Katelyn's+Twitter

Welcome to Katelyn's Twitter Wiki I am a new Twitter user; before this class I had never joined the network. I am still trying to figure out how it works. I have started following about nine people/things. Friends, celebs, Vogue etc.

I just registered my phone so I will start getting tweets and updates direct which should make it a little easier to tweet more frequently. Here is a picture of my twitter so far.

Using Twitter directly to the phone also helped me figure out different usages of Twitter much quicker. I recently learned how to retweet and how to include another Twitter user in my tweets. Interacting with other peoples Tweets makes it much more fun and friendly. When I was simply posting my own tweets it feels like I was doing it only for myself. Interacting with other Twitter users not only gives me more things to tweet about but helps me keep in touch with friends who live out of state. I have found that using Twitter on the phone is much easier and efficient than using Twitter on the computer. I have encountered many problems with the online website. In the past few days I have gotten the screenshot below around 10 times while navigating the site. I have gotten my follow count up since I joined Twitter. However, I keep my privacy setting high so people do not see my Tweets unless they are following me which makes it harder to have a lot of people following my tweets. In my first few days as a Twitter user I got very creepy follow requests and tweets mentioning me hence the high privacy setting. I have been requesting to follow mainly friends and celebrities. I have a few newspapers/magazines I follow as well, mainly to keep up on current events and fashion news. I find that I usually skim over those tweets and focus on tweets from my friends. I think Twitter makes it much easier to know what your friends are up to at that moment (if they keep up with tweeting) where Facebook statuses are not updated as frequently.

Here is an example of a magazine or newspaper. I have found that magazines (especially fashion magazines) rarely tweet anything that cannot be found on their websites. Aside from the occasional tweet of a celebrity siting in something from the magazine. Following magazine tweets is a little more difficult when reading tweets from my phone because my blackberry does not have great picture clarity and most tweets form Bazaar especially include pictures of clothes or accessories.

Above is a picture of a celebrity Twitter page. Mainly I have chosen to follow celebrities from television shows that I watch. However, I have found that celebrities like Jeremy Piven with a sense of humor are the most interesting to follow because they are amusing and informative. Also, he is originally from the Chicago area to frequently Tweets about Chicago which makes him fun to follow for me. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, below, who do not acknowledge their fans and simply tweet with their friends and about what they are doing are much less entertaining to follow. I also like when celebrities tweet unknown facts about themselves.



Kim is considerably less interesting to follow because she simply texts where she is traveling to and back and forth with other celebrities and friends.

I I have spent that last few days exploring different usages of Twitter that I have been unfamiliar with. Top Tweets below

Top Tweets appears on the homepage when I sign in online. I have used this to find more celebrities that I want to follow. It basically shows the most interesting or discussed Tweets from the day. They could be about a current event or usually a certain celebrity tweets something that many people react to. Sometimes they are just funny or inspirational like the two above about The Titanic and Nashville homeless.



Trending which appears on the right side of my homepage also helps to keep up with what is being discussed on Twitter. I have mine set for Chicago so I see trends mentioned throughout Chicago recently. With the Blackhawks in playoffs players like Burish (above) are trending topics. Trending topics basically mean something or someone that has been mentioned frequently in tweets throughout the day. When trying to find more things and people to follow Twitter has a handy browser suggestions page. You are able to select the topic which interests you then browse through the people and sites available. For example I selected funny and comedians and humor sites popped up.

Recently I have found that tweeting from my phone has become a little addictive. I also believe a Twitter addiction is much easier to succumb to than a Facebook addiction because it is so much easier to use straight from my phone. I have found myself checking twitter statuses multiple times throughout the days, especially when I am bored or trying to waste time. However; I do find that I check other people's twitter statuses much more than I update my own. GeoTweeting is a feature I have seen advertised throughout the Twitter site and I have seen it used in other peoples tweets. Although I do not use it myself, it is a feature that allows you to include your location that you are tweeting from. I find it a little creepy and overly invasive so I have chosen not to use this feature. I guess it could come in handy in an emergency situation but I will take my chances.

As an addicted facebook user trying to expand my horizons to other social networking sites, I cannot help but compare Twitter to facebook, and overall throughout my semester of use I am not overly impressed by Twitter. Although the tweeting feature is more functional than the status feature on facebook, I wish there was more to Twitter. Aside from posting my tweet and following other tweets there is very little to do on the site. When using Ubertwitter on my phone I do not notice how little there is to do or explore on the site as much as when I am using twitter on the web. Therefore I have mainly stuck to using Ubertwitter over going online to check and post tweets.

After looking at more people's homepages, I have realized that my background is lame so I am trying to figure out how to change it. This will have to do for now....