Monday, February 4, 2013

Twitterpated, Part 2

Phyllis the Groundhog in Twitterland
A little over a year ago, I took the plunge into Twitter, and talked about it in THIS post. I always meant to do a follow-up when I got a hang of the thing.

Yep, so here we are, 1 year later and I finally feel like I have something to say on the subject.

The thing about Twitter is that it's kind of like going to a ginormous party during a blackout where you can only hear snippets of conversation, and all the conversations mingle together into a vat of confusion.

 I spent many months tweeting a random comment here or there, and feeling like I was shouting into the emptiness of the Grand Canyon. And then, whoah . . . someone replied to one of my tweets, and it was like, "That was cool."

And then I connected with an actual friend and we had silly conversations in 140-character-spurts or less. And I started with the head bobbing. "Maybe Twitter isn't so bad."

And THEN, I finally got up the courage to respond to something with a tweeter I didn't know. . . .

And HOLY COW! They replied! And suddenly I started actually enjoying Twitter. Looking at it more than once a month. :)

The point of all this is that I finally have concrete thoughts on how to make twitter a useful (and FUN) tool. And I plan to share those thoughts, but just not this week, because I revel in brevity and this post is getting too long.

So while you wait for the exciting 3rd installment of "Twitterpated," feel free to share your thoughts about Twitter. And if you're on Twitter and I'm not following you, please leave your handle so I can! Because seeing what friends are posting is my favorite part. :)

And P.S. My handle is @MsVerbose.


16 comments:

Dianne K. Salerni said...

It's funny. You kind of have to be in the mood for Twitter. But there are sometimes when I'm looking for a bit of online social interaction that FB and Blogger can't provide.

It's fun, and it's like a snowball: Hard to start, but then it keeps getting bigger and bigger.

A couple months back, responding to a random tweet let to a Twitversation that resulted in me emailing Mexico City restaurant suggestions to someone I didn't know. (The original tweet had nothing to do with Mexico City.) Fun.

Old Kitty said...

Glad you are having a fun time tweeting away!! Yay!! Take care
x

Susanna Leonard Hill said...

Thank you for taking Phyllis to twitterland, Janet! She has never been and she enjoyed it thoroughly! I will look forward to your thoughts on how to use twitter. I've been on for, oh, 8 months or so, and I totally don't get it. Or I get sucked in reading all those interesting things people tweet links to and I don't get any work done. There's no middle ground! :)

Lori M. Lee said...

I love the mindless chatter on twitter. I also love the meaningful chatter. And just about everything else... except the obnoxious spam and people who abuse twitter by doing nothing but promoting their books. But those people are easily blocked :)

LTM said...

LOLOL!!! CUF, you are SO funny. I love this post: "It works! But I'll tell you how later." *snort* :D

No, I know exactly what you're saying about finally "getting" Twitter. The thing is, it's sort of a time-suck. Uhh!!! And I find when I'm on Twitter or Pinterest or Facebook... I'm not writing. :P

But it's GREAT for connecting with readers! :o) <3

Katrina L. Lantz said...

I like what Dianne said about twitter participation being like a snowball. When you first get on and nobody can see you, it's just like you're invisible -- a tiny snowflake in a blizzard. And as you make connections, your little flake becomes a snowball that grows and grows as it rolls along. ;p I've met a few people in real life who don't see the value in twitter, and I think it's because they aren't patient enough to get past the invisible snowflake stage. It truly takes time (and effort) to get anything out of such a big party.

Hee hee. Looking forward to installment three of Twitterpated.

Alayne Kay Christian said...

Phyllis is doing better than I am. Maybe this will be the year I take the plunge into Twitterland.

Jess said...

I love that blackout analogy. I still kind of feel that way. It's a great source for information, but I still haven't been consistent with checking Twitter. It's one of those, "Do I check Twitter, or do I read blogs...or do I take a nap with my little ones?" Unfortunately for my social media connections, the nap has been winning out lately. I figure the new baby's a good excuse, but at some point I'll have to get on the ball again :)

Stina said...

I kind of got bored of it because all I seem to get is endless streams of 'buy my book' or 'read my post' tweets. I usually ignore them and look for my friends' tweets. I really need to organize who I follow. I'm just too lazy. :)

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

I agree -- I was slow to get on the Twitter bandwagon, but now that I'm on board, I really enjoy it. It does take some getting used to, but now (I'm ashamed to say this) I'm sometimes bored by facebook (because of the lack of variety in my feed sometimes), so I head over to Twitter. ha!

Vivian Kirkfield said...

Yes, Janet, it looks like Phyllis enjoyed her 'tweeting'...I know there is more I should be doing with it...maybe one day I'll learn.:)

Carolyn V said...

Okay, I'm going to have to try out Twitter. I've had a hard time on it. But maybe I'll give it a go. ;)

nutschell said...

I started out as a reluctant Twitterer, too. Now I actually find a lot of useful little snippets there, and also try to share those that I find.

Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Teresa Robeson said...

Does Phyllis enjoy tweeting too? ;)

I love Twitter for info. I follow a whole bunch of info-based accounts though I also tweet with friends. I will reply to anyone who @ me personally (not just with a canned reply) but I find that not everyone replies. But I also understand how easy it is to lose track of correspondences since I've done the same myself, so I don't hold it against anyone when they don't reply.

Romelle Broas said...

Glad you jumped in. I liked the term you coined, "Twitterpated!"

Looks like Phyllis is "attached" to Twitter too.

Coleen Patrick said...

Phyllis looks like a Twitter expert to me. I always feel like I have to say something profound or funny. But I think you're right, it does get easier when you start actually chatting back and forth with someone. :)