From the category archives:

Twitter

Why I Stopped Using Twitter and Why I’m Coming Back

by Brian Carl on May 8, 2010

I stopped posting to Twitter a few months back and it felt really good. Today I’m making my first post in 142 days.

Before I get into why, I’ll quickly explain my history on Twitter.

I joined Twitter in August of 2007. I got on pretty early, but I couldn’t get any of my friends to join. I tried to explain the site, but I couldn’t figure out why it was better than Facebook (or why it should be used in conjunction). One friend joined and made one post.

joining twitter because brian’s a baby.less than a minute ago via webCarter Chamberlain
fignark

Since none of my friends joined, I followed bloggers who I respected. They mostly tweeted about people I didn’t know and places I’ve never been. I didn’t have much to add to the conversation.

I got bored.

After this I let my account go dormant.

Around a year ago, I picked back up. I don’t remember what the catalyst was, but I came back and used it pretty hard. I started using it during marketing webinars and then I finally learned how to effectively use Twitter Search and Hashtags and everything changed.

Now I was finally earning followers and interacting with people. I was really getting into the network and meeting new people and I was enjoying it.

Over time this changed and I couldn’t put my finger on why. It dawned on me what the issue was; I was following too many people and way too many marketers.

Too many marketers. You know the type. They don’t want to interact. They want to promote themselves and retweet whatever Hubspot posts. Because of this, I stopped posting about marketing or myself and started posting about UFOs, Mega Man, and Kevin Costner instead and my followers started dropping.

I got bored again.

Fast-forward to now – I’m coming back to Twitter.

I was writing in my journal about why I left Twitter (everything you just read) and I realized why I really left Twitter: I wasn’t using it right.

It wasn’t everyone else. I know most people suck and only care about themselves, but I was doing the same thing. To make it worse I changed the purpose of my account, so it’s no wonder I lost followers. I guess marketers don’t like Kevin Costner posts.

I am going to come back into Twitter with a new plan and use it the way it was supposed to be used. I don’t know why I didn’t make this connection earlier; I was just as bad as the other “Gurus” I’m criticizing.

If I’m not going to connect with them and they aren’t going to connect with me, why am I following them?

Has anyone else had any realizations about how to use Twitter like I did?

Photo Credit: playerx

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Everyone is Talking…..

by Brian Carl on June 18, 2009

Some companies are better than others at embracing social media and some aren’t. I could list the reasons I have heard as to why to not use social media, but that would need a whole nother website. The thing I hear the most is:

“What if they say something bad? No it’s just not worth the risk”

Everyone is talking about the Iran election now and how they are turning to Twitter and YouTube to organize and get information on what is happening. I’m a big believer in trying to learn a little from everything in life. What to take out of this?

It doesn’t matter how much you try to control your message, you can’t.

The days of control are over. If someone has a comment or something relevant to say, it is going to be said. The Internet is a huge place, would you rather try and police all of it or hear what your customers actually think about you and embrace it and learn from it.

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Hashtags for #networking

by Brian Carl on June 17, 2009

flickr: Matt Hamm

flickr: Matt Hamm

If you haven’t joined Twitter yet or you have joined and didn’t get what the fuss was all about, then this post is for you. The answer is Twitter Hashags.

What is a hashtag? Basically it is a word or phrase that begins with #.

I know that doesn’t sound too exciting, but once you understand how to use them it will make much more sense.

Think of a hashtag as a group on another social network, but instead of having to join a group to post to it, you just add your hashtag to your tweet. The best advice i can give you about actively using hashtags is to download a twitter client that allows you to save a search. I follow #socialmedia and #highered. You can follow as many as you want but if it is a more popular subject it can be overwhelming.

How is this good for business? Well just following a hashtag probably won’t do anything for you. It’s like reading a great business book or blog and then not taking any of its advice. The key, just like everything else about social media, is interacting with others.

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Facebook and Twitter without the Keyboard

by Brian Carl on June 11, 2009

Xbox 360 anounced at E3 that they were going to add social media to their xbox live experience. They are adding a Facebook app, a Twitter app, and Last.FM.

Every business and their mother is all about the tweeting these days, which personally  don’t really care about. The best thing about Twitter is how easy it is to ignore people, which is a major plus since it has been getting so spammy these days (Thats a whole nother post for another day). I am just hoping that it is a program like you use on your phone or TweetDeck and not a program that can autopost whenever your status changes.

There is a Facebook app already that tells people what you are doing on xbox and  don’t like having to ignore my friends posts for flooding my news feed. The only time I canre what you are doing on XBOX Live, is when I am on xbox live, which I can already do or if they are playing UNO, but thats just because thats a good game.

The one cool thing that I read though is that through the new Facebook app you can take a screenshot of a game and post it to your facebook page. That’s a cool idea. So now when I get a triple bogey in Tiger Woods I can let everyone know.

The last program they announces was LastFM. I am sure I could have a comment for this one, but I don’t. It is always nice to have addition places to play music. Just like everyother anouncment these are all just new places to do things that we have already been doing.

I don’t even like typing out a quick message to someone on xbox live. Hopefully they will announce why this is different than using my computer or even my phone, both of those have full Keyboards.

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