Twitter

[woodrot]

go on,sell this to me

NO sacrcasm , but tell me why this is so good - I am failing to get this at all

[MrBen]

Think of it as having a neutral state. It's neither "good" nor "bad". Twitter is just a channel or medium by which to get lots of small nuggets of relevant info to lots of people quickly. Relevant in the sense you can choose what you want to receive.

What's interesting in these still early days is how badly most businesses, and often people, use it (like most social media). They're on it because they feel they have to be rather than working out what they want to achieve. There's also little in the way of decent filtering of individual feeds so it's all or nothing.

[????]

I don't get it either. Registered and just stopped using it within days, even worse than Facef*ck

[DulwichDeviant]

DELETED

[LadyDeliah]

I like it because I get breaking news from lots of news channels, as well as information on legal changes, human rights and links to activists around the world.

I don't do most politicians or the sleb stuff, but if I wanted to I could get info from them. I feel that there is enough of that already in the mainstream media, so I use Twitter as a way of finding out things that are going on in the world that are not always covered by mainstream media.

[Huguenot]

How do you sift through the 250 million tweets per day to find the ones that aren't covered by the mainstream media but are still worth reading?

How do you check them for accuracy?

Is it possible that in fact the tweets you're reading are from self-selecting activists with little grasp on either evidence based reporting or discretion?

Is it possible that these are in turn distorting your view of the world and reinforcing mildly paranoid suspicions to the point that they become "real"?

[LadyDeliah]

Add me and see for yourself!

[katie1997]

I have to confess I first signed up to twitter about 3 years ago (a bit like Mr Ben's example where those businesses sign up to it without knowing what they want to achieve and do it for the sake of it) and thought 'is this it?' Rubbish.

But now I have tried it again (early adopter I ain't) and I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm still a bit unsure of how to use all the functions properly and there's probably a way to better order or group info I receive.

I can check what's trending in India, Glasgow, London. I have found out about volunteering stuff I'm interested in doing here in London, a training course in Italy, China's interests in shale gas, signed up for a Scandinavian baking course, got recommendations for a builder in Norfolk, what Franklin's are doing for Burn's Night and what they are selling in the deli tomorrow, Director of David Tennant's film premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival, .... and crucially, I now know what Nigella's family are having for breakfast tomorrow ;)

Give it another go, follow wisely and you might just enjoy it. Or perhaps not.

Oh, and if you run a business, for example, a restaurant, its a great way of quickly informing existing customers and has huge potential for reaching new customers on offers/menus/ what specials you have on that day and so on.

Edited: just because.

[Huguenot]

I' m not sure that wee, witty and cute girls who don't believe in climate change should be allowed to volunteer for anything that doesn't involve painting a bridge.

Thus I find it an absolute menace that I should be considering asking her help on how she does all these things on twitter.

Do you have to keep looking at the page to see all these things?

[katie1997]

Huguenot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I' m not sure that wee, witty and cute girls who

> don't believe in climate change should be allowed

> to volunteer for anything that doesn't involve

> painting a bridge.

*grits teeth*

*counts to ten*

> Thus I find it an absolute menace that I should be

> considering asking her help on how she does all

> these things on twitter.

*smiles*

> Do you have to keep looking at the page to see all

> these things?

Fisked specially for you Huguenot. Yep you do, but its quite nice when you're on a nightmare bus journey to scroll through these snippets on the way home. I think it suits well as a phone application.

Once you've found some decent sources to follow, then I suppose you can also click to see their previous tweets. Often you just want to get good links to articles rather than simply read the tweet itself. Sometimes you just want to know when those crazy scientists first managed to record the sound of jelly wobbling (July 2008). I think you need to weed out who you follow once you get used to knowing what works for you and what info you like.

You can make lists (I haven't used this feature yet so don't know if this makes it easier). There's a useful little button you can click to check 'trends' around the world. For you, I just had a quick look at Singapore and 'Happy CNY' and Chinatown seems to be the going thing ;)

[Huguenot]

Chinatown at CNY is like Oxford Street on January 6th - pointlessly packed with people who have gone along to see other people at the Sales, but are in fact watching them thinking they are people at the Sales...

[StraferJack]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/11/how-i-learned-to-love-twitter.html

[woodrot]

can someone, in less than a minute, justify why this is worth $20bn?

[Loz]

One word: potential. All it needs is someone who can work out how to make money from it.

Try and create a media outlet from scratch with an audience of 150 million.

[Burbage]

woodrot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> can someone, in less than a minute, justify why

> this is worth $20bn?

It's facebook for people without friends.

[Mick Mac]

I'm beginning to enjoy Twitter.

These companies maximise their user base before attempting to monetise. Some don't need to monetise to float.

People don't pay for social media. The value is in the perceived added value given to it by advertisers and businesses. None of this value can be quantified to any tangible level but it's where the captive audience is these days. Advertisers have to go where the people are and will pay.

Other than advertisers I can't see where else Twitter will make money and it does have to as shareholders eventually seek a dividend.

It could start charging business users to tweet or to use the Twitter symbol. To date they have used this symbol to advertise itself but there is a point where it's so well known that businesses perceive that they cannot afford not to be on it and will pay if required to do so.

[malumbu]

Friggin annoying and sycophantic. Well at least the exposure I have to it. BBC including fans and players tweets on football coverage.

Davina McCall saying on the Million Pound Drop "oh Jonathan bloomin Ross has just tweeted about the show". I don't bally care. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

Oh I am so angry.

But I have just found out that I have four tickets to the Brazil World Cup. Now how do I do this tweeting?

[Jah Lush]

Twitter. It's in the word. It's for twits.

[Salsaboy]

What Jah said but more for twats.

[StraferJack]

Apart from maybe mick did anyone read the article?

[titch juicy]

I think people that dismiss new things without giving them a chance are twits.

Personally; as a music fan I find it useful to get the earliest possible heads up on gig tickets, new releases, early listens, special offers or special editions- or to hear opinions from your favourite musicians, who they're listening to and finding out about new bands/artists that way and from other fans.

As a spurs fan it's good to engage with other fans- or to hear opinions from players.

As a movie fan it's good to get tweets linking to trailers for new movies, informaton about releases or tweets from your favourite movie stars.

As someone interested in news it's exciting to get first hand, live reporting of events, often before any big networks get wind of something. For example, at this summer's riots in Istanbul, a musician I follow happened to be on one of the main streets where it was all happening, hanging out a window live tweeting about it, posting pictures etc.

But apart from these selective things, the genius of the thing lies in the fact that as it goes on, you won't need to go looking for information you want, because it finds you. Your network of people you follow, and those that follow you almost self-tailors itself to your needs, through re-tweets etc.

It's very simple, but oh so clever.

[El Pibe]

"Apart from maybe mick did anyone read the article?"

Is it longer than 140 characters?

[Mick Mac]

StraferJack Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Apart from maybe mick did anyone read the article?

I didn't read it either.

[????]

The business (and I mainly mean small local type businesses), gigs, entertainment, your football team, for me poker, bit I get...a bit

it's just the rest - celebs and dare I asy it others, with a very few exceptions, thinking celebrity makes their 140 character opinions somehow worthy; the retweeting of supposed deep political insights (in 140 characters??); Inane, vacous crap on the whole...

Not a fan. wouldn't bother me if it imploded tomorrow (unlikely I know)

[Mick Mac]

Quids - without you it's doomed.