Posts Tagged ‘status updates’

18
Nov
2009

Is Twitter Good for Stalking?

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As you may of read on my website before, I don’t get Twitter. I mean, I have it (http://twitter.com/thisismyurl/) and I’ve programmed my blog to update it but honestly, I simply don’t get it, nor … do I care to get it. Actually, everything about it seems pointless to me from the cute little status updates to peoples self promotional content.

I will admit it, I simply don’t get Twitter. I think I’m too old (35) to get it so today while guest lecturing a class in business to 25 high school students, all armed with mobile phones, iPhones, Blackberries and most Facebooking during the lecture I asked for a show of hands.

“How many of you have Facebook?” I asked knowingly and was actually surprised when one girl didn’t put up her hand. Even the teacher had it.

“How many of you use YouTube?” I next queried. Everybody again raised their hand.

“How many have seen Plenty of Fish?” I asked. One overly energetic youth volunteered. “How many have seen it but not used it?”, again most hands went up. Finally … I was ready for the big question, the one that would help me bridge the boring business lecture into something awesome, something that would let me tap into the spinal cord of the next generation and finally ask the question that I was dying to ask …

“How many of you have Twitter?”

Silence.

Worse than silence in fact, one girl asked me what was Twitter? It was like I’d asked how many bauds their modem was. Complete, unadulterated, unconnected, uninvolved, uninterested silence.

It was like the room came to a stand still, like there was a traffic accident but a boring one at the front of the room. Even the teacher looked puzzled. I tried to recover, go onto the next part of my prepared speech but then it happened, some kid that looked like he should have been in Fast Times at Ridgemount High spoke up, “I think my mom has Twitter”. This of course caused another student to blurt out that he’d Twittered your mom and of course it set off a chain of more open, more honest but equally confused questions and what Twitter was and why they should care about it.

After I explained Twitter by describing it as a social media micro blogging platform, the looked confused. Then I explained it was like Facebook’s status updates but without the rest, simple a place where you could update your status in short sentences and people could see what you’re up to … this led to the best question about Twitter I think I’ve ever heard from one girl in the class, “So Twitter’s for stalking me?”.

btw, I’m not the first to discover this …

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Posted in Twitter

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23
Jan
2009

Twitter Me … I dare you.

4 Comments

Twitter has to be the weirdest, coolest, strangest, most addictive, insanely inane tool ever added or created in the history of the Internet. OK I know the Internet isn’t that old to most people but honestly, Twitter is like a food court without a mall. For those who have no idea what Twitter is, it’s like Facebook but without the Face … or the book. It’s the new millennium version of a photo hut, here’s what you do on it:

  1. Sign up, it’s free.
  2. Tell people what you’re doing in 140 words or less.
  3. Click send.
  4. Watch your friends do the same.

See? It’s like a status update on Facebook but honest to silicon valley … that’s it. There are no photos, no notes, no app requests, no events … nothing else. So why’s it so addictive? What’s the coolest part of Facebook other than finding out that your high school sweetheart got really fat and checking out photo’s of your buddies drunk girlfriend? The status updates. For those of you who are Facebook Virgins (FV’s), there’s this little box on everybody’s profile that reads “Christopher is …” and users put in the rest. They’re short, one line bursts of details such as:

  • Christopher is in the shower.
  • Christopher is off to the movies.
  • Christopher is thinking of a new status message.

You get the hint (actually, they no longer need the is but I still like using it). All day long people updated this little box to tell you everything from how much they had to drink to where they’re thinking about eating dinner and that’s exactly what Twitter is … 24 hour a day updates from hundreds of your friends, co-workers, fat high school sweet hearts, family and businesses you care about in one constant stream of really cool voyeuristic mess.

Oddly where Facebook tends to annoy me, Twitter is the exact opposite. Most people I follow (or who follow me) are into the same things that I am, so by following them I get to know who’s updated a portfolio, or added a new blog entry or finished watching the latest episode of Battlestar. 

Frankly I love it and so I’m going to skip all the protocols here at jump straight to it … I triple dog dare you to Twitter me.

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Posted in Marketing Advice

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