On May 12th, Twitter announced that they'll begin rolling out a mute function to all users. I don't know their timeline, but I know I don't have the feature yet. In an opinion piece mentioning this new feature, the author said that "you shouldn't need to use it."
Seriously?
The argument is you shouldn't be following anyone uninteresting anyway, and except in a few circumstances, you should just unfollow them.
Clearly the author hasn't had to deal with people who live tweet television shows or movies or--God help me--their workout at the gym. These are people I'm happy to follow most of the time, just not when they're doing this live tweeting thing. I give this a solid ten on the Annoy-O-Meter.
There are also authors I'm following who I can't unfollow for various reasons who tweet nothing except promo--either their own or another author's promo in a tit-for-tat exchange. I already skip past anything they tweet the instant I see their name or recognize their avatar. The mute button will save me even having to skim over their tweet.
Maybe an author is doing a Twitter chat. That's also very annoying and one of those things that would be awesome to turn off until the chat is over.
Shouldn't need to use the mute button? Please. I'm looking forward to the mute button making Twitter more pleasurable and it's already my favorite of the social networks.
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
It's Time to Retire Follow Friday
Twitter is one of my favorite places to hang out. I love having conversation with people there and checking in to see what others are talking about, but there's one Twitter tradition that needs to be retired. Follow Friday.
Let me be clear, I appreciate each Follow Friday mention I receive, but there are authors and others who only do it to promote themselves. There's even a service that will do all the Follow Friday tweets for them!
That's not what Follow Friday (#FF) was intended to be.
In the early days of Twitter (and I've been on there for six years now!), Follow Friday was a way to help new people find others to friend. Someone would usually tweet the person's user ID and then a short reason about why they'd be fun to tweet with.
Before much longer, this morphed into tweets with just a list of user IDs and a #FF tacked on. The problem with this, though, is that it had nothing about why to follow someone. As this new list style became more and more pervasive, Follow Friday became less useful and fewer people participated.
But there are still some diehards who tweet out their list of names for Follow Friday every week, and in an aggravating twist, those who were part of this list began retweeting the #FF post.
Maybe it's just me, but the only Follow Friday mentions I see anywhere on Twitter right now are from the people doing it to promote themselves. With those they mention either retweeting the tweet (which means everyone who's friended them sees it) or my style, which is to say thank you and then put the user ID (which means all of my friends see it).
Again, maybe it's just me, but when I see a #FF with a list of names that fills all 140 characters, I don't even read it anymore let alone check anyone out to see if I want to follow them. This defeats the whole purpose of the hashtag and why I think it's time for it to end
The value to this type of tweet is long, long gone.
For Follow Friday to be worth anything again (as well as it's less well known cousin, Writer Wednesday (#WW)), it means that those sending out the tweets need to go back to adding a reason why I should care about following this person. You know like this: "#FF @Patti_OShea because she always retweets the best science stories and loves to say good morning to people."
And if I'm interested in science stories, I might check out this Patti O'Shea. ;-) But just a list of names? Um, no. We might as well call Follow Friday done and move on.
BTW, if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can find me here: https://twitter.com/Patti_OShea
Let me be clear, I appreciate each Follow Friday mention I receive, but there are authors and others who only do it to promote themselves. There's even a service that will do all the Follow Friday tweets for them!
That's not what Follow Friday (#FF) was intended to be.
In the early days of Twitter (and I've been on there for six years now!), Follow Friday was a way to help new people find others to friend. Someone would usually tweet the person's user ID and then a short reason about why they'd be fun to tweet with.
Before much longer, this morphed into tweets with just a list of user IDs and a #FF tacked on. The problem with this, though, is that it had nothing about why to follow someone. As this new list style became more and more pervasive, Follow Friday became less useful and fewer people participated.
But there are still some diehards who tweet out their list of names for Follow Friday every week, and in an aggravating twist, those who were part of this list began retweeting the #FF post.
Maybe it's just me, but the only Follow Friday mentions I see anywhere on Twitter right now are from the people doing it to promote themselves. With those they mention either retweeting the tweet (which means everyone who's friended them sees it) or my style, which is to say thank you and then put the user ID (which means all of my friends see it).
Again, maybe it's just me, but when I see a #FF with a list of names that fills all 140 characters, I don't even read it anymore let alone check anyone out to see if I want to follow them. This defeats the whole purpose of the hashtag and why I think it's time for it to end
The value to this type of tweet is long, long gone.
For Follow Friday to be worth anything again (as well as it's less well known cousin, Writer Wednesday (#WW)), it means that those sending out the tweets need to go back to adding a reason why I should care about following this person. You know like this: "#FF @Patti_OShea because she always retweets the best science stories and loves to say good morning to people."
