Rant About Twitter

Sometimes my posts are for your entertainment.  Sometimes they have a bigger purpose.  Sometimes they are for my personal sense of remembering things I did and act as a diary of sorts.  But sometimes, I just need to vent and this is one of those times.

About that twitter post you just sent to the entire world to read; directed at only one person who is not me: You're interesting on twitter and a valid resource to follow.  But I KNOW you "get" twitter, so those personal messages directed at one person, broadcast for the entire world to see is clearly NOT by mistake.  Text message, BBM, email, PHONES (remember those?!)...they all still exist you know and are perfectly capable of telling someone you have to speak with them.  You obviously want everyone to know you have this relationship with the person you are messaging and frankly, it looks pathetic on your part.  It's childish and unprofessional (and I say that because you broadcast this from a somewhat professional voice). Sure I want to know your little secret but if I didn't know you were telling secrets in the first place, I wouldn't care.  So mission accomplished.  You've made us all feel like we are back in 5th grade and personally, I hated it so now, I hate you.  OK no I don't really hate you but it's not cool what you are doing so knock it off please.  And thanks.  And have a nice day.  

Twobservations

Things I've always said and other people write on twitter:

@misskellyo: im so sick of buying these expensive dresses with cheap zips they always brake!
Anonymous: Why do the clothes in front of the tailors window always look old?

Shorty Awards

Nominate Humane Society NY for a social media award in the Shorty Awards

Running an experiment over here and seeing what  we can do with social media.  Please vote for @HumaneSocietyNY for a Shorty Award in #nonprofit.  Voting ends at the end of January, 2011.  Thank you!

"The Shorty Awards honor the best people and organizations on Twitter and social media.Nominations may be made through Twitter and this website, culminating in an awards ceremony that recognizes the winners in dozens of official categories, as well as thousands of crowd-sourced categories. For the first time, the Shorty Awards will also honor the industry's best agencies and social media professionals."

Celeb Twitterers

MTV posted their 4th challenge for the TJs.

Challenge 4 | Follow Me

Open for 3 days ‐ from 12:00am (EST) July 15 2010 to 11:59pm (EST) July 17, 2010.

Overview: Our TJ needs to be courageous and unafraid. We want to see if they can be magnetic and tactful enough to maintain the attention of a busy celeb. This challenge will prove that the TJ candidates can be persuasive, charming, and persistent.

Personal: If you could only follow one person on Twitter, who would it be and why?

Social: Convince one or more celebrities to follow you, support your TJ candidacy, and retweet you. If you already have a celebrity follower, you must try for another!

I decided to get behind fellow NYer and PRBC lover, Brittany James.  I like other candidates but @Bitty_Boop has won me over.  Check out her website and every possible way to support/contact her here: http://flavors.me/brittanyjames

If I were her, I'd hit up publicists I know already since many celeb twitter accounts are their pr peeps OR at least listen to their pr peeps.  She already got that idea which is awesome. Go Team Brittany! 

Too bad I'm not competing, I think I would kick butt at this.  I'll just now focus those energies onto my candidate of choice.  
Some very random celeb twitterers I'd want following me:
@ladygaga cuz that'd just be awesome. 
@drakkardnoir @NickiMinaj @liltunechi @iamdiddy @rustyrockets @snoopdogg @apulsk @russellsimmons @reggie_bush @Ogochocinco @moby @adrienne_bailon @iambenlyons @redhourben...  I found this site with them all: http://www.celebritytweet.com/

What celeb would you want endorsing you?

Best Time To Tweet

With all this hooplah going on in my life in regards to social media and particularly twitter in general, I have been working on proposals and a better results program for my clients.

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, perhaps because it was too soon to tell, but I am interested to see what the best time to tweet is. Defining "best" to me means essentially maximum exposure as well as maximum engagement ie retweeting and responses, and I find most people agree.

A simple google search for "what is the best time to tweet" came up with some interesting answers.

Gary McCaffrey posted a great chart! Bottom line he says is between 9AM and 3PM.

http://www.garymccaffrey.com/blog/2009/03/19/when-is-the-best-time-to-tweet-for-maximum-twitter-traffic-and-exposure/

Others have a more specific time, 9AM PST. The best time to get retweeted is Friday at 4PM EST.

In addition to suggested times, it is also suggested to RT about four times a day, collectively 10am was discussed, and to check out http://tweetstats.com/.

Random Thoughts From A Tweeter (Part 1)

@beccameyers

"Are there still photography classes in high school? Who still uses film and developes? It's a dying trade, but so is woodshop..."

Ruining The Fantasy

I read an article today about how Twitter is ruining celebrities. People are hearing things they don't want to hear out of the mouths of these characters they know from a screen and when it doesn't fit the character they imagine in their head, it's crushing. But with twitter, unlike other forms of media, these are coming straight from the horses mouth, making it that much worse.

This same feeling transcends into real life too as Irin points out in meeting fellow writers she admired. I had a similar feeling about meeting celebrities. When you feel like you know someone, or have this image in your head, and then meet that person and that image is shattered, the fantasy is over. You know longer look at them the same. I don't know why we think we know these people but we do and I don't know why we are confused when they are not how we fantasize them being, but we are. Twitter is only another outlet to get to the same failed feeling.

Chris Noth was the first person of a handful to do this to me. Mr. Big in Sex and the City may be "the bad guy" but there is still something mysterious, drawing and handsome about him to viewers. When I met him at a work event, it was so far from the person I had hoped to meet, it

was crushing. Realistically, you know these people are not like their characters, but you still have an image you hope they withhold and when they don't, it's such a bummer. I was dealing with this drunk slob kabob instead of a slick and put together man. So disappointing. I'd almost rather not get an inside look into these people's lives, their twitter accounts included because it only sets you up for disappointment (not always, but most times). But at the same time, it's like watching a disaster, how can you not look?!

Twitter RT Experiment

Tuesday March 30: I decided that tomorrow (Wednesday March 31) I am going to do an experiment on Twitter. I am convinced that I can RT anything I possibly want to say. Results to come in 24 hours...

UPDATE 1 (Wed 4PM): I don't know what to do. Someone tweeted and I want to RT with a response. Does that count? I haven't had any problems expressing myself and updating my status at all yet! What do you think? I am going to rule this as OK.

UPDATE 2 (Wed 4:15PM): No one has tweeted at me yet BUT what should I do about responses? I guess I need to change my hypothesis a bit...

UPDATE 3 (Wed 11PM):

RESULTS

Overall it was a success. Besides the little hiccups above with the response situation, I was able to find and RT everything I wanted to.

But my final thought is that I prefer to be original. There are common things like "good morning", "Matzah brie and relaxing" and "Air Tran sucks" but I didn't get a single RT today on my side. I felt disconnected. I felt like it was less personal. One of the reasons I think I connect with twitter is because I can add my personality to my 140 characters and with simply RTing, that can never come out.