I think Twitter is what you make of it. It’s a tool and each person should use it how they see fit. I realize it wasn’t designed to be an instant messenger service, but at the same time I don’t see why that means we can’t have short threads of conversation from time to time.

@Trudy Yes the lack of responses is what annoys me too. Glad you found some intriguing people, those are the ones to focus on for sure. I also love this blog, I’m a big twitter fan and it’s great to have a blog to chat about it all.

@Lindy It amazes me that we even have the technology to allow for soldiers who are deployed to communicate with their family at home. I think it’ll still take time for people to finally see the huge benefit that Twitter really is.

@Lori I rarely use the DM myself, it’s more for my really close business friends. I don’t want to get on there and DM people and drive them nuts, it’s already hard to keep up to our email inboxes. At the same time, I love the fact that I can connect with friends and share a private twitter chat. I can see your point about not following people if they don’t follow back.

@Kathy A great tool it is. I guess I don’t notice the jerks all that much, and I do like to get updates on certain programs but I don’t want to see that overused. Cool about Twhirl! I tried it and didn’t care for it, but may just give it another whirl.

@Debra How cool is that?? Just one tiny comment got you in contact with a bunch of new people. I love to follow back because you never know who you may miss if you don’t.

@Kristal I have met alot of people on Twitter vs. forums, I’m not a huge fan of forums but Love twitter!

@Rae I think it’s up to each person how they use Twitter. I don’t think it’s a sense of entitlement that we have, it’s just the fact that we want to get to know you. If you look at it from my perspective… I follow you, get all your updates, even reply then you reply back. But I don’t show up in your timeline at all, how can you remember me? How can I make contact with you on Twitter so you can see that I may just be someone you could have a relationship with or refer business etc.? I don’t think the @replies are enough. I agree with you on the replies, it’s imporant to be responsive with people.

@Kelly I’m so thankful you posted you offer us all some great advice to those who are just thinking on “business.” To your success & beyond!

@amy

@Loretta Love the virtual water cooler, I visit when I have a break for lunch or just finished a big project as well. And sometimes it can be just plain fun to tell eachother some jokes and talk less “biz” for a while.

@Matt You said it, those people could very well be future clients. It is an idea to have more than one twitter account, I do. But they are for different websites in other niches so the traffic is not lost. I think if you just want to be personal, Facebook is also a very good option.

@James Me too, when I’m finished all these @replies I will be featuring Darren’s site on my blog as well.

@Carolyn I sometimes like to follow it if it’s getting juicy but at the same time, yes if it’s going to take up too much space DM is a good option, we need to respect other people’s timelines as well. I too get disappointed when I @reply to someone and they don’t respond back.

@Thomas You’ve made an excellent point! That you will follow someone and if they fall into your scope then you continue to see if dialogue can happen. If they don’t, you just unfollow them. THAT to me makes complete sense, by problem is when people don’t even check you out.

@Ed You’ve brougt up some really great points but I’d love to show you my side of the @conversation Like I’ve said before, everyone has the right to use Twitter how they like. You mention that if you read every tweet it would take you 14 hours every day just to read the stream, but why not scan? I see what you mean it you’re interested in someone, then you’re showing a true interest. But what if there’s someone out there that could truly benefit your business? Maybe you’d miss them? Maybe Twitter was designed as a service one person could notify a bunch of people what they were doing, and not for chat like you say… But again we come to the realization that everyone uses Twitter differently. I personally really love Twitter, and wish I didn’t waste the time thinking if it would benefit my business at all because it really does. Thanks for your comment, you’ve brought up some interesting points about Twitter.

@kyle Thanks! I’ll be sure to check it out.

@paisley I think it’s great that Twitter has that private feature for those that are using it more for personal reasons. I don’t like to give out any personal info over the internet.

@Christhian Glad you liked the tips.

@David I think things can easily be missed as well.

@Vickie I knew that you could block people from following and I think that’s a good thing if someone seems a little nuts. I had that situation myself where the person was a bit odd so I blocked them. And yes, this is a great blog for Twitter users, lots of great tools!

@kellymccausey Yes, I enjoyed our late night chat on this subject. Thanks for also sharing here. It’s really important that it adds value to our busy lives and doesn’t take up tons of our time. Twitter is a great tool used wisely.

