talkingDigital

Twitter is a tool, much like a pair of pliers. You don’t see people complaining that they don’t understand the proper use of a pair of pliers do you?

There is no proper use for a pair of pliers – they simply do what you need them to do. You may use them to grip tightly on to something, to crimp something, to turn something or to pull off that loose hangnail. There is no improper way to use a pair of pliers.

True, there are some things you can use pliers for that can be done better with other tools, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get the job done with a pair of pliers.

Twitter has not purpose. It has no proper use. Like a pair of pliers, you have to understand how it works to get good use out of it, but it does nothing on its own.

Twitter can help you promote your business, but only if you have a promotion plan that utilizes Twitter well. Simply tweeting about your business won’t do any good unless you can make it interesting.

Too many people ran out and joined Twitter because they saw Oprah was doing it. As it turns out, Oprah doesn’t know what to do with it either. Joining Twitter could actually be a major misfire for Oprah as hundreds of thousands join only to find that nothing interesting happens on its own, you have to make it interesting.

Fitting in and understanding Oprah is no different than fitting in and understanding a new neighborhood, church, bar or school. You can’t just jump in and become the life of the party. You have to earn your way in. You must either be friendly or interesting. These are always the two ways to get noticed in any community.

If you are new to Twitter, I recommend getting on Facebook first and actually hooking up with people you really know before you try to make friends with strangers who might find you interesting.

paidContent.org posted this article about the struggles of Twitter to maintain its new members.

Twitter Still Having Problems Holding Onto New Users | paidContent.org .

Lately I have had a number of people call me and schedule appointments to help them learn about social networking. Some of them want to learn Twitter, others LinkedIn, and others just want me to explain it. I gave a lecture about social networking to a regional conference for Parks and Recreation workers. I have also been asked by the local Parks and Rec. to teach a class on Facebook this summer.

While social networking is almost as old as the Internet, it has only now become a buzzword. Many people have been doing it all along, the just didn’t know what it was called.

Look back to the earliest days of eBay. Those who were there in the golden age , like eBay Bible author, Jim Griffith, are quick to point out that it was the community that made it so addicting – not the buying and selling.

So, why now? Why did it take at least 15 years for social networking to become such a focal point of Internet usage?

The answer is Facebook. Not Myspace, not Twitter. Myspace certainly was the first all social networking site to really catch fire. While it is true that there likely would be no Facebook if there was no Myspace, the fact remains that Myspace was never so common and essential that your Grandma would want to use it.

Myspace centered around helping stranger with common interests find each other. Myspace users connected using nicknames that maintained anonymity. This made it possible for people to become anyone they wanted. An attractive feature to those who enjoyed being more interesting online than they were in real life.

Facebook takes a totally different approach. Facebook is, in many ways, the opposite of Myspace. Facebook is for people who already know one another in the real world. Perhaps the are coworkers, fellow students or go to the same church. Facebook helps users keep track of what their real world acquaintances are doing in the real world by following them online.

Some have said that Facebook is Myspace for old  people. In many ways this is true. Teenagers haven’t been around long enough to make good friends and create business relationships, then lose track of those relationships. Anyone who is a high school or college graduate has  lost touch with friends they wish they had kept better track of. Everyone who has ever been promoted and/or relocated has an interest in what their former co-workers are up to.

Even those who haven’t lost touch can use Facebook to build stronger relationships with current friends, family and associates.

At first Facebook my seem overwhelming and complex, but after a couple of weeks, users who stick to it will find themselves right at home on Facebook – if not totally addicted.

Once a person is an avid Facebook user, other social networks are not far behind. LinkedIn is like Facebook for professionals to get and stay in touch with those they know or strangers with common professional interests. It combines referral services with headhunting and social networking.

Flickr is a social network for digital photographers of all experience. Tumblr is a strange social networking hub that focuses more on playing nice with other social networks and blogs. And then there’s Twitter…

A Twitter article is not far behind. There is far too much to say about Twitter to combine it with this article. Sufficeth to say, Twitter will make a heck of a lot more sense if you get your hands dirty with Facebook first. Go on, get to it. Setup that Facebook account meet people and discover how many friends you have lost touch with.

We are sure that someone has written about this new approach spammers are using on Twitter, but we haven’t seen anything about it.

Twitter spam needs a name so we are going to call it spatter (get it spam+Twitter – not that clever, but at least it’s something).

Twitter filters out spammers by measuring blocked users and also users who post a lot but have few followers. To get around this, spammers are setting up new accounts and posting content that is not spam.

The first hundred or so messages are about food, movies, humorous comments, etc. We assume that they are using content from other Twitterers to create these posts.

Once they have a few posts established, they start following people. Especially those who automatically follow back. Many users do a quick check to see if the user is posting real content or just spatter. Typically users don’t read many of the posts, they check to make sure that all of the posts aren’t made up of sales pitches.

Once the spammer has build up enough of a following, then they unleash their spatter. Typically stuff about how to work from home, porn, or other typical spam material.

To some, a follower is a follower, but eventually this could cause a problem for Twitter as bad guys setup automated systems to let spatter loose throughout the network. This could be one reason that Twitter objects so much to programs that automatically return follows. The more followers a spammer has, the more difficult it will be to distinguish them from legitimate Twitter users.