Thing 31: More: Twitter

After working on this for hours this afternoon (not to mention the last few weeks - I feel the need to follow directions and read everything), I think I'm ready to wrap up "More: Twitter".

What does my Twitter page say about me? Well, I liked the basic pale blue background with bare tree limbs when I got started. It's generally my style. But I wanted to upload a photo I took. Apparently they're having some current problems with uploading photos, according to the troubleshooting section I went to. I cannot get my personalized background to load, regardless of what I do to the file size.

I updated the description of myself so that it says more about my interests. I do list the link to my blog. I think I do a decent job of tweeting regularly about the topics I've predefined for myself, with the occasional tweeting of something unrelated that I can't resist. I don't think I'm really entertaining on Twitter like I think I can be in other mediums, though. I think I show my personality a whole lot more on Facebook, this blog, and a web community I belong to. I've seen others show a lot more panache in the 140 characters. But I can be a pretty reserved person in some settings, so maybe that's just me on Twitter.

My social networking strategy... Well, I've put my Twitter username on Facebook, although they don't have a field for that. I've also put it on my blog. And on the 23 Things Ning. I have followed a couple of More Things participants and they follow me, too, so I feel like that's job networking, even though I haven't met these people. I don't have my entire name on Twitter, though. I probably would if I didn't have to link it to my blog. I want my blog to be largely anonymous.

The people I've found on Twitter: a couple of relatives, an online friend, a couple of people I know from my growing-up years, those couple of More-Things library people, some celebrities I'm interested in from TV and music who do their own twittering, and a gardening person or group (kind of unclear to me) who found me somehow and I decided to follow back. There was a library person from out of state who also found me who I followed back. But she twittered incessantly, and I couldn't handle it. Other than that I follow some organizations. I have learned up-to-the-minute things from following MPR.

The stage I'm at... I'm somewhere between stage 2 (I have a presence, but I don't really get why people love it) and stage 4 (although I'd say I post more useful links than I have one-on-one conversations on Twitter - I have not gotten the hang of the back-and-forth really). I see the usefulness of getting updates from organizations I really like and people I am close to. But so much feels like chaotic chatter. I'm planning to cut back on who I follow once it's just up to me to use it as I choose.

In the list of what Twitter is, I think it's a newsroom. It's full of raw stories, some of which are important and some of which are not. It's noisy, busy, fast-paced. The point of it is to find out what's going on now, what's relevant now. But there's a lot of chaos that you don't see elsewhere once you get the final story.

I am concerned about the security of using a lot of the applications. I don't want to give out my Twitter password to lots of places, so there are many of the things I didn't actually try. I did add BeTwittered to my iGoogle homepage so that I can see and post to Twitter without going there. I don't have a cell phone that I can use with Twitter, so I can't try those mobile apps out - maybe once I get a new one. I did add my name to the Twitter Directory and sign up with Mr. Tweet. From one or both of those, I started getting people who had nothing in common with me and were obviously trying to get more followers. In fact, I think I was solicited for the first time in my life! This stream of women with similar user names started following me, and the profiles I saw showed they were looking for... well, "love" isn't really the right word. Their accounts were mostly suspended by the time I tried to see who was following me, but I blocked the others and reported one. So Twitter would have its hazards for the young computer user!

I ranked better as a Twitter user than I expected. I got a 59 out of 100 for a score on one app, and Mr. Twitter calls me an active Twitterer with above average link sharing - but way below average conversations.

I can see the point of having a Twitter presence if you're an organization. I think my library should set up an account to update interested patrons on our activities. And if I ever become a person who needs to do marketing for writing or singing or independent research services, say, I'd want to use Twitter for that.