Poll & Discussion: Is Twitter Still Awesome?

Is Twitter still as interesting and useful as it used to be for you?

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Just curious – I’m wondering how many of you still find Twitter to be as interesting and awesome as you used to find it.

For newer Twits, it may very well be. For those of us who were “early adopters”, we’ve got clearly different experiences. I remember Twitter before every television show and celebrity and news station had a Twitter account. Before every business went to crazy lengths to get followers. And before it became a place over-run with teenagers Tweeting about crazy sexual stuff. I remember when it was truly a networking place between colleagues, old and new. It was fun to go and see what some of the people I look up to in my field were reading or writing or talking about.

My personal feeling? There’s lots of clutter in Twitter these days. People who follow you in hopes of you following them back so they can increase their follower count, only to unfollow you if you don’t reciprocate, or once they’ve got you following them.

What do you think? Vote, and then discuss your answer in the comments!

Five Types Of Twitter Users You May Not Know Exist

by Senthil Nambi. Follow him @senthilnambi.

Celebrity

Be it a movie star, musician, CEO of a failing company, a comedian or that dude that married Demi Moore. They follow literally a handful of people, but have thousands of females following. In the case of Kevin Rose, there seems to be thousands and thousands of males following. (Say man crush three times in a row really fast!)

They will most likely not reply to your comment, although eagerly you might wait, hitting the refresh button every other second, only to curl up in a ball and cry yourself to sleep that night. Though their tweets are as mundane as “Taking a nap,” their hardcore followers still manage to reply to it with great enthusiasm. Examples: “Naps are great,” “Good Job,” “I love you Stephen Colbert.” Okay the last one was mine. Thinking back, maybe that’s the reason Levar Burton didn’t reply to my tweet.

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How to Make Twitter Less Like Listening to One Side of a Phone Call for Your Followers

Have you ever felt excluded by someone talking on the phone in your presence?

Image by lecercle

We’ve all been there. Out with a friend at a cafe having a good time when their phone rings.

They answer it and proceed to talk to the other person in front of you (usually quite loudly) for the next 10 minutes. You kind of get what they’re talking about – but because you’re only getting half the conversation it quickly becomes annoying.

You feel left out! You feel ignored! You feel like ripping the phone from their hand and showing it down their throat!

Or is that just me???

Twitter can be like that. While it’s a great tool for conversation – at times it can also become a little excluding to some of your followers, if you let it be.

Here is a quick Twitter tip that I think could help a lot of people become more effective, inclusive and engaging users of Twitter.

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