@Oren You know email is such a tough thing as well as DM we all get tons of email in a day and it’s hard to go through it all. Maybe he just hasn’t reached your message yet. At the same time, he needs to choose what he feels is valuable for the community here, I’m sure he has tons of people sending him things for this blog. For me, I would focus on building a relationship with someone that I would love to promote my tips and maybe you have I don’t know. This skill just tends to be easier sometimes for us women. Good luck with your tips!

@Carlos In one of the forums I frequent this exact message came across… Does Twitter feel like highschool to you? I just also mentioned that to Oren, that it’s best to focus on building a real friendship with someone before expecting anything in response or return. Thanks also for posting your comment, you’ve shown a bit of the other side to this and that’s don’t be the whiny kid that annoys everyone.

@Jennine The best part is that we can just stop following those that are doing these sorts of things. It’s the value that YOU choose as a user and that is not snobby at all.

i generally add people who tweet regularly, who make thoughtful or funny tweets, people who add value to my twitter experience. i hope that’s not being snobby

That’s a great post you put together, Although I have to admit that I have messaged you about a video I put together entitled TOP 5 TWITTER TIPS and asked you to look it over as I gave TwiTip a special mention at the end. But I got absolutely no response from you, which is pretty snobish. I honestly think that what your doing with TwiTip.com is fantastic and I’ll keep coming back as a dedicated visitor. I’d just like to see you practice what you preach.

Cheers!
Oren Todoros
http://www.seovice.com

btw – here’s the link to SeoVice Episode 16 again in case you missed it:
http://www.seovice.com/2008/11/seovice-episode-16-top-5-twitter-tips.html

I don’t want to be seen as rude – especially by those who have expressed an interest in me. But Twitter isn’t like a website based social network where I can add someone as a friend and only see them when I feel like visiting the site again. Twitter is my ‘virtual water cooler’ – it’s running by on my screen just about every minute of my day.

Who I follow back and why versus who I don’t follow and why is a crazy combination of professional interest and personal affinity – an algorithm that would surely rival Google for it’s complexity.

I need my Twitter stream to add value to my day – and only I can really judge what that value should be. I certainly want to add value back for those who choose to follow me – and if they enjoy my tweets, I think that’s accomplished whether I follow them back or not.

@Valeria ditto!

@Derek Good point! But I love sharing jokes etc instead of those long drawn out emails people in my family send to me.

@Priia I can see your point, why should you give somoene your time when they don’t give you theirs. It’s a two way street. My focus too is not to build relationships with everyone and their dog, but I look for people I may “click” with instead.

@amy Yes I agree it’s a great way to cast your net wider. Personally I’m not a huge forums and only belong to a small few and only post on one regularly, so Twitter has filled a gap there for me to be able to meet new people as well. I also think that sometimes people will miss your responses, I may try a few more times but then I would move onto someone else.

@Carolyn LOl! I love all the funny names we come up with for Twitter. Twitter Twits! I can see what you mean about filling up lots of space. You said it right, we’re all busy no matter who you are!

@Yu But don’t we all have a bit of an ego? I think the smart people realize it’s not all about them at all. It’s more about the twitter community and reaching new people. Yes, you need to have a good spirit on twitter, I use it mostly to connect and have a good time while taking a break from work.

@Chris well I didn’t necessarily mean “searching” for them
I just meant like if you haven’t talked to someone in awhile it’s easier to talk with them in real time than it is on the other sites where you have to wait for them to login. The search function on “Find People” is more an invite others type feature now which has changed recently from what I can see. One more thing, if you click the search link at the bottom and type in someone’s name you can see if others are talking about them and that might help you find people too.

@michaelkpoh Glad it didn’t sound like too much of a rant, because it was seriously irritating me. lol. I haven’t had tons of experience with being blocked, how do you even tell? Also, if you look at my response to Chris above, you’ll see about how to find out who’s talking about who, that may help. I was going to automate a message, but would never ask them to check out an offer, it would be a simple hello and maybe my website url. Haven’t done that yet though.

@Tumblemoose Yes, I like to just have fun with it all connecting with others. We are all REAL people.

@Larry yes, I’ve heard a party, water cooler at the office, lunch with a friend, etc. it’s all fun. Good point though, the people we connect with in the Twitter world is very different from an offline party, and even very different than a forum online as well.

@Christhian Thanks!

@Hector it’s good to not be a snob.

@David Glad you liked the article here, sucks that people don’t respond but maybe it’s good to try again?

@Stuart Thanks! I do the same thing when building other online relationships, I don’t focus on tons of people but one person at a time. People know if you’re genuine too.