It's also great for getting services to do their job, because companies don't like people to see that they're being incompetent. I recently had problems lasting over 2 weeks with my BT Broadband connection, sorted out within hours, via contact with them on Twitter.
I hadn't thought of anything like that? Perhaps I will persevere - and hope that, one day, someone might answer me....... ;-)
Something's going on anyway - this morning I can actually see my tweets on other people's pages - perhaps the Twitter fairy was looking down on me?! (Someone hinted to me that you have to have 'been around' for a while before this happens - but that doesn't sound very technical?! )
Twitter's simple, if you tweet somebody (and are using the correct @name) it will show up on their timeline under Tweets and Replies (click All). You can go to their profile page and see if it's there, you can even tweet them from their profile page, where it shows the quill in a box icon.
The basics are: use @ and get the username right. If you don't @ somebody then your tweet, a general one, will be seen by whoever follows you, on their timeline.
If you find the layout confusing, use a Twitter dashboard instead, such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. That way you will see all your twitter activity in columns, which is so much easier (your Timeline - Home as Twitter calls it in one column, your Mentions - Notifications as Twitter now calls them - in the next, DM's in another, etc, all easily modified to personal taste). Hootsuite has a web version and a desktop version attached to chrome, which you can use independent of being on a web browser.
I use Hootsuite as it's so much clearer and no need to have a browser open, Twitter seem to do their damndest to make their screen as complicated as possible.
Your tweets would only be on someone else's timeline if they retweeted them?
Or if they've replied to you and you click into the reply and can see your original tweet.
I love how hard it is to explain Twitter to people who don't get Twitter. I think it's one of those things that you either get, or never will lol
Funny you should say that - I do get the feeling that quite a few tweeters don't really know what they're doing, but bravely plough on regardless - I'll probably be one of those. (But I see that it makes you work hard for your rewards, unless you're using it for news - if you do actually want to interact with people, you need to be interesting! And not shy. I've only had one retweet and that was a quote - I clearly have a LONG way to go! But I'm a new week-old tweeter, so I'm giving it time..... )
If you find the layout confusing, use a Twitter dashboard instead, such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. That way you will see all your twitter activity in columns, which is so much easier (your Timeline - Home as Twitter calls it in one column, your Mentions - Notifications as Twitter now calls them - in the next, DM's in another, etc, all easily modified to personal taste). Hootsuite has a web version and a desktop version attached to chrome, which you can use independent of being on a web browser.
I use Hootsuite as it's so much clearer and no need to have a browser open, Twitter seem to do their damndest to make their screen as complicated as possible.
No worries I've always thought that Twitter is what you make of it - if you follow causes or politics, news or celebs, it's yours to make your own and enjoy, but Twitter itself certainly put me off when they started making it more complicated and I was relieved when I got Tweetdeck. Unfortunately Twitter then bought and ruined that, so Hootsuite saved my bacon and I love it , especially running it as standalone desktop app from Chrome.
I delved into it briefly but soon gave it up. It seems to consist of people making pointless comments that rarely have any merit whatsoever. Some of them seem to be under the mistaken belief that they are either deep and meaningful philosophers, or else witty comedians just waiting to be discovered. The constant insertion of hashtags is merely irritating.
Most of the content seems to be provided by illiterate morons and those who use it mainly as an outpouring for their Tourettes afflictions.
I delved into it briefly but soon gave it up. It seems to consist of people making pointless comments that rarely have any merit whatsoever. Some of them seem to be under the mistaken belief that they are either deep and meaningful philosophers, or else witty comedians just waiting to be discovered. The constant insertion of hashtags is merely irritating.
Most of the content seems to be provided by illiterate morons and those who use it mainly as an outpouring for their Tourettes afflictions.
Still - keeps them off the streets I suppose.
So many people say this, yet they don't seem to realise that Twitter is theirs, they can follow or unfollow whoever and whatever they like, so if you're following a lot of people who make pointless comments with no merit or people who you consider to be illiterate morons, then you choose to do that and suffer the consequences Rather makes the follower a bit of a pranny, rather than those the follower follows
As I said above, Twitter's what you yourself make of it, because you choose what you can and can't see, who you follow or not, and so you alone are responsible for what appears on your timeline (apart, obviously, from what those you follow say, they are obviously responsible for their own idiocy )
The follow/unfollow/block buttons are there for a reason.
