Twittering
Let's be honest - apart from giving you the opportunity to spy on people, the best part about Facebook is reading everyone's statuses. Some people update theirs several times a day, others maybe once a week, still others never...
These statuses vary between the banal, the surreal and the incredibly dramatic, which all makes for some very entertaining reading.
I love the concept, and have had to discipline myself to only update my Facebook status once a day, tops. To counter this restriction, I even went so far as to introduce a Status Thread on my old online forum hang-out, the now-defunct In the Pond. The thread's introduction was to the delight of some and the utter irritation of others.
Anyway, take the same concept as a Facebook status, transform it into a streamlined micro-blogging service that works off your PC and cellphone, and you get social networking sensation, Twitter.
Basically with Twitter you use 140 characters to answer the simple question "What are you doing?" These updates, known as "Tweets", can then be viewed by your "Followers", whether they're friends, family, fans, colleagues or whoever - allowing you to stay connected in real-time.
Twittering seems to be what all the cool kids are doing these days (well, some of my favourite local bloggers), and I've been reading more and more articles about it lately (even though it's been rapidly gaining a following since 2007). So I thought I'd give Twitter a try.
I intend to use the service for both personal brain farts and bitching, as well as to alert people to important entertainment news and updates to this blog. Plus, I can justify this use at work as we're encouraged to experiment with new social media and see how we could integrate them into promotions by the big companies and corporates. Ha!
Check out my Twitter page here. I've also set up an RSS feed at the bottom right hand corner of this blog - now if only the bloody thing would update properly!
I leave you with this rather astute Penny Arcade cartoon about the dangers of over-using Twitter - and becoming a dreaded Twitter Shitter.
These statuses vary between the banal, the surreal and the incredibly dramatic, which all makes for some very entertaining reading.
I love the concept, and have had to discipline myself to only update my Facebook status once a day, tops. To counter this restriction, I even went so far as to introduce a Status Thread on my old online forum hang-out, the now-defunct In the Pond. The thread's introduction was to the delight of some and the utter irritation of others.
Anyway, take the same concept as a Facebook status, transform it into a streamlined micro-blogging service that works off your PC and cellphone, and you get social networking sensation, Twitter.
Basically with Twitter you use 140 characters to answer the simple question "What are you doing?" These updates, known as "Tweets", can then be viewed by your "Followers", whether they're friends, family, fans, colleagues or whoever - allowing you to stay connected in real-time.
Twittering seems to be what all the cool kids are doing these days (well, some of my favourite local bloggers), and I've been reading more and more articles about it lately (even though it's been rapidly gaining a following since 2007). So I thought I'd give Twitter a try.
I intend to use the service for both personal brain farts and bitching, as well as to alert people to important entertainment news and updates to this blog. Plus, I can justify this use at work as we're encouraged to experiment with new social media and see how we could integrate them into promotions by the big companies and corporates. Ha!
Check out my Twitter page here. I've also set up an RSS feed at the bottom right hand corner of this blog - now if only the bloody thing would update properly!
I leave you with this rather astute Penny Arcade cartoon about the dangers of over-using Twitter - and becoming a dreaded Twitter Shitter.
Comments
I am pretty sure that facebook is envious of the new verbs and wordplay that are coming from twitter. That must be a huge part of why they offered twitter $500m last year. "Status Update" just doesn't have much verbal usage. Twitter is one of the most brandable names of all time.
Anyway, my brothers and I got a bit carried away this year and decided to create a facebook app all around facebook status updates. It is called Status King. Not only does it have hundreds of the funniest facebook status updates on the web, but it also lets you turn your facebook status update into a t-shirt. We just thought that some status updates are so funny they belong on a t-shirt.
So what do you think? Are we on to something? Or are we just a bunch of loosers addicted for status updates?
I love its use in situations like the Mumbai attacks and US senate meetings - that's where it is especially fantastic. And I'm very curious to see how companies and organisations use it. I've seen one excellent example so far, where a web-zine was using tweets as teasers for new site content.
And Jeffrey, thanks for sharing. I'll be sure to check out your app. As for the T-shirt status idea, it sounds awesome. I'd probably wear something like that... even if it made me look like a dorky loser ;)
I think the tech savvy local population is discovering the usefulness of Twitter, but yes, the average person will most likely just see it as redundant since they 'already have to' update Facebook.
I for one like to kill two birds with one stone and use Ping.FM to update both from my instant messaging client-though I'm definitely more active on Twitter than I ever was on FB.