And... HAWTaction Meets Twitter
Twitter this, twitter that. I tried to get into twitter for months, and I couldn't. I just couldn't. For those of you who don't know, twitter gives you the ability to follow people/organizations/celebrities as they write messages under 140 characters. (A message is called a tweet. Oh, you get to tweet, too, by the way. You don't just read tweets.) So, I signed up, followed a few friends, blogs and celebrities... and I found it utterly, disgustingly pointless. It felt like swimming upstream against a flood of information I wasn't interested in or that I could find elsewhere. Did I care that Bill was currently eating an ice cream? No. Why was CNN begging me to follow them on twitter? I can just go to CNN.com to get everything they are twittering about. Pointless.Then, someone pointed me to NewYorkology and everything fell into place: It's not about "twitter" so much as it's about whom you are following on twitter. For example, I love gizmodo. I read every post on that tech-friendly blog. But, I don't need to follow it on twitter, because - like most blogs - they tweet every post they do. But I'm already reading it... on their blog. Why do I need to read just the headlines on twitter, too? My life has no time for redundancies.
NewYorkology! [Choir of angels.] I'm getting tons of posts a day about things going on in my beloved New York City. It's not a boring, redundant service. It's a quick hit of interesting data to my brain, and I find myself checking in regularly, in fact.
BOOM. Hooked. It all fell into place.
Well, I've ordered my staff writers, Johnny Lead Foot and Jenn Cloutier to have accounts. The result? Fantasticness. This is something you want to follow. Heck, I'm following it.
Johnny Lead Foot? Sure. It's a perfect fit. He pops in a couple of times a day with a thought that will entertain you. Don't doubt it: it's JLF! Follow him at twitter.com/JohnnyLeadFoot. Don't believe me? Here are his tweets so far:
Jenn Cloutier? Sure. It's a perfect fit. She's already falling into Glenn Beck's possee, finding friends of similar ilk. You can follow her at twitter.com/JennCloutier. Her tweets so far:
[Oh, and HAWTaction is on Twitter, too: twitter.com/HAWTaction. We'll see if we can find something fun to do there, sassies.]
Related post: Get on Facebook Already [2008.03.06]
johnnyleadfoot I'm on twitter. You're lucky to have me.
johnnyleadfoot I'm dodging Death Panels.
johnnyleadfoot I woke up in a den of African lions once. They believed me to be a God. I didn't disappoint them.
johnnyleadfoot My favorite art medium is crops.
johnnyleadfoot The same species produced John Lennon and Dick Cheney? I call shenanigans.
johnnyleadfoot Shakespeare would pen both a comedy and a tragedy about my life.
Jenn Cloutier? Sure. It's a perfect fit. She's already falling into Glenn Beck's possee, finding friends of similar ilk. You can follow her at twitter.com/JennCloutier. Her tweets so far:
JennCloutier I hope twitter is a nice place! :)If you haven't enjoyed twitter so far, just follow us and we'll try to entertain you until you clap with glee. We aim to be your NewYorkology. If you are on twitter, why are you still reading this propaganda?
JennCloutier Glenn Beck is so vigilant, even at home!! Can we make him a founding father? rt @glennbeck: Keep being a watch dog. Look 4 radicals quick
JennCloutier Another day the liberals are trying to take my country from me and ignoring our founding constitution! Be vigilant! USA!!!! YAY!
[Oh, and HAWTaction is on Twitter, too: twitter.com/HAWTaction. We'll see if we can find something fun to do there, sassies.]
Related post: Get on Facebook Already [2008.03.06]
twitter language? How about a quick lesson in the twitter lexicon, so you aren't frustrated like I was starting out.
- @: This means you are talking about someone. So, if I tweet, "hey, I love @johnnyleadfoot," a reader will be able to click the johnnyleadfoot and it'll take them right to JLF's twitter page. It allows the reader to jump right to the source.
- @: If the "@" is at the front of the tweet, it is considered a bit of a private message. So, JLF's been getting tons of private messages from swooning fans, but you won't be able to see those messages on his page... you'll only see them if you go to the swooning fans' pages. It's a bit complicated, but you'll get it soon enough.
- rt: This stands for "re-tweet" and you MUST put this before
anyone else's tweet you are forwarding on. Plagiarism is taken very seriously on twitter. So, if you like one of JLF's posts and you want to "re-tweet," go ahead... but you have to put an "rt @johnnyleadfoot" before the piece you want to quote.
- #: This is a shortcut for search. So, if I'm writing about the
yankees, I can put a "#yankees" in my tweet. A reader will
click on it and be taken to a search of twitter for that term.
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