Questions: Do you Tweet? If so, what do you like best about Twitter? What do you like the least? Do you have any Twitter applications or extras that you use frequently (TweetDeck, TwitterFeed, etc)? Do you belong to any of the Twitter groups on LT?
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Answers: Yes, I have a Twitter account. I don’t call myself a full-fledged twitterer or twerper or whatever the right word is. I am more of a Twitter Reader. I love to read what everyone is saying but I feel pretty stupid when I jump in.
What I like best are the “headlines” that tell me of interesting things coming up. For instance, I follow Scott Simon (NPR Saturday Morning host). He will mention interesting interviews or special features coming up on the show. Most of the bloggers I follow announce new posts.
There are several things I don’t like about Twitter. I spend too much time on it. I can easily waste hours reading Twitter instead of a good book. As in any group of people there are those who blather on about personal trivia that I find annoying. I really don’t need to know every detail of their life. I know, I need to un-follow them. Unfortunately, they write some of my favorite blogs.
There is something I find confusing: How do people find me to follow me? Every day I get messages that so and so is following me. When I go and look at their profile, we have absolutely nothing in common. I don’t mean the ones who are obviously trying to sell me something. It’s the others. Does anyone know how that happens?
I am using some Twitter applications. I use TwitterFeed for my blog posts. Belle at MsBookish introduced me to a new Twitter Manager called Seesmic Desktop. It’s similar to TweetDeck but easier (for me) to use. Last Friday I learned to use TweetChat for the BEA Party. Unfortunately for me, it was moving so fast I missed about a third of what was going on. I’m sure there is a way to slow that down but I didn’t know how.
And finally, no I don’t use any Twitter groups on LibraryThing. I had no idea there were any there until an hour ago.
What’s your experience with Twitter? Use it? Like it? What applications do you use?
Thanks Wendi for sponsoring Tuesday Thingers. For more information, visit her at Wendi’s Book Corner.
I went ahead and signed up for a Twitter account (just so I could claim stacybuckeye), but so far I resisted using it, only because I know I could waste so much time on it. I feel that my blog and the others that I follow take up so much time already!
Sounds like you are enjoying it and that’s why I’m resisting. I know I would too, and my husband would probably resent any more ‘electronic time’ when he’s around
I just want to say that I do NOT twitter. I have a full life. I dont have the time to post about nothing. If I want to know how my friends are doing I will ask them. as in talking in a conversation were you listen and communicate. To me Twitter seems like a bunch of people so hyped on themselfs talk about nothing of importance all the time. *sigh* Sorry I just am tired of all the talk about peoples twitter pages I personaly think it makes them a bunch of twit’s but that is my own opinion. lol
I do use Twitter, but didn’t know there are Twitter groups on LT. People find you by looking at who other people are following.
I also Tweet and follow some of the bloggers I have on my blogroll plus news-channels and such. I set up the account more than a year ago, but did not really begin using it until very recently
You can find me if you search the name Louise_al 
I love Twitter. But I use it judiciously. I don’t want to follow 10,000 people, so I pick whoever I follow very carefully.
I follow quite a few publishers, and as a result I’ve found out about some great books I wouldn’t otherwise have discovered. So it’s great for that. A lot of the “trends” posts and posts about the publishing industry on my blog come from what I’ve found on Twitter.
And I follow a few bloggers, and a couple of job search people, and some others. It just depends.
As to people deciding to follow you, who you have nothing in common with…it seems that people do a search for certain words, and if you’ve used one of those words in a tweet even one, suddenly you get on their list. For some people, they just want a huge list to follow, so I think fine, let them follow me. I’ll only follow back if I think there’s some good reason.
I’m interested in the municipal politics around Toronto too, so it tickles me that I can follow the tweets of Toronto’s mayor, and the mayor of a nearby city.
I’m glad you’re finding Seesmic Desktop – I find it easier to use than Tweetdeck too. I find it curious the people who choose to follow me, too. I tweeted about going out to get scrapbooking supplies for my little one to use as crafts once, and when I got home, a scrapbooking person was following me! Today I tweeted about thinking about the Sony eReader, and Sony Canada started following me.
I might actually follow Sony Canada back – they had some interesting tweets.
Margot – I read more than Tweet too – I do the same on Facebook – I don’t want to waste peoples time, so only post one link to my blog posts, and generally only post if I have a question, or can answer someone else’s question.
Thanks for stopping by and participating in Thingers last week! I’ve got the post up for this week. ~ Wendi