Grace Dent was only on the very periphery of my infoscape until I heard burblings about her 'How to Leave Twitter' book.
Today she published the most insightful, hilarious and cringeingly accurate piece possibly ever written about twitter.
I found myself nodding in agreement with most things but these even more so! :
12. I check Twitter on my iPhone each day within five minutes of opening my eyes.
60. I worry that Twitter has killed my ability to focus on one thought for more than 10 seconds.
81. I think if one morning everyone's direct-message box was suddenly, accidentally posted in the public timeline there would be rioting in international cities by lunch time. Most of this would be warring couples chucking bin-bags of clothes at each other.
82. I think most people don't realise that posting a photo on DM means EVERYONE who looks at your photo account can still see it. It's not private. I've seen two photos of my friends I wish I hadn't.
87. I find the way some people blatantly social climb on Twitter vomit-making.
92. I think there should be a meta-Twitter for gossiping about what we think other people are up to on Twitter
Read Grace's article in full : '100 things about me and Twitter'
This short list of 100 things missed out a few key things {as any list will!}
So I'll just tack on these few of my own:
101. It is the most incredible resource of smart, funny, clever, generous people, I am constantly bowled over by people's kindness with their thoughts, time and solutions.
102. Twitter friends will become real friends. Fact.
103. There is a meta-Twitter for gossiping about what other people are up to on Twitter. It's called the pub ;o)
***
How to get started...
If you're new to Twitter or have an account and don't know how to make it work, think of it as a local pub.
If you walk into the pub, stand at the end of the bar and don't engage with anyone, people will more or less leave you alone, except for the guys flogging the charity scratch-cards {the spammers} and you really don't want to talk to them, I promise.
So you need to stand at the bar and engage in the chat. If people are talking about football and you hate it, well move and find a new bunch of people to talk to. Respond to tweets, ask questions, retweet. Tweet your own views. Use the hashtags so you'll pop up in search streams. Do all this and very soon you'll find yourself engaged in the chatter.
Twitter is completely different in the social space as each and everyone's experience is entirely unique. Each person is engaging with different people, following different conversations and saying whatever they feel like.
You need to engage with the chat to get anything from it but you also need to be yourself. If you have a company and you want to use it for branding set up a different account, get familiar with the layout of the land first using a personal account. For the most part people on engage with business branded accounts if they are themselves in business or they want to complain about something.
Final and most important point. Unless you create a private account your tweets are wide open for all the world to see. THINK BEFORE YOU TWEET. Do not tweet anything unless you're comfortable with your Mother reading it or seeing it on the front page of the national newspaper.
After that. Have fun. Enjoy. And I hope you have even half the luck I've had with all the lovely tweeps who brighten up my days.
