To just not 'get' twitter?

[Geckos48]

I dont understand how it works, I dont know how you have conversations on it.

I was hoping there was a forum for debate but it doesnt seem to work like that? You can just mention people in comments or 'retweet' what they have said?

What is the point of it?

Nobody makes anyone follow anyone. That's the nice thing about twitter.

I think people use it in different ways.

I have no interest in celebrities tweeting "I am having a coffee", I don't see the point.

As an instant form of protest it is a useful tool. So if you see something, say an offensive advert, like the BMW one, you can tweet the company and say it's being sexist/racist whatever and other people can see that and also tweet if they think it is offensive too, or if they think it is not offensive.

If you can't go to a protest or demo it is a way to show support.

I can see that twitter has some uses, but is there anything you can do with it that you couldn't do before some other way?

Some companies now use twitter to broadcast offers instead of sending them in email. I can't see a huge difference there and if you sign up to all your favorite places surely you are swamped in tweets you have no time to read.

Customer services may use tweet instead of email, but usually you can't tweet details like you would in an email so you have to call them in the end anyway.

Someone mentioned keeping in touch with others in your profession, but you can't have a real conversation on twitter so wouldn't a forum for say dentists work better?

I don't think the point is to "keep up" with Twitter - I certainly dont go back in time and read every single tweet since the last time I checked it. I proabably check it when I've got 5 minutes to fill - waiting for a bus, say, or for the doctor.

It's done 2 memorable things for me - I got to meet Gok Wan, and I got Jedward to sing Happy Birthday to my SN stepson.

"surely you are swamped in tweets you have no time to read" - this is what it took me a while to get my head round.

Twitter is a real-time medium, a continuous rolling feed - you are never going to read everything, you just pop in, maybe a few times a day, for a little while, see what is going on, and then leave everyone to it.

If you tried to keep up with everything that everyone you follow posted, you would be on there 24 hours a day. If you only follow a handful of people, maybe you could read everything they wrote, but I follow nearly 500, so there are new tweets popping up every few seconds.

You have to treat it a bit more like listening to the radio - when it's on, you hear what's going on; if you have it on all day, the same news comes round every hour. You don't worry that you have missed what was on the radio at 3am this morning. But of course with twitter, if you see a snippet of news that interests you, you can click on the link or look at what else that account has been tweeting that day to get more background.

Betfairpoker alone makes Twitter worthwhile. CRAB! CRAB!

I'm amazed that anyone not interested in the musings of strangers is on MN... The great thing about Twitter is that you actively choose whose posts you read. Undoubtedly there's a lot of drivel out there, but you simply don't follow it. I find it much easier to converse on Twitter than it is here, because people have actively chosen to read my posts and my voice isn't swamped in a huge cacophony of opinions. Don't get me wrong, I love MN, but for me Twitter is a more personal medium. It's all about the way you use it.

Thanks, it makes more sense now you say you don't actually read them all.

It is useful if, as others have said, you have a niche interest. And it's good for making career connections in the same way.

Having said that I'm trying to use it less often, because a) it can get addictive, and b) seems to be easily hacked (mine got hacked this week and my account randomly followed and favourited some pretty odd people

I sold a lot of diet pills.

I just randomly favourited. I now have some new, odd followers who think I want to be their twitter friend.

I've been on twitter for > 4 years and never been hacked.

I get a lot of strange people following and tweeting me though because they think I might be famous (I'm not, obviously, but I know 4 people who are (completely unconnected from each other) and they are all on twitter, following very few people but followed by huge numbers, some of whom obviously look at their following lists and follow everyone on them, not realising that they might be following someone's accountant or gardener or (in my case) university/childhood friend). I think people cotton on pretty quick that I'm not showbiz and just talk bollocks or rant about the council and the traffic, and unfollow quite quickly though.

I've never been hacked either. It usually seems to happen if you click on a link in a DM.

I think I only have one blue-ticked follower (also old university connection), plus a few of well-known-in-certain-circles music, literature & journalism people, but I haven't noticed people following me expecting inside showbiz/music/literary gossip. They would probably unfollow me pretty quickly if they did.

I actually don't understand how to use it. I registered and then got stuck. I don't know how it works.

ex what often happens is that one of my friends will tweet me about something e.g. a footy result or a book or plans or checking whether I've seen something (I'm often overseas for work and I rely on my friends to keep me abreast of STUFF) - something quite innocuous - and I'll get a rash of people following me, all of who will have disappeared again inside a week. Because apparently complaining about the traffic isn't very interesting.

It's not comulsory, you know. If you dont get it, or dont see how it might be useful or interesting, then you will be able to manage you life quite well without it.

Notta, what were you hoping to use it for, we might be able to make suggestions?

BlueStones - you've been hacked? Next I'll have to believe David Cameron when he says he didn't know nuffink about following an escort agency.

I follow but don't post.
It is stalking lite.

It is essential for my work. I follow journalists, politicians and organisations in my field and can see as soon as I log onto Twitter what the key news issues of the day are. It's great for sharing blogs and articles.
I do not use it at all for personal stuff.
My social media is organised around Facebook for friends and family, Linked In and twitter for work.

Twitter is also useful for contacting big organisations and making complaints - they usually deal with them quickly because it is all public.

I'm in Children's Books and for my business Twitter is essential. I connect with all my peers, my idols, my publishers, my reviewers etc etc - all in one fell swoop.

I've been involved in 2 amazing charity projects connected to my work purely through twitter.

When I tweet a link to my blog the traffic increases by 300%.

One of my colleagues does a famous live tweet during Downton Abbey. He's bloody hilarious. People log on just to follow his tweets.

I have spoken to famous people. David Walliams is following me. I had an amazing conversation with the woman who plays Molly in Sherlock about book shelves.

What other place can do that? You're never tied up for long as you only have 150 characters.

A lot of stuff I miss. I just scroll through stuff. I dip and and out when I need to.

Facebook is for personal stuff. I never ever post personal stuff on Twitter. For me, it's part of the workplace.

I've been hacked, but a swift change of password sorted it.

Just joined after reading this thread...very confused !

I don't use twitter because I don't understand it although i'm getting an idea of what it's about from posters on this thread.

I like FB because I've made some interesting friends from other countries on it. However I've seen different sides to some RL friends which has been a shame (unpleasant political views etc.).

YANBU

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