With Twitter going up and down so much today, I thought I’d weigh in my $0.02 here in a slightly more than 140 character statement.
Twitter is awesome, let’s get that straight. But sometimes, it really draws you in and takes you away from getting things done.
So, how do you keep Twitter at bay? Here are a 5 things that I do to preserve sanity:
Greet your followers. I reply (@) to just about every non-bot that follows me. This is a great way to reach your audience while keeping active on Twitter at the same time.
Pick a time. As with anything in your day, perhaps finding some “alone time” with you and Twitter might be the way to go. 🙂
Find time even when you don’t have time. It’s all about life streaming or whatever nonsense buzzword of the day. Your blog readers want to know what you’re thinking and feeling. Express yourself. Even if you don’t have time, you aren’t brain dead so just say a few things.
Integrate Twitter in your workspace. User adoption is usually a tough thing for companies to break in to. Getting an app like Twitter to be easy to access as part of your daily routine is the key to success for them. So if you like to text, use SMS text messaging services. Firefox fan? Good, use Twitterfox. Thwirl is a great desktop app made on the Adobe Air platform.
Pick your poison. If you’re going to be on instant messaging and Twitter, the number of inbounds can be alarming. Sometimes it’s easier to just have Twitter act as your instant messaging platform since you can direct message with others there.
It is my hope that this mental health checkup will allow you to lead productive lives again, good citizens. Best of luck to you.
Do you think that Twitter is replacing the chatroom?
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“ReplacING”?? I think we can stick a fork in chatrooms cause they’re done.
Although, I will have to say that this ‘Twitter down’ thing has been happening too frequently..There seems to be alot of bugs to work out…At least on my end..
For some reason, my password manager won’t acknowledge my tweets and keep my info in memory to allow tweets to be automatic..I have to sign-in EVERY time…It’s a bummer.
I agree with the fact that I accomplished quite a bit more as I wasn’t being led by a tweet nose-ring to site’s of call and it worked out well..I may just formulate a better structure of my Tweet time as you suggest Brian.
Thanks!
Kimberly
@Mark:
Chatrooms haven’t been full force for a while, like the days when IRC was king. However, they still have a strong following, especially when they merge with things like UStream.tv.
@SpostareDuro:
Twitter’s issues are an issue of scaling. They need to clean up their act and focus on the infrastructure and load. Twittering and structured time may sound like opposites, but Twitter can quickly drive you mad otherwise.
twitter, it’s such a novelty to me right now still. I can’t really see the benefit it keeping it updated constantly, and if I did, I would never get enough work done.
Yeah, I’ve still gotta get used to twitter. I’m quickly realizing that this will just make me go crazy. I’ll be at a local bar, thinking, “i gotta update Twitter and let everyone know that I’m drinking beer”
I use my GTalk for Twitter. it’s just great.
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Hey… just noticed this “giL’s last post” thing at the bottom of my comment. man that’s an awesome plug-in you got there …
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@David: there is more to Twitter than beer drinking updates, but similar to beer, it should be consumed in moderation. 🙂
@Gil: I don’t currently use GTalk for Twitter, more of a combination of Twhirl and TwitterFox, but have heard good things about Twitter / GTalk.