People ask me why am I am not on Facebook more. Sometimes people seem to think that if you are not using Facebook you are not on the Web! In fact if you Google "Denys Yeo" you will see I do actually post a lot of material on the web, just not so much on Facebook. On the other hand, almost every time I put something new up on the web I send out a twitter note. Below I have listed a number of ways that you can follow this activity; you don't even have to have a Twitter account! (but it would be a good idea!); plus there are many ways to follow and interact with tweets!
- Direct access via url: enter this into your browsers address bar and you will go directly to my tweet stream. To find me on Twitter just type twitter.com/dgyeo in the address box. (usually don't need a HTTP//: before it). Turn it into a favorite or into a windows shortcut!
- Open your own twitter account. Then you can do your own tweets and follow me and others. To follow me type in @dgyeo
- Search Twitter: As well as Twitter itself there are a number of applications that are able to search the twitter stream to return tweets based on the search information you have entered. Good examples are twitter search or tweetgrid. Also just search via Google. eg., Try > Twitter upi:dyd-dgyeo < when I enter this today I get about 183 results (if I choose to display all results).
- Tweetdeck is a nice third party application that you can use instead of the main twitter login page. You will need to Google this application and then install it. It's really good for keeping track of who you are following and allows you to enter and rapidly send a tweet.
What would be great is for more people I know to open a Twitter account, find me at @dgyeo, and follow me! And, if you are interested in using Twitter more then I can follow you.
Why tweet rather than Facebook or MySpace?
Really, it is a preference: I have talked to a number of people and Facebook comes out as the preferred social networking option.
Some people have barely heard of MySpace! (Will it survive?)
Twitter? well the comment is often "why would you use Twitter when Facebook can do everything (?) and everyone is on Facebook anyway"
So why am I using Twitter? Mainly, because it is fast,efficient and (almost) entirely public. Unless you actually denote a tweet is for someone specific, it will be public. This means you don't have to worry about anyone who might see it; any one could. You do need to take care with the message itself to ensure that you don't say anything you would not want to be made public; but that makes it interesting and a bit of a challenge. Also, Twitter is great way to keep an index of your web activity when you are posting material at more than one location.
Plus there are some fun things you can do. For example, when you have posted a good number of tweets you can go to http://yes.thatcan.be/my/next/tweet/ enter your twitter handle, and it will generate a tweet for you - using information from all the tweets you have posted to date! I've just done this and I got "The beginning of C." Oh well, nothings perfect, but it's interesting!
No one social network system will meet every need. Get good at using several and then you can choose the ones that will work best for you; for any given point and purpose in time. After all, we now have Google+ so options will not exactly dry up any more than they are likely to become more amalgamated with each other. We know that the providers are after (more than) their share of the social networking cake so let's keep them honest.