I have always loved Twitter.
When people mocked Twitter’s reductive 140 characters I defended it.
When people called Twitter ‘just status updates’ I pointed out that saying such a thing was a fundamental misunderstanding of what twitter is about.
When people said that they didn’t get it, I pointed out that you can meet the friends that you were always meant to have on Twitter. That you can watch the evolution of an idea as it bounces between people and turns into something else entirely. It’s the organic nature of twitter conversations that make it special. And it’s how it is not dependent upon your existing friendship networks that makes it unique.
But I am falling out of love with Twitter. Fast.
You can’t dictate how other people use social media. It’s theirs. What they do with it is their business.
I’ve stepped away from promoting posts several times a day on Twitter and am doing less brand engagement now. So I’m able to see just precisely how annoying I must have been in the past. Because now all I see is:
Self promote
Self promote
Branded hashtag (i.e. free advertising)
Self promote
Ask someone else to promote me
Branded hashtag
Branded hashtag
Self promote
ZOMG this totally cool person just promoted my post
Not a sponsored tweet (because there are so many sponsored tweets that people actually have to label something as not sponsored)
And I just know that you wouldn’t have to look hard at all to go and find exactly that in my stream. And not that long ago either. But now that I’ve stepped back from it, I see it. And it’s boring. And it’s annoying. People used to talk on Twitter, once upon a time.
My hope that this is a stage. A really, really short stage. And that eventually, given time, people will go back to conversations. Or my annoyance will propel me forward to finding other people who are also of the old cranky lady variety.
All my awesome twitter friends are now my facebook friends anyway. And I can instant message and prattle away in groups quite happily all day. You are making this way too easy Twitter. And you can tell things aren’t going well if you are making me actually like facebook.
It obviously works for people to use twitter in this way and you know what annoys me even more than my twitter stream at the moment? All of those didactic posts about how you have to use social media. I have to change how I use it, so it works for me. And right now, it’s not working for me.
Twitter is like a rich cheese for me. One day I love it, and then I won’t touch it for a few days. Oh and I am also guilty of partaking in your list. Oh, and I LOVE my Facebook crew too. xx
Aren’t we all guilty of that? This is precisely why I’ve established myself as a hypocrite so doing these things one day and complaining about them the next is totally on brand
Over the past month or so my Twitter use has changed a lot. I am absolutely guilty as charged too, and sometimes I am quite jiggy with Twitter in that format and sometimes it does my head in.
I can’t say much without being a huge hypocrit really, and yet I agree all the same. I need to redress the balance a bit.
Nup, never connected wit it. I won’t say any more ‘cos I think it would be like bagging the newly ex-boyfriend and something tells me you are going to get back together soonest!!!
you are so wise.
I also cannot spell hypocrite at this time of night apparently
Don’t worry. As it was pointed out on twitter earlier I’m already a hypocrite by posting the link to twitter. I shall be Queen of the hypocrites!
That is hilarious.
Whatever happened to connecting in real life, face to face. I love blogging and I love social media connection, but my long holiday – mostly on my own – made me realise that I missed face to face interaction.
Could not agree with you more! Admittedly, I promote my posts on the twitter-sphere (otherwise no one would know my blog existed) but the shameless self-promotion that seems to clog my feeds (both Twitter & Facebook) can be very annoying.
I haven’t fall out of love yet but I was given a fairly great list of journos to follow at uni so the sponsored stuff is usually nicely balanced. Too much shameless self-promotion and I just unfollow. Or take a break for a few days.
Yes i tend to agree with you *sigh* LOVE twitter but lately it is a tad boring ,could be just us getting older lolI have gone back to Facebook more now too….Maybe taking a step back is a good idea.
Must just be us blogging dinosaurs!
I’ve been doing a whole lot of unfollowing lately. It helps!
If it was all in moderation, I would be a lot less grumpy!
I love seeing people in person but it’s not always possible with young kiddies.
You know what’s been shitting me lately on twitter? Those branded hash tag parties for beauty products. Urgh.