And if I'm interested in science stories, I might check out this Patti O'Shea. ;-) But just a list of names? Um, no. We might as well call Follow Friday done and move on.
BTW, if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can find me here: https://twitter.com/Patti_OShea
Monday, August 23, 2010
Urban Fantasy - Paranormal Romance Crossover
I did a Twitter chat on August 21st about Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy and how they crossover. The transcript is up now if you'd like to check it out.
UF Chat
UF Chat
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Twitter Questions/Thoughts
As I was traveling around the web this weekend, I found a comment on a blog where someone posted that publishers and authors don't have a good Twitter presence because we don't follow everyone back who follows us. That stopped me cold and I've been thinking about it ever since.
I don't follow everyone back and I'll tell you why. Because if I was following 1000+ people, I wouldn't be able to keep up with anyone. Sure, I could put everyone on a list and check in on it from time to time, but I've done that on Facebook and I never remember to click over to the other lists. Clearly, this isn't a solution that will work for me.
The other thing is that when someone follows me and I see they're following 1000 or 10,000 people, I never follow them back because I don't believe they have any interest in me or what I have to say. The question is do other people react this way or am I in the minority on this? I do tend to think a little off center, so it's certainly possible that most people don't have this attitude and I'm ascribing it to them.
In large part, the people I'm following on Twitter were the first ones to follow me. Most of them I hardly knew or didn't know at all when I started, but I've become friendly with them since then. I believe I wouldn't have developed those relationships if I was following thousands of people and I like forming relationships with others. I wanted to stay around 100 people to follow because that allows me to really keep up, but I've crept upward and am around 175 right now. That's busy enough for me that if I can't check in for a few hours, I can't take the time to read the tweets that were posted in the meantime. There are just too many. It makes me feel bad when I know I'm missing people's news, but it's simply too much. If I was following thousands, I'd never keep up with anything.
I automatically don't follow anyone with SEO or marketing expert in their bio. I get a lot of this. I don't follow people who are tweeting in a foreign language. I think it's cool that they're following me, but because I only speak English, I don't understand what they're saying.
I've also stopped following authors because I'm following a lot already and I want to follow other people and get different perspectives on the world. I'm surrounded by writers online often because I'm a writer, too. But right now on Twitter I'm following a professional surfer, I'm following someone who links to paranormal news (Which is where I read the headline that inspired the story that became Demon Kissed), and I'm following a tourism tweeter from Tahiti. He posts links frequently to things going on in Tahiti which gave me a throwaway line in a project that I felt lent it authenticity that it might not otherwise have.
While I don't autofollow, I do read and chat with people who @ reply to me. In fact, I love it when people start a conversation. I enjoy chatting on Twitter and the people who do get added to my followers list, tend to be people who talk to me with some regularity. So if you're worried about bothering me, don't. I can't always answer right away while I'm at the Evil Day Job (EDJ), but I do answer eventually, and if you see me on Twitter in the evening, feel free to send me a tweet. :-)
I will also unfollow people. If someone isn't tweeting for months, they tend to get taken off the list. I also have a pet peeve about people who live tweet television shows and movies. A comment now and then during the show, fine. No problem, but a steady stream for an hour? No. Especially on reality TV shows which I loathe with the fire of a thousand suns. I've reached the point where I'll unfollow anyone who does this regularly.
I also stopped following all the rugby teams. I have a hero who's a huge rugby fan and I know nothing about the game. When I tweeted about this and had some rugby associations start following me, I thought awesome! What a cool way to learn about rugby. Only they were talking about players and about team moves and I didn't know any of these people or teams and I just ended up skipping over the rugby posts. I suppose it's like this for people who don't know anything about baseball following the official Cubs twitter account. Not a good way to learn, only a good way to keep up with teams if you are already familiar with them.
Anyway, I've kind of rambled here for a while. If you made it this far, thank you and I have a question for you. What do you think of the following situation? Am I right to not autofollow everyone? Or is my reasoning flawed? Should I follow everyone who follows me as long as they're not an SEO, marketer or spammer even though I'd never keep up with anyone? Or should I keep doing what I'm doing, following a smaller number and answering @ replies? I'm really curious what others think.
* * *
As the corporate showdown between Amazon and Macmillan continues, I wanted to remind everyone that you can still buy my books and preorder In the Darkest Night (March 30, 2010 release) at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books a Million, Powell's, as well as many others. Until the situation is resolved, I'll be adding this to my blog posts.
I don't follow everyone back and I'll tell you why. Because if I was following 1000+ people, I wouldn't be able to keep up with anyone. Sure, I could put everyone on a list and check in on it from time to time, but I've done that on Facebook and I never remember to click over to the other lists. Clearly, this isn't a solution that will work for me.
