Thread: Twitter

It depend if you're Stephen Fry or Mr small fry.

Hey, Rob! Nice to see you posting back here.
Twitter? Only just started using it. I don't tend to tweet, just follow one or two people who are posting things about which I'm interested at the moment.

I find it a really useful way of keeping up to date with subject matter information from a huge range of sources.

I Must get into Facebook and Twitter. I presently don't use either but will be getting accounts in the near future to link with my future site .....

I think they are great and so many people can't be wrong ....can they?????

I follow a range of technical pros and industry contacts as well as broadcasters, social media and multi platform folk.
I've gained a bit of work purely through following and I've recommended or employed a few folk for smaller jobs.
If you create lists to each area you can focus on different groups when you need to.
I'm also working on a short film project which is being marketed through twitter to build an audience for when the film is out, which is going well. A multi platform writer maintains the feed and does it justice.
I'll also be using twitter to promote another project to assist with audience building and creating an interactive project.
It doesn't just have to be just 'real' people using it, you can create characters to build upon a story you are telling.
Have a google at Transmedia, multiplatform marketing, how to build an audience through twitter.
Also look into the etiquette of twitter. If its your own twitter account, theres only so much people will listen to if you are just talking about yourself all the time. Make a concerted effort to retweet others opinions/thoughts/blog posts/ tech reviews. Respond to other people constructively and recommend follows to keep yourself interesting.

I haven't got the heaviest of followings, its quite sparse compared to most, however its building slowly. You can use tools to gain followers quickly like Tweet Adder, but for my own account I prefer to not to as it can be obvious and come across slightly rude or deceptive when you do, in my opinion.

I generally gain follows through physical networking, recommendations, working with clients and from my own blog posts (when they are interesting enough).

Overall twitter is a fantastic tool, highly recommend it when used correctly

Thanks Tim.

Interesting thoughts. I've been using Twitter for a while now. I think it has been greatly insightful to see how media professionals approach their work, and on the rare occasion to interact with them.

Originally Posted by fuzzymuffin

You can use tools to gain followers quickly like Tweet Adder, but for my own account I prefer to not to as it can be obvious and come across slightly rude or deceptive when you do, in my

That's always been my approach to the Internet. Over the years I've seen many trends come and go, but the one that's always worked for me is being patient. It took a long time to build up the forums organically, and regular posters have come and gone. And although the forums are small, they are still going! Unfortunately I'm neither a technical wizard, subject matter expert, or an industry pro. I'm just some guy with a camera who likes to help others out. So, as your site admin, I'm not exactly a trail blazer. I'm certainly no Philip Bloom. But i do have an english accent and I'd to think I give you a nice place to hang out.

Originally Posted by BritishEye

Thanks Tim.

Interesting thoughts. I've been using Twitter for a while now. I think it has been greatly insightful to see how media professionals approach their work, and on the rare occasion to interact with them.

There does seem to be a clique of video professionals, but quite often they're not the most vocal, not necessarily the wisest, most experienced or best to know. It's the same in any industry. Someone I used to work with would quite happily peddle other people's ideas and concepts as his own. More often he'd miss the subtly of the concepts and preach something that missed the mark.

This was a great post from fuzzymuffin because it appears to explain the concepts in words of one syllable. Now perhaps someone would indulge me in explaining exactly how this works.

Originally Posted by fuzzymuffin

I follow a range of technical pros and industry contacts as well as broadcasters, social media and multi platform folk.

How do you find out who to follow? I accept of you're a fan of, say, Philip Bloom you might follow a link from his website, but what about others? And once you start following more than a few people how do you prevent being inundated with tweets? My very limited experience seems to be that the concept seems to suffer from information overoad - and very quickly. I "followed"a BBC news site and I could barely keep up with the tweets the speed at which theyw ere coming through.

Originally Posted by fuzzymuffin

I've gained a bit of work purely through following and I've recommended or employed a few folk for smaller jobs.

How does that work? Is that simply someone tweets they're looking for a cameraman, editor etc?

Originally Posted by fuzzymuffin

If you create lists to each area you can focus on different groups when you need to.

Thtis is, I prsume a means of organising your tweeters into groups?

Originally Posted by fuzzymuffin

If its your own twitter account, theres only so much people will listen to if you are just talking about yourself all the time. Make a concerted effort to retweet others opinions/thoughts/blog posts/ tech reviews. Respond to other people constructively and recommend follows to keep yourself interesting.

This is where it gets particularly fuzzy (deliberate use of teh word, but appropriate) for me. Lets say I have three different areas of interest that I follow on Twitter - video production, golf and the music of Yes. And lets assume 'm beginning to build up followers who have interests in the same things (otherwise why would they follow me?). Now I receive a tweet about Jon Anderson having a bit of a spat with Chris Squire. If I retweet it, this will be of interest to 1/3 of my followers only - those who are also intereted in Yes. The other 2/3 have no interest at all.

Logically therefore 2/3 of my tweets are of no interest to any of my followers.

Logically therefore they will stop following me.

Is the idea that one should set up a separate twitter account for each area of interest/business?

Originally Posted by fuzzymuffin

Overall twitter is a fantastic tool, highly recommend it when used correctly

I have no doubt. But where's the user guide? Where's the instruction manual. You sign up for an accounst and they just assume you know how to use it. What are these # tags and how do you use them?

I guess you can eventually figure this out by trial and error, but if thar trial is after you've inadvertantly told the world how much you hate your boss because when you start off nothing tells you who may receive your tweet it's a bit bloody late!

May I just add that whilst I'm an old git, I am not a technophobe (I've been in IT since leaving school in 197. Neither amd I socially inept. But I am social-network inept!

Now I'm goint to see if I can find you. fuzzymuffin, on Twitter so can follow you and get a bit more idea.