Thanks for the info. Yes, I joined Plurk yesterday…
http://www.plurk.com/user/NeilShearing

I like the Karma idea at Plurk, and the fact that you can follow conversations which is much harder with Twitter. I think a lot of people are using Twitter for 2-way conversations which it really isn’t suited to… as you said.

Neil.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the NOISE of Twitter. This is when I’m glad these micro-posts are only 140 characters long… easily skimmed…

I tend to add people by looking @ someone’s list and clicking on faces I recognize or those with nice pictures and am happy to add them if they have a website I can check out first…

I have done the @so-and-so’s name and have not found many responses back… yes, I’ve had some successes… but really if this is about being social then how can you develop REAL relationships with 100s or 1000s…?

Now it’s really great as a bookmarking tool. I can click on the pic of someone I “know”, check out their latest blog posts(the sites they’ve listed in their profile) and see if they’ve micro-blogged anything interesting.

Now if you’ve ever been to the lifecasting/live streaming video broadcasts(ustream.tv, justin.tv) and noticed peeps listing their twitter accounts… it’s a simple and easy way of connecting. Hey we’ve got something in common… camaraderie, sense of community, etc…

Plus, all of us can make connections there would be NO way we’d make normally. I think more people are following Tweets - Twitter posts than reading emails as much… I have too much noise in my inbox… ; P

Wow. I think I could go on and on here…

Now I have to ask… have you tried Plurking(plurk.com) yet Neil…? ; P

Thanks again &
God Bless,
Yoon

Thanks for your thoughts.

It was pointed out to me recently that Twitter lets people publish what they’re doing, or what they find interesting, without needing a website or a blog. They just sign up for an account and being “micro blogging”, which may help account for its popularity.

As you say, that ability to broadcast your thoughts easily leads to increased transparency. Of course, it’s very important that people *want* to listen to what you’re broadcasting… which returns me to the original point of not Twittering about washing your hair.

Neil.

I wrote an article about this myself just recently:

http://hubpages.com/hub/What-The-Heck-Is-Twitter–Anyway

I asked the same question, and despite a few keen recreational Twitterers, the commenters all seemed equally baffled.

I have, however, heard that it becomes really handy when a lot of people in a community are connected, and the community is hyper-responsive to real-time information, as in the US political reporting community, for example.

There is also a cool example of how Twitter may change the landscape once a critical mass of people are on it, supplied by a Silicon Valley technical guy (lots in that demographic are on it, of course) - it’s worth a read.

Maybe not today, but soon, we will need to consider it in our strategy, whether we are using it or not. I think the net result - greater transparency - will be good for the ethical people, and lousy for the scam artists.

Jenny Ford
http://raisingentrepreneurs.org/blog

Regarding Twitter, I think you’re absolutely right.

Neil.

I had a devil of a time getting my mind around Twitter. Took a look when it launched and came back from time to time. Just didn’t see the value. In part, because I was thinking in terms of what *I* might tweet. I already had a blog, after all, so…

It finally clicked for me when some people I knew (or knew of and admired from their work) started using the service. I realized it was about what THEY were doing, not what I was doing.

I follow two groups of people on Twitter. Those I know well enough to care that they rode a dolphin last weekend… and those who twitter useful and interesting stuff I enjoy and/or find useful.

Regarding Twitter’s value for “marketing to” people…

I’m not sure I want to be marketed to. I get most or all of the information I need to make decisions that once fell under the umbrella of “marketing” from people I know and trust (usually online).

I really don’t want or need marketers to “target” me. When I want or need something, I am just a google search away. I can reach out the my online friends know I’ll get a good –but more importantly, trusted– response.

Just starting to roam around here on you blog and will add you to my readers.

I know this is the second time I’ve posted a reply on this post, but I had to come back after an email I received from twitter earlier today to tell me that @NeilShearing is now following me…

I’m going to assume you’ve now managed to get control of your twitter account again, as I don’t see why someone kijacking it from you would follow me…. ;p

So I’d like to be one of the first to welcome you to the world of twitter and offer the best bit of advice I can give: -

be careful who you follow, stick to people you are interested in hearing from, and cut out (unfollow) people who, as you say, tell you when they’re taking their goldfish for a walk and why….
:)

@MattGarrett

But here’s the thing. I signed up for Twitter as NeilShearing, but I’ve forgotten my password. It wasn’t emailed to me when I signed up, which surprised me. Now I know it’s probably an email deliverability issue.

When I go to get my password re-sent, I enter my email and they say they’ll send info for resetting the password, but I never get it.

I’ve tried umpteen times to guess my own password with no luck (so much for making passwords harder to guess, lol, I can’t guess my own!) and I never get the reset emails from Twitter.

I also don’t want a different account name, so until Twitter start sending out emails, I won’t be checking it out from the inside.

BTW, I get everyone else’s emails AFAIK.

Neil.