Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Open Appeal to Twitterheads

I'm trying to get deeper and deeper into twitter. (Sounds x-rated, or w-rated anyway) So, pride, shmide...I'm a tweeter ignoramus and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

Here's an open call to All Twitterheads to PLEASE tell me a trick or two about twitter that helps you love it so. I'm learning slowly, but I think I need people to clue me into some tips or tricks.

Obvious example: twitter is best accessed via COMPUTER, not phone. I base this on the fact that I see a lot of "updated via web" tweets out there.

Anybody disagree?

Computer-based-tweeting is less dynamic, though. I always have to hit refresh on the Home button. Whereas on the phone, the updates I allow to come through to my phone just come on through, dynamically, in real-time. I like that. But there's so much you can't do via the phone's basic SMS functions (I have a Palm Centro).

I just found search.twitter.com. So THAT's how you track all those #searchterm tweets. But again - no dynamic updates. Is the answer to setup an RSS feed from search.twitter.com to Google Reader or something? (starting to feel boxed in by feeds to google reader!)

This is a pretty lame-o post. The last time I appealed for technical assistance to the blogosphere, I got zero, zip, nada response from anybody. Let's see if that record stands this time. Go ahead, I dare ya. Say something. Say something smart. We're waiting.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I mostly use the web lately...because I don't have unlimited texting and,as much as I love Twitter, I don't love it enough to have the updates on my cell. I used Twhirl for awhile and it's real time, so no refreshing. But I turned off the alerts because some people I follow OVER twitter and it's annoying. Plus, you can't click on profiles. So I'm back to the web.
I subscribed to #lawschool in my google reader, so I imagine you could do it with any #feed. Of course, I can't remember how I did it, but it works...

Don't know if that helps, and I'm sure it's not smart, but hey - record broken!

gudnuff said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll give you another award for being a kind-hearted Good Samaritan and bestowing some twitterific verbiage here in this post's comments. You are the best! Thank you!!!

Anonymous said...

I have Twitter on my phone. I don't totally get it, but it's sort of fun. Plus, when I do use it I fell sort of hip in an old way. Not much help but now you know there are others out there who feel a bit inept with it also. Good luck with it!

gudnuff said...

Calodan - Thank you! I have gotten an inkling of how it's like a mini blog experience, but the key, I think, is to subscribe to feeds and read it in a reader. Google Reader currently, but somebody mentioned NetVibes and I may check that out later in the week.

Patois42 said...

Can't help you, but didn't want you complaining that I didn't answer.

gudnuff said...

Hahaha...again Patois...you are awesome. Thank you.
But I see that you are a twitterhead...do you "do it" from your computer or from your phone? Or do you swing both ways?

gudnuff said...

So nobody uses twhirl or twitterific? Or everybody does so it's assumed I've tried them or already am using them, maybe. Anyway, it seems that doing what I described is so passe, like duh, nobody does it like THAT anymore, you idiot. And by "that" I mean, just goes to twitter's homepage. So I'm about to load whichever client (tweetdeck or twitterific or twhirl or ???...google will show me the way eventually) works with XP because that is the prison I live in, the one ruled by Microsoft.

Anonymous said...

I think twitter is pretty useless unless you have a twitter client installed.

I use twhirl.

Twhirl is like a desktop widget that gives you real-time updates. It also makes it easier to respond to people.

http://twhirl.org/

gudnuff said...

That's it. I'm going with twhirl. Full speed ahead.

And maybe cetwit for my phone?

Thanks Jansen!!!

Mary Lewis-Pierce said...

Hey gudnuff, I have Twitfire on the Iphone, but that is just for times when something brilliant hits me on the Orange Line. Mostly I use the web.

You know way more about Twitter than I do. I barely understood your questions. But I have a thingy where it automatically updates my facebook page, so I felt like it was killing two birds with one stone. And that's so important :)

Daisy, Just Daisy said...

I don't know *that* much about Twitter but I use Twitterific on my iPhone and enjoy it as a program. I do have to refresh it, but I think in general, I tweet more from my phone than from my computer. This could of course be because if I'm by a computer I'm indoors and lets face it, few exciting things happen indoors. At least not Twitter-worthy-things.

Lawyer Mom said...

Lord, lord, sorry, but I have no advice whatsoever for you. Facebook terrifies me and Twitter? I just don't get it. Just don't see how my trip to the grocery store is worth alerting the cybersphere. But maybe I'm just too old fashioned.

Burgh Baby said...

I actually *don't* use the web client, but it would appear to anybody who looks that I do. I use Tweetdeck to read tweets because it allows me to sort (and *coughprioritizecough*) the people that I follow. I also have a column for a few topics that I'm interested in. When I want to actually write something, though, I go to the web page. Tweetdeck creates a bit of a delay since it doesn't update immediately, so I like to get my response out there faster.

Twitter is what you make of it, though. Some people just post random mini-blogs. Some people carry on conversations. I just try to have a little fun.

gudnuff said...

Awesome comments! Thank you. And Burgh Babay, you have finally clued me to how people use that #specialterm thingy. And since I didn't get around to installing Twhirl yesterday because my stupid job actually made me do job stuff, maybe I'll install tweetdeck today instead, assuming it is XP friendly. Thanks everybody!