Whether it’s news or noise, it seems that Twitter is THE place to go these days. It’s used to track trending subjects and to “follow” your favorite celebs, reporters or newscaster. It’s an oddity for sure, but a mainstream oddity that is probably here to stay.
But then a few weeks back I read where someone’s home was burglarized while they were away and Twitter was dragged into the equation.
Suspicions arose that because the person sent a “twit” (My own expression. I know they’re called ‘tweets.’) that they were leaving for a trip, that this was viable information that the burglars used.
I never followed this issue all the way through but I suppose this is possible.
My take is that if you really have the need to send twits about everything you do, you just might want to be prepared for whatever comes of it.
I myself don’t get the premise behind sending tweets (Vanity Twits) about every little nuance in your world. I’m not sure I care that you getting on an airline, what you’re having for dinner or where you’re having dinner. If I’m having dinner, I’m not sure I’m willing to type it out… because, well, I’m having dinner. That’s my “me” time and you’ve not been invited, well there ya go.
Yet I always see where someone has to tell me they’re playing a video game, or sitting at the pool or picking their… well, OK, now I’m embellishing. You get my drift.
There are also those that whore out their messages hoping for traffic by putting a # sign in front of a Twitter keyword. Doing this tags some subject tracking services. What some don’t know is that aside from specific services, just using the keyword gets the ‘twit’ recognized on Twitter tracking sites. (One example: Twitter Search)
When I follow someone, it’s for information. Twitter can be a great business tool. If I start getting too much personal noise from someone, it makes me feel like my Twitter real estate is being wasted. That’s when I break off our relationship. If I really want to know what someone is doing, I’ll use this antiquated system called e-mail.
I’m not looking for a ‘twit’ every 2 minutes. That fills up my real estate and I don’t have the time to chase old ‘twits.’ Below are some examples of differing kinds of ‘twits’.
Breaking news: http://twitter.com/BreakingNews (Lots of tweets. If someone farted, it’s tweeted!)
News sources, news anchors
- http://twitter.com/claytonmorris (It’s more him than his news)
- http://twitter.com/todayshow (This one looks filtered to decent info)
- http://twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn
- http://twitter.com/AnnCurry (Specific news items and her 140 character takes on them.)
- http://www.twitscoop.com/ (Fascinating service that tracks trends… I’m relaying it, never used it.)
- http://twitter.com/newsnet (A lot of news consolidated from diff sites into one feed)
Important issues when they happen, and not a re-twit every 3 minutes about it. (Sorted alphabetically)
- http://twitter.com/abcnews
- http://twitter.com/cbsnews
- http://twitter.com/cnnbrk
- http://twitter.com/FOXnews
- http://twitter.com/NBCNews
I’m betting if you looked or inquired, you’d find your own local stations somewhere on Twitter too. Heck you can even track weather on Twitter:
- http://twitter.com/weather (Tidbits, not weather reporting)
- http://www.accuweather.com/twitter/ (Find your town and follow.)
(Disclaimer: I’ve found that Accuweather is a misnomer of a name. I can look at their present conditions and do a “+/- 7″ to the present temp and be more accurate. I’ve seen where they’ve been telling me it’s raining out, and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. My preference is Wunderground where they use personal weather stations that update every few minutes. I can’t find a Twitter account, but I find my city, and subscribe to their RSS feed. NOW THAT IS AWESOME for present conditions.)
Now ya know.
