Twitter, FaceBook, et al

[BigMoneyJim]

#TexasRangers. Um, holy crap, while checking that feed I'm seeing tweets that Cliff Lee is signing with Texas today. Got to go hit the news sites to verify that....

[...]

EDIT: Oh, all the tweets were from the same guy claiming it's "official". Can't find any confirmation. Just one spastic nobody on Twitter. Nevermind. (Re: Cliff Lee / Texas Rangers)

If the Rangers announce a $155 million 7-year deal with Cliff Lee at 5:45pm CST, then some nobody on Twitter scooped pretty much everybody. On the other hand, I think I may be seeing the start of a feedback loop as someone else has tweeted that a TV station in Killeen is reporting the same, and one of the local ESPN reporters has tweeted his skepticism about this given the lack of confirmation, but at the same time that gives the false(?) details many more eyeballs. The speed of Twitter can spread news—false or true—quickly.

 

[Nords]

I have to disagree. Usenet (and this forum) are hierarchically structured topic categories. Hashtags are freeform labels. Usenet and this forum are like a TV or radio where you change channels, or perhaps a CD where you put the CD in and then pick the track you want to hear. Hashtags are searches for topic labels that update in real-time.

You make good points. The freeform aspect is great.

I guess my biggest problem with hashtags is finding out what others are using and then jumping aboard their bandwagon. For example you can search for "military" on Hashtags.org or Twitter, but that won't necessarily get you to "MilitaryMon" or "SOT" or any of the other terms that either contain the letters "military" or are related to military topics.

There may be a lot of great military-related hashtags out there, but I'd have to think of them and then go looking for them. I'd also have to sign up to follow a bunch of military-related Tweeters but... hey, I'm writing a blog, not reading everyone else's. I haven't fully resolved that latter conflict.

I'm still picking off the hashtags as I go, and you're right-- I'm spewing out #s all over the place when I compose the Tweet to go with the blog post. Luckily it's freeform and there are no #etiquette #police...

 

[BigMoneyJim]

I guess my biggest problem with hashtags is finding out what others are using and then jumping aboard their bandwagon. For example you can search for "military" on Hashtags.org or Twitter, but that won't necessarily get you to "MilitaryMon" or "SOT" or any of the other terms that either contain the letters "military" or are related to military topics.

There may be a lot of great military-related hashtags out there, but I'd have to think of them and then go looking for them. I'd also have to sign up to follow a bunch of military-related Tweeters but... hey, I'm writing a blog, not reading everyone else's. I haven't fully resolved that latter conflict.

I'm still picking off the hashtags as I go, and you're right-- I'm spewing out #s all over the place when I compose the Tweet to go with the blog post. Luckily it's freeform and there are no #etiquette #police...

As far as I can tell, wading in and jumping on the bandwagon is largely the way to go. Hashtags are emergent and not necessarily stable (in terms of use and interest), although #MilitaryMon and #SOT appear to have longevity.

I mostly discover hashtags through others' tweets. Perhaps it's someone I follow, or perhaps I was looking at a hashtag list and saw a tweet with a related—or interesting unrelated—hashtag.

Tonight I was watching the Indiana Jones movies on cable at my sister's house and for the heck of it tweeted a couple of my favorite lines and blindly added #IndianaJones and #LastCrusade . Afterward I clicked on them and was surprised to see they were both very active. Apparently a bunch of people were also watching the marathon on the USA network and were tweeting about it.

You could also just search on some keywords and look for existing relevant hashtags in the results list.

 

[walkinwood]

BigMoneyJim & Nords - THANK YOU! I understand Twitter so much better now. I re-registered.

 

[RonBoyd]

BigMoneyJim & Nords - THANK YOU! I understand Twitter so much better now. I re-registered.

+1

 

[Sarah in SC]

Ditto that--I never "got" twitter until your explanation BMJ. Thank you so much!

 

[freebird5825]

No Twitter. No Facebook. No interest in either. Bah Humbug.

This is the only forum I participate in. I guess I got so burned out from being parked in front of a computer every day for over 25 years in my career, I minimize my online time these days. Enough is enough.

If I want to keep in touch, I use the telephone.

 

[lowflyer]

Maybe I'm just getting old, but between e-mail, texting, monitoring a few forums, online banking, online investing, TIVO, XM Radio, Net Flix and doing more and more of it on my phone, I feel like I have just about enough technology in my life. Plus, I was reminded a few weeks ago by my Son that there will be no "friending" with him on FB! I'm holding out at this point. No FB or Twitter for me......for now.

 

[Midpack]

BigMoneyJim & Nords - THANK YOU! I understand Twitter so much better now. I re-registered.

+2

I joined Twitter this evening. Still finding my way, but I plan to stick with it until I "get it." Anyone know of a good tutorial online? There doesn't seem to be one on twitter.com so I am wading through youtube videos, though so far they are extremely basic.

Never a dull moment, a good thing!

 

[deserat]

BMJ - thanks for explaining - someone once told me Twitter was like CB radio....it looks like each person has an area to tweet their thoughts (mini-website sort of) and then there are specific threads which are denoted by the hashtags, which have their own space as well. So you can subscribe to a tweeter as well as follow a hashtag or thread. Hmmm - I may try this - we'll see. I spend way to much time in front of this virtual world window as it is.....