Society & Culture The Definitive Twitter Thread

[red+black]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter * http://help.twitter.com/forums * http://search.twitter.com/advanced

It's about time we had a proper Twitter thread. I've had an account for ages (account # in the 24m range), but only got serious about using it in the last couple months. For a long time I didn't really understand what it was, how it could be used and for what purposes. One example of Twitter being of use was Virgin Blue tweeted about a sale on domestic airfares and within a few minutes I'd booked a couple cheap seats for an interstate holiday.

I can post to Twitter and have that also post to Facebook using the #fb hashtag, so that's convenient. I've been getting into checking Trending Topics for a laugh, such as http://search.twitter.com/search?q=#youknowyourfat. The search facility is also a good way to check current events, such as a celebrity death or scandal, movie reviews, sports news, etc.

I either use www.twitter.com, the TweetDeck desktop, while on the iPhone I used to use TweetDeck but now primarily use Tweetie 2. I've also heard good things about Twittelator Pro which just had a big update today (to v3.5).

So, what have been your own experiences with Twitter? I know some trolls will come on with their vitriole, and I welcome reasonable discussion, but try to limit useless posts that will not aid those of us that actually use the service.

 

[red+black]

While there may be 100,000,000 or so Twitter accounts, I am getting the distinct impression that Twitter has not taken the BigFooty community by storm as yet.

Let's see if I can find some tweets that might convince some of you that Twitter isn't simply "I'm eating fish & chips" and "About to go to bed, early start tomorrow". I struggled for some time trying to answer the question "What is Twitter?" And now that I am immersed in it, the answer I came up with was that "Twitter is whatever you want it to be." Dive in, follow Essendon's new captain @JobeWatson , get the latest news on the @AustralianOpen, or some celebrity or your friends, family and work colleagues. Get news and sport immediately. Follow trends, serious and not so serious. Twitter is the lean and mean version of Facebook, and it is open so that you can see what people are tweeting nearby or based on a current local or world event without having to befriend them. Can you imagine what impact Twitter would have had on September 11?

http://twitter.com/InfoVic/status/6915279948
- Free travel for the festive season: Free public transport travel on Christmas Day and after 6pm on New Year's Eve. http://bit.ly/4GIsBH

http://twitter.com/northkangaroos/status/6911485902
- #NMFC - North reaches 10,000 members. Help us achieve 30,000+ for 2010 by joining up today! 1300 KANGAS

http://twitter.com/mykimate/status/6909781346
- Fares are discounted for myki holders, with savings of up to 40% when compared to the cost of short term tickets: http://bit.ly/my-MetF

http://twitter.com/IMAXMelbourne/status/6712074530
- We've got 2 cool Avatar t-shirts & a figure to giveaway. Tell us what your fav James Cameron movie is to win. Open to Aus. residents only.

http://twitter.com/VicMarket/status/5165430077
- Want to see Diesel playing live and FREE? Get down to the Market this Sunday for the launch of Sunday Sessions: Live & Local! www.qvm.com.au

And when you need to wind down, how about @shitmydadsays or #youknowyourfat (sic).

 

[treefingers]

I've never used it before, seeing as no one I know uses it, so there's no point really. Is it possible to comment on other peoples 'tweets' like Facebook?

 

[RustyHawk]

Pretty sure Big Footy has a twitter account. You can follow all the action of Big Footy on twitter...or you can just log onto to BF....

I have a twitter account but havent used it after posting something really interesting. Something like "Im about to mow the lawn" or should that have read "yawn". Riveting stuff.

The other reason is that is it is so easy to forget you have a confidentiality agreement go posting away on twitter about people you see or interact with.

"The search facility is also a good way to check current events, such as a celebrity death or scandal, movie reviews, sports news, etc."

= great way for me to get da sack.

 

[red+black]

I've never used it before, seeing as no one I know uses it, so there's no point really. Is it possible to comment on other peoples 'tweets' like Facebook?

Sort of. You can retweet someone's post, also add a comment to that, mention someone by just posting @KevinRudd comment or direct message someone which is like a PM.

"The search facility is also a good way to check current events, such as a celebrity death or scandal, movie reviews, sports news, etc."

= great way for me to get da sack.

So many twitter clients for phones, especially iPhone and Blackberry. Not so sure about Windows Mobile and Symbian, but I'm sure there's a client or two for them also. I always check the news before work, also see the train cancellations even though I drive to work.

 

[red+black]

I have an account, although I don't think I've ever posted on it.

I basically use it to follow poker players and a couple of poker news sites to keep up to date.

It doesn't seem to have caught on at all in Australia.