To be honest, I found Twitter to be very hard work and given I’m working four days a week and am always tired, I had to weigh up return on investment and twitter had to fall off the radar (sadly as has FB lately). So I’ve not see all those sponsored posts you mention. I still use it to promote a post I’ve just written or a pic I’ve taken via Instagram but that’s mostly it nowadays. Even then I’m not doing either via via Twitter directly but via WP or IG. IG is my tool of choice right now. So much for RTI. Anyway, I just assume most people ignore my tweets anyway. Ha ha! Following this journey of yours with interest since you have been such a Twitter Queen.
‘Tis nice to know that I’m not the only one who has a love/hate relationship with Twitter. I’ve been stuck in the hate stage for awhile now and everytime I log on, I’m flooded with anything but the tweeting convos I used to love and partake in! Wonder if it’ll ever go back to how it used to?
I still love Twitter. I’ve met the greatest people, still having the best chats and laughs. In the last year I’ve had to make myself get into FB more to be more in the loop. It’s interesting you feel this way from your feed- of course it depends upon how many people and who you follow and what they do too. I tweet my posts a couple of times a day- I have to- FB has kneecapped me and wants to extort money from me to talk to everyone (which still isn’t that many people yet). I guess in the growth stages it’s different.
Interesting. I am probably one of those annoying people, because promoting my posts on Twitter is a way of using Twitter without actually using it. I do not have the time to use it properly ie engage and chat. I haven’t learnt the efficiency tricks yet. I’ve only just started creating lists – I assume that’s how people make sure they see the posts they really want to see? So if you ever hear from me on Twitter, it’s because you happened to tweet in the 1 minute a day I actually go on, before abandoning it from overwhelm.
Hey if it’s working for you that’s all that matters!
I have absolutely zero interest in growing my blog now so my perspective has just shifted. In the past I would make sure I promoted my posts a few times a day to catch people who were online at different times of day. Now my care factor is zero, so I don’t. But that’s not to say that one way of using twitter is better than another – it’s just whatever works for you. I just have to find a way that works for me better.
This is exactly what I just commented about
I am in and out of twitter these days. I was totally in love with it and then while I was living in a different timezone I broke the habit. I check in still, and have a chat but I don’t feel the need to read every tweet so I don’t notice the same as you’ve listed… or maybe we follow different tweeps. Or maybe I’m too involved in the hashtag events to see them from the other side.there was a time recently when twitter conversation almost made me delete my blog and unfollow every blogger out there. But the storm passed and in the meantime I found some new and interesting people to follow that weren’t bitching about the same old thing all the time.
I still love social media, but it’s not hot and heavy like it once was, it’s now a more comfortable relationship.
That’s probably a good way to go. Sometimes you get twitter at a good part of the day and it’s all conversation and fun. And other times I feel like I’m walking into an infomercial.
Respect.
I have been struggling a lot with it for the last few months. I feel like I’ve been so busy that when I sit down I’ve missed so much I feel confused and can’t seem to pick up what’s going on. Then when I say “fuck it i’ll just update” I feel like anything I have to say is really boring or whiney.It’s like starting all over again for me, so I just flit in and out on the rare occasion, and because of that it’s usually pimping a blog post, because I don’t know how to relay what I have to say. I feel clouded.
This makes me feel guilty!Although I am in no way sponsored posting, I do share my blog a couple times a day but the only reason for that is because it’s different sorts of times for different peoples!!!
I do try and get on there but I’m a little over everything as well TBH. It feels so… a little like highschool where everyone has their niche and it’s just like a public convo to show how amazingly cool they are and all their inside jokes are so funny,,,
I get next to no traffic from twitter… just a little trickle from my twitter friends, which is lovely, but it also means I don’t bother using twitter as anything more than a chance to chat most of the time. I’ll tweet a link to my blog post when I post it, I’ll re-tweet a friends link if I see it, and I’ll play along with a hashtag if I am at an event… but for the most part… twitter is my ‘other person’. It’s someone to tell the inane, crazy, funny, mundane, boring things too when I really wish I had someone else apart from a two year old to talk to…
Oh yes. Yes. I pop in every now and then – when I once just about lived there. Oddly (it surprises me too), I now spend more time on Facebook. But I am keeping a foot in the door. Just in case it gets all awesome-sauce again. xo
Foot in the door I think is going to be my approach too. It used to be way more awesome.