ETA: Lists are a wonderful thing too, I have a list that's just newsfeed from various sources, so I can have a page (on Hootsuite you can have different tabs like a browser) that's just news (or just gossip, or whatever I choose)
ETA2: of course, you can also make your account private, cuts out a lot of the crap
Me and my OH used to think exactly like the above poster - then he had a go at it, and is now really into it (you cannot imagine how surprised I am by this!). So I thought I'd have another go myself after abandoning it aeons ago. As a Facebook user of many years, so many things go 'against the grain', but I'm perservering as I said above. You have to work at it! (I actually think that might upset impatient or 'needy' people?) We'll see.....
muggins14 - do you use Hootsuite as a free user? (I see there are payment plans.)
Latest on my Twitter journey - I set up both Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. For some reason, Hootsuite didn't appeal to me much so I closed it down, and now have a Tweetdeck window open. However, I'm not using it interactively, but more as a 'check' as to what is actually going on (with relevant columns such as Mentions, Activity etc.) - the actual tweeting I prefer to do on the Twitter page (with my pretty design! ;-)). This may sound weird, but it's actually helping me to make sense of the whole experience! (I don't know where I'll end up with this - but I do know it's really handy to nip to the Tweetdeck page to find out what stuff actually IS, if you get my drift?! I was getting confused by what all the @ signs really meant - it was not as straightforward as it appeared.)
If any other newbie is struggling, I do recommend this as a course of action - it does help organise the tweets into 'areas' that make sense (rather than just a streaming column, as on the Twitter page). I may not need it in the long run, but for now it's a good learning tool for me.....
Me and my OH used to think exactly like the above poster - then he had a go at it, and is now really into it (you cannot imagine how surprised I am by this!). So I thought I'd have another go myself after abandoning it aeons ago. As a Facebook user of many years, so many things go 'against the grain', but I'm perservering as I said above. You have to work at it! (I actually think that might upset impatient or 'needy' people?) We'll see.....
muggins14 - do you use Hootsuite as a free user? (I see there are payment plans.)
bib - most definitely, I'm just me using it for personal reasons. I imagine those who go Pro are companies and people who use it for group talk and communication as well as promoting their business.
I see you've opted for T/deck, it's all individual choice So much easier using a dashboard though, isn't it
Sounds like you've found something that works for you, enjoy tweeting
bib - most definitely, I'm just me using it for personal reasons. I imagine those who go Pro are companies and people who use it for group talk and communication as well as promoting their business.
I see you've opted for T/deck, it's all individual choice So much easier using a dashboard though, isn't it
Sounds like you've found something that works for you, enjoy tweeting
Thanks! I'll do my best with it (if half the world can use it, then so can I!).
god help all the phone zombies.. and the nerds.. of today if they had to live before smart-phones were out.. and all the latest hi tec equipment, like it was when i was growing up..
we had hours playing out in the fresh air. mixing with other kids to play out-door games.
i know times have changed. since the seventies. but it is for the better ?? corruption, peado's on line grooming.. people walking in a daze with smart phones in hand. just to look at their face-book profile. I dont think so..
I've tried a couple of times to use Twitter, and it just doesn't seem to work for me (and I kind of don't even know what's going on?!). My OH has tried to help me, but he just gets bored with my uselessness.
These are my biggest problems:-
- my OH and I follow each other - yet when I tweet him, it doesn't appear on his page
- when I tweet someone I'm following, it doesn't appear on their page either.
I'm sure I'm doing it right (I looked in Twitter Help to make sure), and I've googled my problem - but all I get are webpages so technical that you need a PhD to understand them (even the ones that say they're for idiots!). Nobody ever tweets me back (apart from my OH), and I assume this is because they can't see my tweets.
Can anyone help me? Or do I just give up again and go back to Facebook? (I mean - how hard can it BE?!) Twitter just seems too difficult and frustrating - I'm clearly not clever enough to use it.........
PS. The height of irony - I tweeted my problem to Twitter Support, but because it's not on their page and they can't see it, they haven't replied.......
If you want to get lots of retweets or people tweeting you, either heavily praise or criticise something like Britain's Got Talent or some current cultish show - you'll see action then!
I admit I'm hardly a typical user, because there is nothing anybody can possibly say that is so important that it can't wait until I get home. Even then, I only ever bother to look at it if somebody puts a link to somebody's comments on a football forum. It's rarely worth the effort.
I once used it to contact the author of a well known book and TV series but I really wish I hadn't bothered. She must fill her entire day composing totally pointless tweets that aren't remotely funny or interesting, in fact I began to feel sorry for her, as the sheer volume of them points to a clinical obsession.
I really do worry about the future prospects for some young users of mobile social media, because they seem to use it to replace original speech: "Hey, look what somebody's just Tweeted, etc". Each to their own, but that scary Black Mirror episode where everybody filmed everything happening in their lives on their mobiles is starting to look worryingly close to real life.
