Is Twitter the New RSS/IM?
Last week, I posted “Why Aren’t You on Twitter?”
Now, I have to worry about losing Speedcat as a follower, because I now have over 500 followers.
I wish now that I had joined Twitter sooner, but I never saw what the fuss was about before.
But, I guess I’m a bit of a Twitter addict now. For my blog’s RSS feed, I have just under 60 subscribers. My highest point was about 76. Maybe I hit 80 once, but that’s about it. And, you have to scratch and crawl and all that just to get those readers.
But, with Twitter, I’ve surpassed my blog’s RSS readers by five times! So, just through Twitter, I have a wider reach than I do with my RSS feed.
Of course, I’m not dropping the feed! You have to diversify so that people can follow you however they would like, whether it’s visiting your blog directly, subscribing to your feed, subscribing to your blog by eMail, or following you on Twitter.
And, I can follow other bloggers on Twitter. For example, I know when Pete or Michelle have a new blog post, because they tweet about it. Sorry to say, but I haven’t been keeping up on my RSS feed reader; I’m way behind there. So, I’ll see a tweet about a new blog post before I’ll see it in my RSS reader!
Sometimes I’m the first to leave a comment on a blog post, because I got a notification on Twitter as soon as the post went up!
Oh, and some news outlets are getting on Twitter now too. So, never mind the RSS feeds, I can stay on top of the news by following them on Twitter!
I never got into IM much before. I’d have people bug me to get on, so I’d sign up with some IM service, and they’d chat with me. Once. Then they’d never be around again when I was on, so I’d eventually just delete the IM software and forget about it. And tell other people to buzz off when they suggested I “needed” IM!
But, there’s almost always someone on Twitter. And, I don’t need to have any special software installed to use it. I just open a browser window! (Although, I’ll probably start looking into some of the Twitter tools that are available…)
And, while I’ve been writing this post, I just got two more Twitter followers!
Oops. Make that four new followers.
Gotta go now. Someone just tweeted about a funny video on YouTube…
Grr, I feel the same way about IM! Except I *do* use Pidgin to keep track of who’s online when… sometimes it’s like trying to reach folks by phone… it’s easier to call when you know they’re around. Same thing with IM - you know that if you see them online they will likely read an e-mail if you send it to them then!
Anyway, I didn’t get Twitter at first either but I’m starting to see some of the benefits that you pointed out. I also like being able to get a quick (140 chars each) update on several folks at once and spend all of 5 minutes or so per day doing so, rather than hours at a time, as I used to do.
I don’t care so much about the number of folks following (it doesn’t hurt), I’m more concerned about the quality vs. quantity of both followers and folks I’m following.
It does certainly help to get fast notices like blog posts, etc.!
It’s good too for the socializing aspect. You can get almost everything all in one place.
I *love* twitter so.very.much.
You’re even part of the Twitter Elite!
Here’s my big secret: Twitterfeed. Automatic posting to Twitter once it picks up the new post from your RSS feed. Awesome stuff.
I’m trying to get back on Twitter some more for all of the reasons you mention. I’ve met lots of people on other social networks but then started following them on Twitter. Needing to get back in the loop is an understatement - but the business isn’t going to stop, so it’s time to carve out the time for it (especially to regain my #1 spot in your top commentators list).
New blog design coming soon, look out for it this weekend or Monday.
Yeah, you really need to play some catch up to get the #1 spot back. You’re not even on the list at the moment!
I don’t know that I want to tweet every blog post on Twitter. Maybe just the ones I want to draw attention to. Some people just use Twitter to tweet their URLs, and little else. I think those are the people that get unfollowed the most frequently.
Same goes with people that don’t follow back. I unfollowed a bunch of the “gurus” today. A lot of them have thousands of followers but only follow a couple dozen people. What do I need to follow them for, if they’re not going to follow me back? The way I see it, Twitter is a two-way street. If they want me to see their tweets, they need to be willing to see mine.
Oh hey your main minion is back… I use twitterfeed too. Other then that I rarely TWEET!
I like to peep alot though…. peep peep peep
peep peep peep BURP!
Surely you’re speaking of someone else.
I know. The largest phrase in your Tweet cloud is “New Blog Entry”.