This, of course, is the world of social networking and communication.
I have to confess, that as is my style, I arrived somewhat belatedly in the rather confusing world of Twitter. I have a habit of that, but equally tend to make it my mission to embrace new things once I’ve worked out how they work and what they’re for, and to be honest that usually doesn’t take long if you put your mind to it. I think the jargon is “late but enthusiastic adopter”.
But here is where I’m already struggling. I am not convinced I know where Twitter comes in. It’s not that I don’t understand the concept: that’s simple enough - 140 characters to post or “tweet” your innermost feelings and reactions; a host of celebrities from A to Z classes, often mindlessly twittering away all day long, though I have to suspect that some of them employ a member of their PR staff to do so on their behalf. Or does Lady Gaga really sit on her iPhone and type it all on herself?
A moot point I suspect and one that really doesn’t matter terribly much. If you want to believe it’s her you can. I’m not too fussed one way or the other.
It does all seem a bit overwhelming at first to be honest, but with a bit of hard work you can pick up the basics in no time. And that includes the use of the # key as a sort of label, grouping keywords in a searchable manner. There’s trends – basically a list of the top keywords, twitpics – a means of posting an abbreviated link to a photo – remember those 140 characters! You can message people directly, re-tweet what they have said – a useful means of spreading information or interesting blogs for instance. Then there’s #ff where you promote some of your favourite Twitterers, on Fridays!
You can follow pretty much whoever you want – I do have a small number of friends who tweet, but only a couple on a regular basis. You can follow celebrities, popular television shows, or makes of cars – the list is pretty much endless.
Twitter is how I came across the world of bloggers, or rather re-discovered it, as a couple of my friends have blogged for quite some time. That was one of the most interesting aspects to me and although I can’t say I read all of their blogs all of the time, a lot of them are pretty interesting stuff.
Quite a few of the people I follow are political and here it seems Twitter comes into its own. The last Scottish Parliament elections were a splendid example of this, with the different parties punting their points of view, with varying degrees of success it has to be said. In my, naturally unbiased, view the SNP won this particular political contest hands down, and one of the more interesting observations I made was how the party message stayed consistent no matter who was tweeting it at what level of involvement. Some claimed the 2007 elections were the first real “internet” contests but my own view is that last year the internet came into its own for the first time in any substantial way.
Back to the “what’s it for” question and here it really depends on what you want it to be for. My brother for instance, never tweets anything, but follows the tweets of others. I myself tend to go through fits and starts, and often don’t log in for days at a time. It’s an instant source of news, of the more cutting edge variety than is to be found on the mainstream media pages. You want to know about gadgets for instance, and many do, then you follow the likes of the “Gadget Show”. Music, politics, television, history...the list is endless.
You choose who to follow, and then less often in my experience, they may choose to follow you too. Not that that side of things really matters unless you are one of those insecure people who keeps a daily tab on how many followers you have. I have to confess it can irritate me if I do notice my list has dropped a few, but (so far) I’ve not really taken the time to scroll through them to find out who “un-followed” me. Think friends and “un-friending” on Facebook if that helps you grasp the concept, though it’s not entirely the same.
Talking of Facebook you can link the two so that anything you put on Twitter appears on your Facebook newsfeed too. My local SNP councillor does that, and I have to say it was fascinating as a result, to be able to follow the progress of “Baby Nat” throughout the Holyrood election campaign, bringing back many memories of my own “Baby Nat” in the 1990s! The beauty of linking is presumably that your message reaches a wider audience, but personally I found the intrusion of the @s and #s of Twitter a trifle annoying over on Facebook so I unlinked the two fairly early on.
You can have a conversation of sorts on Twitter, and indeed two of my friends do just that. It’s not as easy to follow as a Facebook one though, but it is for instance, largely how I communicate with either of them.
And the bottom line is that communication is what it’s all about. Like anything on the internet there’s a side order of spam, but that’s easily removed. And just like any other social network, some people post too often for my liking and their own good. But because you can’t “hide” tweets from an individual, or at least if you can I can’t work out how to, and to be honest what would be the point, then you either put up with it or remove them from your list.
There is some kind of etiquette, or is it ”twitter-ette” about such things but on the whole I’m not convinced anyone follows it, and I have from time to time, un-followed someone simply due to the volume of tweets.
So back to the start and where does Twitter fit in. I’m not sure I can really shed any light on that to be honest. It appeals to some more than others, but that’s true of Facebook, lager and marmite too.
It can be fun, and if you approach it in that manner, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! I hope my short journey through the world of Twitter might just inspire one or two of you to give it a whirl!
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