Also, with a known story, 'Ship sinking in Atlantic' how do you determine and latch on to the 'correct feed?
In the Twitter search box (with the magnifying glass sign), when you start to type in a word, suggestions come up, usually with the top ones being what's current.
Perhaps it's just an age thing, but why does anybody really need to have minute-by-minute accounts of "a ship sinking in the Atlantic"? Will it improve your life in any way? Why not just get on with enjoying your life in the present and then read the full account when you have time to spare?
Perhaps it's just an age thing, but why does anybody really need to have minute-by-minute accounts of "a ship sinking in the Atlantic"? Will it improve your life in any way? Why not just get on with enjoying your life in the present and then read the full account when you have time to spare?
I'm not that bothered which is why, in spite of being computer literate, I have never learned how to use Twitter properly.
I only really feel the urge when DS threads moan about info not appearing for a while on Sky and BBC and refer to Twitter but don't give links.
The Twittospace is large to start rummaging around then.
So I thought I'd take this opportunity to learn some tips from your good selves.
And thanks for the advice about getting a life. What's your excuse? :-)
Edit: Woo hoo, WTG me! Google suggests Twittospace is a new term (bar one)
Comments
Or if they've replied to you and you click into the reply and can see your original tweet.
I love how hard it is to explain Twitter to people who don't get Twitter. I think it's one of those things that you either get, or never will lol
The basics are: use @ and get the username right. If you don't @ somebody then your tweet, a general one, will be seen by whoever follows you, on their timeline.
If you find the layout confusing, use a Twitter dashboard instead, such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. That way you will see all your twitter activity in columns, which is so much easier (your Timeline - Home as Twitter calls it in one column, your Mentions - Notifications as Twitter now calls them - in the next, DM's in another, etc, all easily modified to personal taste). Hootsuite has a web version and a desktop version attached to chrome, which you can use independent of being on a web browser.
I use Hootsuite as it's so much clearer and no need to have a browser open, Twitter seem to do their damndest to make their screen as complicated as possible.
Most of the content seems to be provided by illiterate morons and those who use it mainly as an outpouring for their Tourettes afflictions.
Still - keeps them off the streets I suppose.
As I said above, Twitter's what you yourself make of it, because you choose what you can and can't see, who you follow or not, and so you alone are responsible for what appears on your timeline (apart, obviously, from what those you follow say, they are obviously responsible for their own idiocy
The follow/unfollow/block buttons are there for a reason.
ETA: Lists are a wonderful thing too, I have a list that's just newsfeed from various sources, so I can have a page (on Hootsuite you can have different tabs like a browser) that's just news (or just gossip, or whatever I choose)
ETA2: of course, you can also make your account private, cuts out a lot of the crap
muggins14 - do you use Hootsuite as a free user? (I see there are payment plans.)
If any other newbie is struggling, I do recommend this as a course of action - it does help organise the tweets into 'areas' that make sense (rather than just a streaming column, as on the Twitter page). I may not need it in the long run, but for now it's a good learning tool for me.....
I see you've opted for T/deck, it's all individual choice
Sounds like you've found something that works for you, enjoy tweeting
we had hours playing out in the fresh air. mixing with other kids to play out-door games.
i know times have changed. since the seventies. but it is for the better ?? corruption, peado's on line grooming.. people walking in a daze with smart phones in hand. just to look at their face-book profile. I dont think so..
Twitter for dummies
This should help.
But what do you search for and where?
Also, with a known story, 'Ship sinking in Atlantic' how do you determine and latch on to the 'correct feed?
I once used it to contact the author of a well known book and TV series but I really wish I hadn't bothered. She must fill her entire day composing totally pointless tweets that aren't remotely funny or interesting, in fact I began to feel sorry for her, as the sheer volume of them points to a clinical obsession.
I really do worry about the future prospects for some young users of mobile social media, because they seem to use it to replace original speech: "Hey, look what somebody's just Tweeted, etc". Each to their own, but that scary Black Mirror episode where everybody filmed everything happening in their lives on their mobiles is starting to look worryingly close to real life.
In the Twitter search box (with the magnifying glass sign), when you start to type in a word, suggestions come up, usually with the top ones being what's current.
I'm not that bothered which is why, in spite of being computer literate, I have never learned how to use Twitter properly.
I only really feel the urge when DS threads moan about info not appearing for a while on Sky and BBC and refer to Twitter but don't give links.
The Twittospace is large to start rummaging around then.
So I thought I'd take this opportunity to learn some tips from your good selves.
And thanks for the advice about getting a life. What's your excuse? :-)
Edit: Woo hoo, WTG me! Google suggests Twittospace is a new term (bar one)
If it's popular, it will show under the trending topics