Has the Twitter Bluebird Flown the Coop?

[Richard]

I'm really disappointed in what Twitter has become over the past few weeks. I wrote a blog post on my site to express it, but I may be wrong. How do the rest of you feel about it?

[[deleted user]]

I've never been a big fan of Twitter. I have it linked to my author FB page and that's the only way Twitter gets updated 98% of the time (when I post on FB). Now there are ads and scammers. To me it just seems like a waste of time. If you're a natural Tweeter, it's probably worth it. If you're like me, it's an agonizing and probably unnecessary evil.

BTW, I saw a show on VH1 years ago that explained "jumping the shark" means surpassing the point of ridiculousness that marks the downfall of your empire. Apparently in the show "Happy Days" there was a scene where the Fonz went water-skiing and jumped over a shark that was in his way. Hence "jumping the shark." Although people are also now calling it "nuking the fridge" on account of the latest Indiana Jones movie.

[Martin]

Despite earlier reluctance, I've had a good experience with Twitter. I don't post often, only once or twice a week to announce something. And it appears it's drawing interest to my books and online writing.

There are a lot of spammers, but you can block them, choose not to follow them, etc. I use the lists function to follow those I'm really interested it.

[Nick]

I think it's whatever you want to make of it. I went to a talk once, and the presenter said she uses it for everything: to get news, to find out what's going on, to keep in touch, and to promote. She reckoned that if someone just promoted, they could turn people off, and lose followers. She believed you should do three things. Be nice – i.e. wish your followers a good day etc, inform – tell your followers about something interesting and include a link, if possible; and lastly be funny. She suggested that your promotions should be only 10% of your tweets.

[Todd]

I'll tweet many reviews of books I've enjoyed, books I wishlist and buy. Also will retweet stuff from others that I find interesting, creative and/or entertaining. Every now and then I'll say something random, but I try to keep the deepest thoughts for blogs or stories.

[Richard]

I regularly un-follow other writers whose tweets consist of nothing but self-promotion. I also no longer automatically follow everyone who follows me. Just trying to conserve my time a bit.