dramatic detail the day to day events of their miserable existence? Do I really want to read about someone else's pathetic life? No, not at all. It's bad enough I know too much about you guys here on Pelican! :eek:

Sometimes, life is better when it is lived 'off the grid.'

Side note: when I come home from work, about a block away from my house, typically there are two boys that are outside playing ball. Kudos to them and their parents for making interaction in the real world a priority! Sadly, most kids these days are too busy updating their facebook/tweety/whatever blogs to bother with kicking the ball around with the neighbor's kid. Sad thing, really.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now -- this is starting to sound too much like a blog! :eek:

-Z-man.

That's a good counterpoint!

But, one doesn't need to spend too much time a day sharing one's own thinking with others.

Good ideas or interesting thoughts don't have much meaning or value if they are unknown . . . IMO.

FWIW.

True. There's that pesky balance thing. I just found that I struggle with balance and it is far too easy to spend my time "sharing" and not enough time "working." So I trimmed off the "sharing" opportunities. I'm down to my blog (which is more for me than anyone else) and this place. I also try to have actual analog conversations as well.

For what *that* is worth :p

Interesting stuff.

I was actually not thinking about a social tool, but rather as a way for my business to connect / interact with customers.

Twitter is a stupid sounding name, but it seems to have gained a lot of popularity recently. I thought it might be worth investigating.

I was thinking we might use it for something along the following:

- get feedback on prospective product ideas
- share updates on products while in development
- show progress updates on projects
- links to interesting information we find relevent to our customers
- .... other things?

Based on the replies here, maybe twitter isn't resonating with our customers - wrong demographic.

I find the 140 character format really limiting. When I look at a Twitter home page, it looks like a bunch of disjointed text clips. Confusing.

Maybe I am not doing it right.

Chuck, use Surveymonkey.com to ask questions on an isolated page on your site.

Send out emails to people who sign up, asking them to give you feedback, linking back to that survey page.

I Tweet, Therefore I am.


Sorry just had a philosophy test today over Descartes. I couldnt leave it alone.