I considered creating an account for 6 months, then did, then didn't use it for another 6 months. Yes, it is brilliant for poker, I follow quite a few poker players and poker news sites.

There's probably a report somewhere about Twitter adoption in Australia.

 

[red+black]

Australia pushes internet censorship; Twitter erupts
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/12/21/australia-pushes-internet-censorship-twitter-erupts/

Twitter reacts to Australia's internet filter
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/30073/53/

Twitter About To Bring SMS Service ‘Down Under’ With Telstra
http://itechreport.com/2009/12/22/twitter-about-to-bring-sms-service-down-under-with-telstra/

Australia tells its bureaucrats to get tweeting
http://www.news.com.au/technology/a...-to-get-tweeting/story-e6frfro0-1225808340683

Journalists take to the Twitterverse
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...the-twitterverse/story-e6frg996-1225742438644

An indication of Twitter's popularity is Google and Bing including tweets in their searches:
Twitter enters Bing, Google universe
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/aus...-google-universe/story-e6frgamx-1225789897831

Good twitter, bad Twitter
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/good-twitter-bad-twitter/story-e6frg8n6-1225787521784

Twitter boss optimistic as growth slows
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...-as-growth-slows/story-e6frg90f-1225789298662
Twitter's top five growth areas are Britain, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and the US. Launches of mobile Twitter services in India and Japan last week are expected to cause use in those countries to surge. "We think of Twitter as not a social network but an information network," he said.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...-as-growth-slows/story-e6frg90f-1225789298662

 

[THRILLHO]

If you want to follow Australian politics, get a Twitter account. Twitter exploded when the Liberal leadership spill went down.

I dont like Twitter, dont have a Twitter, not interested in a Twitter. But, I do wish there was a site that filtered the best tweets into categories for me to skim through occasionally.

 

[HSSB]

Its now for 3 customers until March 31 2010, so I think I'm gunna start using my account.

 

[red+black]

Its now (free) for 3 customers until March 31 2010, so I think I'm gunna start using my account.

http://www.three.com.au/twitter


And here's another news story: Mall of America tweets parking info

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/22/mall.parking.tweets/index.html

 

[Ed_Gein]

I have an account. But have never used it. lol

That 'tweet' word is just too funny to be associated with.

 

[Damon_3388]

Doesn't mobile Facebook kind of make Twitter unneccessary/surplus to requirements?

 

[red+black]

Here are some comparisons
- http://mashable.com/2009/08/01/facebook-vs-twitter/
- http://www.twitip.com/twitter-versus-facebook/
- http://www.watblog.com/2009/12/29/recap-2009-facebook-vs-twitter/
- http://thejakartaglobe.com/news/fac...own-hall-and-twitter-the-fastest-media/349990
- http://thejakartaglobe.com/home/2009-the-year-of-twitter-and-facebook/347140
- http://mashable.com/2009/12/27/twitter-facebook-2009/

 

[Damon_3388]

Here are some comparisons
- http://mashable.com/2009/08/01/facebook-vs-twitter/
- http://www.twitip.com/twitter-versus-facebook/
- http://www.watblog.com/2009/12/29/recap-2009-facebook-vs-twitter/
- http://thejakartaglobe.com/news/fac...own-hall-and-twitter-the-fastest-media/349990
- http://thejakartaglobe.com/home/2009-the-year-of-twitter-and-facebook/347140
- http://mashable.com/2009/12/27/twitter-facebook-2009/

Even after reading a couple of those, for those who do use the Internet on their mobile, I still don't see why you'd bother setting up a Twitter account if you already have a Facebook one. A status update is a status update, and people seem to create them/respond to them pretty quickly on Facebook anyway (even quicker now that lots of people use Facebook on their mobile). I still see Twitter as just a status update medium, without the other stuff that Facebook provides, and therefore it's unneccesary for me. And If you're deliberately expressing your personality differently between Facebook and Twitter, maybe you've got too much time on your hands I'm not that obsessed with other people or celebrities that I need to follow them on Twitter. I update my Facebook status at most once per day (sometimes as infrequently as once a week), and even then I feel like I'm bombarding people with useless information about my life. Especially considering I never use the Internet on my mobile, I don't have time/care enough/don't think other people are that interested in my day-to-day movements to run another social networking account that only provides status updates.

 

[red+black]

I use the internet constantly on my iPhone. I presume you don't have an iPhone. There are almost a dozen good Twitter apps for iPhone, whereas there is just one for Facebook, and the main developer quit. The Facebook app is ok but it needs further development.

I find a lot of the other stuff that Facebook provides as useless, such as all the stupid games. And most of the applications are a waste of time too. However, groups, fan pages and photo albums are very handy and useful.

