Twitter Goes LIVE! And Why It’s a Big Deal
Buzz it
The little app that could has finally grown up. No matter what you may think of Twitter there’s no denying it is a phenomena. Twitter is on Letterman, celebrities are using it and even Microsoft got into a bidding war with Google over it. Everybody wants a piece of Twitter (except of course Miley Cyrus, but I digress…)
Twitter’s Law of Attraction:
People love Twitter because it is an extremely easy application to use that lends itself well to mobility. With its 140 character limitation nobody is expected to write a thesis on Twitter. It has attracted millions of users who just want a simple messaging service that they can take with their cell phone and keep in touch.
Of course it’s usefulness has grown far beyond but we shall save that for another post.
The Problem with Twitter:
Twitter wasn’t without its detractors and BLOGBloke led the pack. When Twitter was first introduced as a “micro-blogging” service I was one of its most outspoken critics.
Only 140 characters! Are you kidding? How on earth can we say anything meaningful in just a few words .. (I bellowed).
Twitter Ups Its Game:
Twitter has now raised the bar with it’s new feature — tweet notifications. In fact I would argue it is more important than its Lists feature that so many (especially @Scoble) are excited about.
Why? Well it’s simple really. We can now have truly live conversations … that’s why.
Twitter puts a notice at the top of your page with a message that you have an @reply waiting for you without having to refresh/reload the page.
How cool is that? Just click it and the message instantly appears. It even puts a number in Twitter’s browser tab (that is how I first noticed it) to let you know there are messages waiting.
It Gets Even Better:
Neither is the 140 character limitation as much an issue now because we can actually follow the conversation and stay on topic. No more messages like:
“Um … what was that you said earlier? I don’t follow…”
We don’t have to fill in the blanks so the other party knows what the heck we’re talking about because there’s no longer a time-lag between replies. (Thanks also to Twitter’s terrific “in reply to ..” feature).
Twitter as a Real-Time Conversation Tool:
In fact I would argue that Twitter is more like a live conversation than a pontificating speech like blog posts can be. Instant social chat for the masses where anybody can jump into the conversation.
What makes this even more exciting for me is once and for all Twitter differentiates itself from real blogging. What I mean by that is time and again Twitter has been errantly described as a “micro-blogging” service.
With it’s latest incarnation Twitter has now become a full-blown, LIVE Conversation Tool! Twitter finally works like it’s supposed to and as I had envisioned it could be.
Although it still has some catching up to FriendFeed’s ability to follow a conversation (which is more like real blogging comments) Twitter has finally come into its own.
Twitter meshes well as a companion add-on feature for blogs like I have in my sidebar. (I would still like more than 140 characters but since it’s built on SMS technology that is probably not going to happen).
Going LIVE with Twitter:
Lately everything that we read about Web 2.0 is how it is going LIVE but I prefer to think of it as more of a convenience. The less clicks the better as far as I’m concerned, and with Twitter’s tweet notifications feature we now get instant gratification. There’s no more need for 3rd party apps or checking our email later.
You have to admit that is way cool and for the first time I’m actually getting excited about Twitter. So in honor of this momentous occasion I even upgraded my Twitter page. (What do you think)?
Twitter’s tweet notification should be available to everyone shortly and it is rolling out it’s retweet feature as I speak.
Way to go guys!
All in all I’m pleased with the direction that Twitter is heading. How about you? Tweet, tweet…
Filed under: Blog Tips, Featured Articles, Social Media, Twitter Tips
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Calling all Blokesters! Please take a moment to read this post and Retweet. Thanks .. http://www.blogbloke.com/twitter-notific…
via Twitoaster
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Calling all Blokesters! Please take a moment to read this post and Retweet. Thanks .. http://www.blogbloke.com/twitter-notific…
via Twitoaster
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Bloke I never knew twitter had all that stuff you said. I recently got a win mobile phone so Pocket twittering is a breeze. And I was considering deleting my account earlier..! Thanks
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@Curtis, glad you like it and didn’t delete your account. Tweet me sometime.
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BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on November 12th, 2009 12:58 pm:
Twitter has proven to be the great social networking portal as compared to Orkut and Facebook.
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@poster, I personally don’t like Facebook but millions of users seem to disagree.
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I joined Facebook simply because I was invited to by a friend. I haven’t used it for anything but contacting distant relatives. How effective have other readers found it to be as a tool for promoting a business?
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David Lindsay (@blogbloketips) reply on January 13th, 2010 3:29 pm:
BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on November 15th, 2009 3:25 am:
Like you, I was sceptical about Twitter. And there are aspects of it and the culture that has grown up around it that I still don’t like. However, Notifications, Lists, and the changes to Retweets are a definite step in the right direction.
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@Kenny, glad to see they’re spending all those $millions they got wisely.
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BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on November 15th, 2009 2:06 pm:
Like Twitter or not.. and I like it when it’s working,,, but it works for me.. twitter is my 2nd biggest traffic source.
It works, if used right.
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@John Paul, Google is by far my #1 traffic source, and Twitter and Yahoo are a distant second. Twitter is good for a traffic spike after a new post announcement, but search engines provide the regular traffic.
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BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on November 16th, 2009 3:21 pm:
Had no idea Twitter had this new feature. It sounds like TweetDeck but without the “deck”. Have you seen the new Twitter mobile? A handheld for tweeting only. It (Twitter) truly is a phenomena
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Hi Roschelle .. expect the mobile phone companies to offer competitive pricing for similar services this Christmas.
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BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on November 17th, 2009 3:36 am:
Twitter has become incredibly popular with huge usage among folks.
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Yeah, but using it just because everybody else is doing that already, isn’t a good argument. If people buy porn, you should do it too? Why?
P.S. I’m a strong advocate of using Twitter to brand your business or whatever you’re doing to make a living [online/offline], but most people use it as a direct income generating tool, which is not what is supposed to be used for.
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They’re all younger than me, so, yeah. They are. And I call people older than me “kid”. It’s not a big deal. They’ll live.
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New Post: Twitter Goes LIVE! And Why it’s a Big Deal http://bit.ly/1NdgZK
[…] Twitter Goes LIVE! And Why It’s a Big Deal www.blogbloke.com/twitter-notifications-twitter-goes-live – view page – cached The little app that could has finally grown up. No matter what you may think of Twitter there’s no denying it is a phenomena. Twitter is on Letterman, […]
@Scobleizer Twitter Goes LIVE! And Why It’s a Big Deal http://bit.ly/1NdgZK
Calling all Blokesters! Please take a moment to read this post and Retweet. Thanks .. http://bit.ly/1NdgZK
BLOGBloke: @Scobleizer Twitter Goes LIVE! And Why It’s a Big Deal http://bit.ly/1NdgZK http://url4.eu/jgUJ
@Curtis, glad you like it and didn't delete your account. Tweet me sometime. http://bit.ly/2htJcS
@poster, I personally don’t like Facebook but millions of users seem to disagree. http://bit.ly/2htJcS
@Kenny, glad to see they're spending all those $millions they got wisely. http://bit.ly/2htJcS
@Curtis, test http://bit.ly/2htJcS
@John Paul, Google is by far my #1 traffic source, and Twitter and Yahoo are a distant second. Twitter is good for … http://bit.ly/2htJcS
Had no idea Twitter had this new feature. It sounds like TweetDeck but without the "deck". Have you seen the new Tw… http://bit.ly/2htJcS
Hi Roschelle .. expect the mobile phone companies to offer competitive prices for similar services this Ch… http://bit.ly/2htJcS
"Twitter Goes LIVE! And Why It’s a Big Deal" ( http://bit.ly/4Z3Kb3 )