Ahhh Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet! (or 5 Reasons I Like Twitter)

By Jose Vilson | August 4, 2008

Ahhh Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet! (or 5 Reasons I Like Twitter)

By Jose Vilson | August 4, 2008
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Twitter Addict in Prison

Someone recently thought aloud, “Why am I on Twitter?!” (actually a little more … terse)

So without further adieu, my top 5 reasons:

1. The 140 Character Challenge: In Twitter, you’re only allowed to use 140 characters to express your thoughts, announcements, desires, and visions. As a writer, I first thought it’d hurt my creative process since I can’t use big adjectives and nouns to pontificate and ruminate. Then I thought about how awesome an exercise it would be to focus on delivering a message as concisely as possible, as we writers tend to be a little long-winded. Twitter is perfect for conciseness.

2. Talk To Your Favorite Bloggers Like Never Before: Before Twitter, I didn’t really have the chance to communicate with bloggers like UMX, Slant Truth, or Liza, but through Twitter, I’m given a platform where not only do I follow them, but I can respond to their thoughts quicker than, say, a comment on their respective blogs. And they all respond back!

3. Interactive Blog Publicity: Yes, everyone can use an RSS feed to instantly get what I just wrote on my blog, but on Twitter, people can get a quick snapshot of your blog and click right on the link without feeling obligated to log into their Netvibes, G-Reader, or FeedBlitz. The post is linked right in the middle of their other conversations on Twitter.

4. One-Liner Insanity: If you get a nice cabal of regular Twitterzens on your Twitter, you end up in some madness. For example, last night, my Twitter friends and I had a rousing rendition of jazz ciphering … followed by a game of “Who’s More Old School?” People broke out Slick Rick, Earth Wind and Fire, Prince, The Cure, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, and a random assortment of peopleI haven’t heard from musically in ages. Ended at around 3am, and everyone else jamming to our link war. Fun was had by all.

5. (and my real answer) Everybody’s On It!: And I do mean everyone. Check the people who I follow.

You know what? Rather than mention anyone, just log in. Go on. Join the conversation. Follow me. And just to be like the rest of us cool kids, add a profile picture too. Anyone you see me having conversation with on my profile page is cool peoples. Add them, too ;-).

jose, who wonders, if we are on Twitter, does that make us Twits? hahah …

p.s. – I’m not a fan of people trying to teach me about something I’ve been using before them.


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