Let me see some of the things I use Twitter for:
- news updates, local and international (I now do this rather than manually going to news.com.au etc)
- current news on poker (tournaments, players, etc)
- apple/mac news and updates
- other technology news such as from iPhone app developers
- updates from Vic Police
- direct podcast links from ABC local and news radio

 

[red+black]

You may have seen people on facebook today posting a colour as their status. I checked Google to see if I could find what the hell was going on. No luck. But then I did a search on Twitter, and voila, I found the answer and heaps of discussion on the matter.

OK this is a rather meaningless topic, but Twitter is probably the most immediate way to find out something. Someone rumoured to have been killed, heard something about a terrorist attack somewhere, looking for news about just about anything, searching Twitter is probably the quickest way to an answer.

 

[THRILLHO]

I found it on google...?

 

[red+black]

Look who started tweeting for the very first time today

http://twitter.com/BillGates

And yes it's really him as he has a verified account.

 

[Sunday Red]

Good topic.

I thought Twitter was a load of crap for B grade celebrities and attention whores to grab even more of the limelight. However having used it for six months now, it's a great tool to follow people and topics that you're interested in. As mentioned in the OP, it's a great source of bargains, exclusive news and interactivity with brands that you otherwise wouldn't receive.

On that last point, it's interesting to note that a 140 character correspondance from a company to a consumer is an acceptable form of communication rather than a formal 'Dear Sir/Madam' e-mail or letter. I think it's great.

It's amazing how much interaction I have had with companies and brands over social media. Most positive experiences and a couple of problems that were quickly sorted out all in a few characters and mouse clicks.

Anyway, here are some of the people/teams/organisations that I follow:

St Kilda Football Club - always quick with team news, updates etc. nice touch adding player birthdays and they always respond to fans.
http://www.twitter.com/metrotrains - good info on line outages, delays and news
http://www.twitter.com/mykimate - same as above, but for the god awful myki ticketing system

http://www.twitter.com/ChasLicc - the guy is a tosser, but Chas Licciardello always has something amusing to say
http://www.twitter.com/common_squirrel - lol, just check it out
http://www.twitter.com/newlywedsontjob - a bloody awesome practical joke - be sure to read this one from the bottom!
http://www.twitter.com/JohnHowardAC - an amusing fake feed from our former PM
http://www.twitter.com/selectaustralia - awesome if you're a geek like me and collect sports cards
http://www.twitter.com/MCC_Members - all news and updates from the MCC
http://www.twitter.com/melbournerebels - Melbourne Rebels new Super 15 team (don't know if this one is official??)
http://www.twitter.com/TourettesWorld - this is ****ing funny you ****ing ****!
http://www.twitter.com/FakeAPStylebook - very amusing for anyone who knows anything about journalism
http://www.twitter.com/APStylebook - the REAL stylebook (which has less followers than the fake one!)
http://www.twitter.com/bbcsport - regular sports updates from the Beeb
http://www.twitter.com/bushrangers - Victoria Bushrangers cricket
http://www.twitter.com/SENNEWS - breaking sports news from SEN
http://www.twitter.com/Freo_Dockers - a brilliant and fake account taking the piss out of the Dockers
http://www.twitter.com/AustralianOpen - super during the summer of tennis

 

[Hard Ball Get]

No interest in Facebook so I have no interest in Twitter

 

[Pumbi]

No interest in Facebook so I have no interest in Twitter

Which would equate to having no interest in this thread, would it not?

 

[Hard Ball Get]

Which would equate to having no interest in this thread, would it not?

Not necessarily.
When bored and I have time I usually read most threads on the General Discussion board. The opening post was trying to promote the benefits of Twitter. It also allows me to see if it is worth me getting one.

I read it and confirmed that it did not interest me. So now I have very little interest in this thread.

 

[Sunday Red]

Not necessarily.
When bored and I have time I usually read most threads on the General Discussion board. The opening post was trying to promote the benefits of Twitter. It also allows me to see if it is worth me getting one.

I read it and confirmed that it did not interest me. So now I have very little interest in this thread.

Simply out of interest, why would it not appeal to you? I can understand people not wanting to post updates, but I can't see how it's a bad thing to remain in touch with subjects that interest you.

Your footy club, news, any shops or brands that you like. It's like receiving a targeted feed of things that are relevant in your life. Sure, there's a lot of shit on Twitter, but you can pick and choose what to follow.

People love to knock it, but a lot can be said for delivering you content that you enjoy.

 

[.Shotties.]

http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays

Ramblings of your standard angry old man

 

[Hooley McBoob]

I love twitter. It's great for instant feedback on random topics and for the occasional awesome moment when a celebrity replies to your tweets.