Social Media: Twitter

Right, the next three blogposts are going to branch off the travels and UK life. I've been thinking about this for a while so I'm writing about my thoughts on Social Media, mainly Facebook and Twitter. Basically it's going to be a massive rant about the things that absolutely drive me bonkers when it comes to online networking.

TWITTER
Turns out I do have a lot to say about Twitter. I was going to tack it onto the end of my Facebook rant but then it seemed that I had more to let out than I realised. I haven’t been tweeting for very long so I'm no expert. Twitter confuses most first time users. First and most important rule – it’s not supposed to be a replacement for Facebook. Facebook is about connecting and staying in touch with friends. Twitter is a globally open commentary of what’s going on in the/your world.
News breaks first on Twitter. Literally. If you hear a rumour of breaking news, chances are, a lot of people are already tweeting about it. I once saw a massive queue in South Kensington. It stretched around a few blocks! I was on a bus and couldn't ask anyone so I searched South Kensington on Twitter. Unsurprisingly, French nationalists lining up to vote at the embassy were tweeting.
All of my tweets will generally be to someone or contain a hashtag i.e. a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic, to begin a conversation (e.g. #thingsthatconfuseme), or relate to an on trend topic (e.g. the Closing Ceremony). If I follow you on Twitter and we’re friends on FB I’ll unfollow if you use them the same way. Actually the best example of using Twitter like Facebook is, I'm sorry to say, one of my favourite musicians. She has sometimes even done what should never have been made possible and linked the two so the same thing appears on each.
Yes, I follow celebrities. I don’t do it to see what perfume I should be wearing (not that I wear it, it makes me sneeze, bad example). They’re people I think either have something interesting to say; I want to keep track of in terms of what they’re doing in their career e.g. gigs, albums etc. or they're simply entertaining. The people I follow generally fall into one of the following categories:

• Comedians – Example: @adamhillscomedy - "Thanks to all who came to the recording of Mess Around tonight. It was the most fun pilot I've ever had #sentencethatsoundsweirdoutofcontext"  
• Musicians – Example: @coldplay - "You can now pre-order the upcoming #ColdplayLive2012 concert film / live album from Amazon at http://smarturl.it/coldplaylive2012 … A"
• Friends - Example: @HayloWatts - "@LiberalAus I would love to see positive news about the positive reasons to vote Liberal rather than Labor bashing - thank you!! :)"
• Travel industry & colleagues: @red_carnation - "It's Skabenga's birthday soon at the @OysterBox. As with all luxury cats he's having a party! #PresentsExpected"
• Pure entertainment: A few parody royals, an anti-joke-cat and the Big Ben who just tweets BONG. One of my favourites has still got to be @Charles_HRH - "Greek Prime Minister on the phone. Wants to know if one can "lend him a tenner". #sodoff"

So, that's about all I have to say about Twitter. Stay tuned for the next two posts... Facebook!