This Little Thing Called Twitter
[warning]I take no credit for the Twitter logo. It’s just a blown-up screenshot piece of my desktop screen that I took while viewing my Twitter page.[/warning]
It’s wonderful, isn’t it? So much so, that one could get lost in it for hours on end and lose track of what we’re doing or of what we meant to do.
I first joined the site back in May of 2009. I confess I was sketchy about it, as a lot of people back then said that it wasn’t that good of a social platform. I’m honestly glad that they were wrong. I’ve made myself a tiny little niche in all things Twitter and I think I’ll stay there for as long as it is possible.
Twitter is becoming my bread and butter for my writing, but I honestly never thought it would be. I figured Facebook and blogging would take up most of my time in promoting, writing, and everything else that entails with being an author. I end up dedicating several hours a day to perusing my twitter feed in order to respond to friends, family, and fellow authors, as well as tweeting about my book/writing. There’s also the countless retweets that are available that pertain to what I love to do best.
Although, Twitter is sometimes that time-consuming, it’s our followers/friendships that we’ve made on it that make it all worthwhile. We also get to meet more people as each day goes by. I confess that it’s the friends that I’ve made, and keep making, that keep me rooted to the site. And of course, there’s those family members of mine scattered here and there within my followers/following list. Can’t forget to mention them, too, you know? ::winks::
While I do tweet about my writing, and that of others, my conversations there aren’t solely centered on them. I sometimes go off-topic to spend some time chatting with friends about Ben Barnes, Leonardo DiCaprio, movies, and myriad of other topics that surface along the way.
I do notice that I sometimes lose a follower, or two, when I go off-topic. But let’s face it, would you really want me to tweet day in and day out about writing? It would surely make it very boring and I’d rather keep things as lively as possible. Besides, it’s those little things that keep my followers interested, because it allows us all to co-exist in this little world that we’ve created online. A world that almost always extends to real-life within the work that we do.
There’s one little thing that bothers me, though. Ironically, it has nothing to do with the site itself. It pertains mostly to how some people will follow me, hoping that I’ll follow back. Which I almost always will, provided that it’s not a spam bot. God knows that there’s a lot of those on Twitter and they annoy me royally when they latch on to some tag in a tweet and tweet back with some inane drivel.
Anyway, these folks will follow you for a few hours, or days, then unceremoniously unfollow you once they’re sure that you are now following them. It’s like all they want is to add to their numbers and viola! they don’t need to follow you anymore. Seriously, what’s up with that?
If I follow someone, it’s because I like what they’ve said or shared. I just wish more people were more considerate, instead of playing the numbers game with their followers. We all want to get our work out there, but there’s a right way to do it. Is it really necessary for some people to follow and unfollow others soon after just to get those numbers that they so clearly seek? I honestly don’t get the purpose of that. I really don’t.
