Thursday, July 21, 2011

BlogHo's, TwitterHo's, and HoHo's

I have been blogging for a few years now and surprisingly I have yet to run out of things to say...or Walmart pictures to post.  Thank you for that, Sam Walton.  R.I.P.
Once I likened blogging to being the star of my own show (sounds so narcissistic) and I still think it fits.  I get the most lines anyway.  Although the real fun comes from the brilliant and often completely hilarious comments.  The only drawback: Blowing coffee out my nose at 8:00am.

Twitter is a different story.
It's actually not as easy as it seems to be funny or relevant in 140 characters or less.  Except for that shitmydadsays guy.  He's awesome.  I can be random, that's not hard and sometimes I give into the temptation.  But what I really want to discuss is our followers and those we follow. 

Do you follow everyone who decides to follow you?  I know celebrities and the more popular tweeters do not.  And I'm actually not offended that Pink hasn't decided she can't live without knowing how my week is shaping up or how the potty training adventures are going.  Or that Ian Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore) isn't hanging off my every tweet with utter devotion.  He will someday...but for the rest of us, is it an automatic follow for you if someone else clicks the button on your tweeter account?

Do you vet them? (I really wanted to work in the word 'vet') Do you try to determine if they are political, angry, or just plain stalkery nuts before you put your stamp of approval on their tweets? 












Because that's what I feel like I'm doing and maybe I'm taking it too seriously.  I've noticed people follow and unfollow quite a bit in Twitterland, unlike Blogger where losing a follower feels like you've been dumped without warning.  They pretended nothing was wrong, went out for a pack of smokes and just...disappeared. 

I usually take a few days to check out new followers, read their profile and tweets, maybe glance over their blog if they have one before I make a decision.  I don't want to seem easy.

With Blogs, I take even more time.  You comment on mine, I comment on yours, we do a little dance back and forth.  Usually you make me laugh or say something so profound it speaks to the writer/mom/crazy in me and then I have to know what you're saying every day.  EVERY DAY.







What are your thoughts?  And how the hell do I get a twitter live feed to display on my sidebar instead of just my own confusing tweets?

Oh, yeah.  And I like HoHo's. 

14 comments:

  1. That's a great question, Marsha. I'll probably just follow the conversation and get everyone's take, being that I am a new Tweeter.

    Not.

    I have a number of marketing people on my bandwagon. When I first started, I automatically reciprocated, for fear that I would lose them if I didn't. Now, I am getting ready to glean my account. Didn't give a lot of forethought to what I did here. (Hold the comment that is begging to come out, please. Smile)

    Now, I try to stalk, err, follow only authors whose work I enjoy, a few agents, a handful of blogger buddies, and some celebrities. Oh, by the way, Pink says hi.

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  2. I used to follow anyone that was a writer who followed me. But then my friends' tweets would get SO LOST in the stream that I had to stop that policy. Now I follow people I know, mostly.

    Also, your comment about disappearing after going out for cigs? Probably the funniest thing I've read all day :)

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  3. Twitter is still so new to me, but I follow back anyone who follows me. I'm not very discriminating. Same with my blog. I always follow back -- although some people don't have a blog link in their profile and they don't leave comments so I can't hunt them down. I have to say I'm always a little surprised by the number of people who don't follow me back on blogger. Makes me think my blog has bad breath or something. :(

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  4. Tweet and Retweet were sitting on a fence. Tweet fell off.

    Twitter for the masses, for those without Twitter momentum... is a spectator sport.

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  5. I consider myself to be a leader, not a follower. I had to say that folks,lol. Richard from the Amish community of Lebanon,pa.

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  6. I've been trying to follow those who follow me on Twitter (unless they're advertisers), but I'm not very current on it.

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  7. I will pretty much follow everybody who follows me, unless they're spam, or unless I'm just totally disinterested in what they do. For example, Gino's Pizza Paradise in Idaho is following me? No, I won't follow back because I don't live in Idaho and therefore have no interest in seeing tweets about their $5.99 one-topping special.

    I use lists on Twitter to ensure I don't miss anything. And that way, it doesn't feel overwhelming. I have lists for friends, bloggers, entertainers, athletes, news, etc. I find it really helps.

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  8. I'm not on Twitter . . . but with blogs, I try to make sure I follow everyone who follows me, unless there's no link in which case I can't find their blog. It is a bit of a surprise when people stop following your own blog; I usually want to politely track them down and ask why they stopped. :P

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  9. Where the hell do people find the time to read 712 blogs a day? And then Facebook and Tweet and Plus it up on Google? I'm going to start mugging people for minutes soon.

    "Give me your minutes or I'll hit you with a copy of Finnegan's Wake. Don't gvie me no lip; this bitch is heavy."

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  10. I follow most of my followers on Twitter, because they're writing as well and we have some things in common. Except today my car broke down and I tweeted it, and now some car tuning place is following me. They are in the US, so will not actually get any custom from me, but it's nice they're being pro-active! Sadly, I think we would not have much to say to each other.

    Things I know about my car:
    1. It is blue.
    2. That is all.

    So thanks Auto Tech, but I''m not taking this relationship any further.

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  11. If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.
    George S. Patton

    Now that was from no follower. Richard from Amish Stories.

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  12. I don't believe in following someone because they follow me. Really?!?!? Some of it is just promo stuff anyways. Follow who you want, don't worry if they want to follow you back. lol.

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  13. In some neck of the woods, someone who "follows" someone would be called a stalker,lol. Richard from the Amish community of Lebanon,Pa

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  14. Im on fire with my zingers today,lol. Richard from Amish Stories.

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It helps to know I'm not just talking to myself.