Twit Tips: Twitter Levels the Playing Field (or should have)

By BLOGBloke May 5th, 2009 | 137 Comments

Twit Tips: Twitter Levels the Playing Field (or should have)

In some ways Twitter and other social networking sites have leveled the playing field. No more gaming the SERPS, exclusive networks or padding the resume.Let’s hope the peeps don’t figure out a way to create another self-serving a-list (like they did to the blogosphere) and ruin it for the rest of us … again.Then again perhaps I’ve spoke too soon. There are so many 3rd party apps available now anyone can grow a huge community. Take TweetDeck for example. This is one app the marketers go ape over, mainly because of it’s “grouping” feature.Do you see where I’m going with this? Have you ever wondered how they can possibly follow thousands of Twits? It’s easy — they just filter 99% of their followers (i.e. you)  into the “noise” group and track their real friends. Now don’t you feel honoured that certain a-lister has followed you? (Rhetorical question). Some things just never change.

I wrote that about a year ago but for some reason I couldn’t finish it. It was more of a stream of consciencousness meandering than a post. Twitter was still in it’s infancy and a morbid curiosity than anything else.

Now I know why I couldn’t finish. I was too depressed to continue grappling with the question — are we really that superficial?

Low and behold a year after peering into my crystal ball it has come to pass. If history teaches us anything — it’s that history always repeats itself.

Consider this other well known fact – that we humans can only socialize with a limited number of friends.  Everything else is just a faceless crowd.

Today we are seeing an explosion of Twitter apps like we’ve never seen before, and most of them are designed to corral the sheep and lead them to slaughter. 

I guess there’s no stopping it, but what really gets my knickers in a knot are those damn automated DMs wasting my time. Know what I mean?

Newer blogs like Mashable have made a lucrative business from the social networking phenomema. It seems like every day they have another list of Twitter apps for us. Ho hum.

So what will be tomorrow’s new killer application? Who cares. Because honestly, blogging will endure no matter what the gates of hell try to throw at it.

What’s the moral of this story? No matter what comes down the pipeline, if it’s popular someone will figure out a way to expoit it. So like the song says “just look at them and sigh”.

Of course you can always hit the “unfollow” button.

Here’s another one for you – ”have tweet will follow” (or was that “have gun will follow“) and the wheels keep going round and round…


Filed under: Blog Tips, Featured Articles, New Media, Social Media, Twitter Tips , , ,

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    There are 137 Comments so far to “Twit Tips: Twitter Levels the Playing Field (or should have)”

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    1. And I’m just glad that I’m not on the Twitter Bandwagon at all :)

      Mikael @ RetireRichRoadmaps last blog post…Being Effective Produces the Free Time We All Want

      [ Reply..]

      Blog Bloke on May 5th, 2009 at 12:23 pm replied...

      Mikael .. Seth Godin would agree http://www.blogbloke.com/seth-godin-social-networking/

      [ Reply..]

      Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on May 5th, 2009 12:23 pm:

    2. “and teach your children well…” Glad to see you’re back. Now I’m singing that song you referenced. Missed ya! Teri in CR

      [ Reply..]

      Blog Bloke on May 5th, 2009 at 12:24 pm replied...

      Thanks sweety. I don’t what I’d do without you. Don’t ever change.

      [ Reply..]

      Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on May 5th, 2009 12:24 pm:

    3. *sigh* I was hoping Twitter would be different, but I guess all the cache is tied up in the name. :P I guess I just stick to leaving comments on the blogs I like. ;-)

      [ Reply..]

      Blog Bloke on May 5th, 2009 at 3:35 pm replied...

      Hi Erica.

      Don’t get me wrong. I’m not all down on Twitter. Twitter can be fun to play with, it’s easy to use and effective for marketing if you are so inclined.

      http://www.blogbloke.com/twitter-promote-blog-traffic/

      Like anything it can also be abused. If used properly it can be a nice enhancement for your blog (like my “tweets” sidebar for example). But it will never replace real blogging which is where we should be spending more of our time.

      Please drop by again.

      [ Reply..]

      Erica on May 5th, 2009 at 11:47 pm replied...

      @Blog Bloke, actually I use twitter to tweet out my blog posts. I only occasionally *use* twitter, so far it seems like more of a pain to me. Although it is fun to watch people frenzy over some topics like “Swine Flu”

      [ Reply..]

      Erica (@blogbloketips) reply on May 5th, 2009 11:47 pm:

      Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on May 5th, 2009 3:35 pm:

    4. Glad to see your are back on business :-)
      Though we interact with limited no of people.. Faceless crowd will pull more people in to tat, We can not neglect tat.

      [ Reply..]

    5. I’m so glad I found this website, it’s great!

      [ Reply..]

    6. Good food for thought. I use Twitter for personal branding and networking. There will be some major improvements to Twitter Search. Another Google might be coming. What do you think?

      Problogger Make Money Online With Bloggings last blog post…Challenge Yourself And Join 30 Days Hub Challenge!

      [ Reply..]

    7. You’ve hit the nail on the head again!

      [ Reply..]

    8. I am having around 9,800 followers and i am following around 8,800 members. i tried to utilize the opportunity in a better way and improve my social network and business but it ain’t helped me much :( .

      Regards,
      Leif

      [ Reply..]

    9. Great website and excellent post.

      One of my new favorite quotes “have tweet will follow” :)

      Erics last blog post…Turbo Cash Generator Review

      [ Reply..]

      Blog Bloke on Jun 5th, 2009 at 10:02 pm replied...

      Hi Eric, I hope Paladin doesn’t mind the pun ;-). Thanks for dropping by and the kind words.

      …BB

      [ Reply..]

      Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on June 5th, 2009 10:02 pm:

    10. Just wanted to say thanks for all these tips I love twitter and will continue to use it!

      [ Reply..]

    11. I have several thousand followers thanks for one of those services. I decided though, what’s the value of following several hundred people if you can’t keep track of the interesting tweets.

      [ Reply..]

      Blog Bloke on Sep 30th, 2009 at 3:40 pm replied...

      @Kristin, marketers seek as many followers they can get for it’s viral affect. But for the rest of us it doesn’t make any sense, except from an egocentric point of view.

      [ Reply..]

      Blog Bloke (@blogbloketips) reply on September 30th, 2009 3:40 pm:

    12. Finally I found an article I was looking for, thanks for sharing

      [ Reply..]

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