To be totally unable to understand how Twitter works

[Catnao]

even though lots of old people, including my father, apparently are?

Oh, and on Friday it's 'Follow Friday' day - which means you tell other people who you think is worth following. You do this via the hashtag #ff.

I'm MrsKwazii I'm already following you BIWI and MmeLindt, in a friendly, non-stalkery way

Following you back, also non-stalkery!

It's fun when watching question time etc. As a marketer I have to be interested, but personally it's another time bandit like Mumsnet.

Loved Twitter, until it started to get full of people on my timeline who know each other in rl just having convos between themselves and not participating in anything else. Just dm or text!

Rant over

I use twitter for networking for my business

Its invaluable

Catnao you have done better than me... I looked at it after signing myself in, thought 'I understand none of this' and signed myself right back out.

But what happens with hashtags when someone misspells something (like the "Steven Fry" example, upthread)? Or if your child were colour-blingm would you have to "follow" both #colorblind and #colourblind?

Thanks for the info about culling followers, BecauseImWorthIt; it sounds very Jim Jones, but it's made me feel better. I imagine the etiquette about culling is looser than Facebook etiquette and angst concerning de-friending?

I got a twitter account a few months back and thanks to the likes of BIWI and MmeLindt did get into it for a while. I picked up a few followers (including a fairly famous person, randomly!) BUT I find it is just too time consuming for me. I find it easier to be involved with something like MN or FB where you can jump on for ten minutes a couple of times a day and feel like you are keeping up with it. With Twitter I can go weeks without checking my account, which means I will never be interesting enoough to follow. Actually, not that I am interesting enough anyway - another reason I have struggled with it a little is that my life really is fairly banal. And I am not funny.

BUT I do feel like I am missing out a biy by not being on it. Plus I have always found people to be really friendly and welcoming on Twitter - which was quite a shock after some of the stuff I have encountered on MN! (perhaps that is a reflection on the MN'ers on Twitter?)

I also struggle to say everything I want to say in 140 characters - I think I am a little too wordy for twitter.

colour-blingm

Ooops. See, I pride myself on my spelling, but it seems I can't answer for my typing!

Tried Twitter three times. Still can't get the hang of it. To me, its like when mobile phones came out and plonkers on the train would tell the person they were talkng to, every station they were passing for the whole damn journey.

I have just set up an account today and I am already following lots of people. Quite difficult to understand though. I am following some of you on this thread if that's ok.

bookmarking this thread to peruse later! I don't "get" Twitter, in the same way as the OP, but will try again!

Ok then, I've gone back on and I haven't tweeted (I feel so stupid saying the word tweeted!) since 19th December, but I'll give it another go.

If anyone would like to follow me, my twitter name is Cuba_Cat (my previous MN name). Tried to change it but SoftKitty was taken. I'll try to add some of you from this thread as well.

i have twitter but hardley go on it !

Ok, I've managed to follow BIWI and MmeLindt but can't find MrsKwazii.

llareggub What did you mean by Question Time set most of the hashtags?

And how do you add twitpics?!

I just don't understand WHY you would even want to read a lot of self-indulgent dross "tweeted" by people? Perhaps I am just a luddite, but I fail to see how it would be anything more than an irritant.

If you are following me, say hello so that I know you are a real person and not a bot. I often don0t follow those who have not yet tweeted.

Add pic: Not sure on Twitter website, as I use tweetdeck. On there you just click the little camera and upload.

Today, for instance, I have asked a question about American football, and had an answer from a guy in Wyoming - I would have trawled the net for AGES to find the answer to the question. On Twitter, I had an answer in 5 mins.

I asked about what team a person would follow in Wyoming if he were interested in American Football - using the #nfl.

If you ask a question put a # so that you have a higher chance of the right person seeing it.

Last week I had a golf pro advise me on guying golf clubs online - a follower RTed to a follower of his.

It is great for research purposes. You can find out all sorts of stuff.

I'm @mrsoliverramsay and I have added people but haven't tweeted yet. I am definetely not a robot although I sometimes feel like one at times

No idea how one finds TweetDeck, though it sounds like a useful tool. While it sounds like some business uses might work, most of my 'prospects' ill not yet have a web presence, may be complete newcomers to the net, and for them email should suffice.

Although I try to keep abreast of most web services, neither FaceBook nor Twitter seem professional enough for me to use with a straight face.

Yes, it may mean I will never get to meet some whizz-bang entrepreneurs, or younger business contacts (I consider both to be tools for teens and twenties, perhaps thirties too in a few years) but after a long time in IT, will give them a wide berth as I consider my likelihood of being 'won over' by potentially irrelevent services to be nil.

I tried it for a while and although I understood how it worked in principal I didn't see the point!
I much prefer a proper forum or FB where your conversations are contained and you can see everyone's contributions.

I also find it weird how many people are happy to have any old weirdo follow them.