The other thing is that when someone follows me and I see they're following 1000 or 10,000 people, I never follow them back because I don't believe they have any interest in me or what I have to say. The question is do other people react this way or am I in the minority on this? I do tend to think a little off center, so it's certainly possible that most people don't have this attitude and I'm ascribing it to them.
In large part, the people I'm following on Twitter were the first ones to follow me. Most of them I hardly knew or didn't know at all when I started, but I've become friendly with them since then. I believe I wouldn't have developed those relationships if I was following thousands of people and I like forming relationships with others. I wanted to stay around 100 people to follow because that allows me to really keep up, but I've crept upward and am around 175 right now. That's busy enough for me that if I can't check in for a few hours, I can't take the time to read the tweets that were posted in the meantime. There are just too many. It makes me feel bad when I know I'm missing people's news, but it's simply too much. If I was following thousands, I'd never keep up with anything.
I automatically don't follow anyone with SEO or marketing expert in their bio. I get a lot of this. I don't follow people who are tweeting in a foreign language. I think it's cool that they're following me, but because I only speak English, I don't understand what they're saying.
I've also stopped following authors because I'm following a lot already and I want to follow other people and get different perspectives on the world. I'm surrounded by writers online often because I'm a writer, too. But right now on Twitter I'm following a professional surfer, I'm following someone who links to paranormal news (Which is where I read the headline that inspired the story that became Demon Kissed), and I'm following a tourism tweeter from Tahiti. He posts links frequently to things going on in Tahiti which gave me a throwaway line in a project that I felt lent it authenticity that it might not otherwise have.
While I don't autofollow, I do read and chat with people who @ reply to me. In fact, I love it when people start a conversation. I enjoy chatting on Twitter and the people who do get added to my followers list, tend to be people who talk to me with some regularity. So if you're worried about bothering me, don't. I can't always answer right away while I'm at the Evil Day Job (EDJ), but I do answer eventually, and if you see me on Twitter in the evening, feel free to send me a tweet. :-)
I will also unfollow people. If someone isn't tweeting for months, they tend to get taken off the list. I also have a pet peeve about people who live tweet television shows and movies. A comment now and then during the show, fine. No problem, but a steady stream for an hour? No. Especially on reality TV shows which I loathe with the fire of a thousand suns. I've reached the point where I'll unfollow anyone who does this regularly.
I also stopped following all the rugby teams. I have a hero who's a huge rugby fan and I know nothing about the game. When I tweeted about this and had some rugby associations start following me, I thought awesome! What a cool way to learn about rugby. Only they were talking about players and about team moves and I didn't know any of these people or teams and I just ended up skipping over the rugby posts. I suppose it's like this for people who don't know anything about baseball following the official Cubs twitter account. Not a good way to learn, only a good way to keep up with teams if you are already familiar with them.
Anyway, I've kind of rambled here for a while. If you made it this far, thank you and I have a question for you. What do you think of the following situation? Am I right to not autofollow everyone? Or is my reasoning flawed? Should I follow everyone who follows me as long as they're not an SEO, marketer or spammer even though I'd never keep up with anyone? Or should I keep doing what I'm doing, following a smaller number and answering @ replies? I'm really curious what others think.
As the corporate showdown between Amazon and Macmillan continues, I wanted to remind everyone that you can still buy my books and preorder In the Darkest Night (March 30, 2010 release) at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books a Million, Powell's, as well as many others. Until the situation is resolved, I'll be adding this to my blog posts.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Mountains and Questions
I forgot it was Tuesday! I've been working on copy edits all evening and my eyes are crossed now, so this will be another quick blog post.
If you'd like to see a picture of my library (aka the book cathedral), there's a picture up on the Dusted blog. I also talk about my collection of read and yet-to-be-read books there.
Tomorrow, Wednesday August 5th, is Ask a Romance Author Day on Twitter. I'll be participating after I get home from the Evil Day Job and while I'm trying to work on copy edits. :-) There are a lot of other authors participating as well. It's for both readers and writers, so no matter which group you fall into, stop on in and ask your question. (You'll need to have a Twitter account, but it's free.) Then ask your question and add #askromancewriter or #arw. Either one will work. JoAnn Ross has more information up on her blog.
If you'd like to see a picture of my library (aka the book cathedral), there's a picture up on the Dusted blog. I also talk about my collection of read and yet-to-be-read books there.
Tomorrow, Wednesday August 5th, is Ask a Romance Author Day on Twitter. I'll be participating after I get home from the Evil Day Job and while I'm trying to work on copy edits. :-) There are a lot of other authors participating as well. It's for both readers and writers, so no matter which group you fall into, stop on in and ask your question. (You'll need to have a Twitter account, but it's free.) Then ask your question and add #askromancewriter or #arw. Either one will work. JoAnn Ross has more information up on her blog.
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