Twitter

emine

@Four Eyes and andy - but if you use lists, don't the people who you put in those lists know they are in a list? I suppose this is ok, as long as I don't put the heading "twattish people I need to pretend to stay friends with". Echofon and that muting thing you mentioned sound good too - thanks!

harpistic

Yeah, I should shut up too, as I'm meant to be cramming for a job interview this afternoon! ;)

Although Twitter.com has improved a lot over the last few years, I still say that it's not designed for real Twitter use (like Internet Explorer isn't designed for browsing, cough) - and it also looks a lot more professional if organisations are seen to use an app. Tweetdeck is one of the most popular, Seesmic Web is nice, and though I adore DestroyTwitter, the DM problem is a pain in the neck.

I agree, lists are great - they're particularly loved if there's any discrepancy between who you actually follow and who you want to be following (and also, if you follow people through a list, then they can't DM you).

andy

@emine - lists can be public or private, so no-one knows if you put them (or don't put them) on a private list. For example, I can tell that you are currently on 22 public lists, including one called 'fun women'. </stalker>

emine

@andy ha! They clearly don't know me. But yes, this is why I thought if you put someone on a list, they would know about it. I had no idea about private lists, or indeed most of these apps. I've obviously been doing it all wrong. Maybe this will make me a twitter convert.

tosscat

@ arky - no mention of my beard I notice! (although you've probably not seen it)

Arkady

@FourEyes: I already use tweetdeck but couldn't get that Facebook/Twitter functionality to work - will try again. @Tosscat: no, not seen the bearded version of you. Your non-bearded picture looked *nothing* like I expected.

andy

everyone's got beards now. I saw a picture of David Mitchell with a beard and thought "this beard thing may have gone too far". Even David Mitchell looks rogueishly handsome with a beard.

Arkady

I even thought Jonathan Ross looked good with a beard.

miss annie

David Mitchell looks like a smug git with or without beard. Jonathan Ross was much improved by a beard. Has anyone seen the Canadian team in the Rugby World Cup? Now those are what I call beards!

Kaz

I thought I has Twitter all figured out until this thread. My head hurts now... @firstworldpains is pretty good, and @FirstDateHell is very funny.

Arkady

Oooo one other thing, try <http://twitterfall.com/>; if you’re following a particular fast-moving event. I can watch #Libya all night, for instance. Also good for #BBCQuestionTime and other TV shows. When Question Time was on the other week there was a female audience member with absolutely horrendous teeth, and the reaction of the Twitterati made me laugh myself into a coma.

harpistic

And it's also great for TV shows, eg #xfactor, #bgt, #scd and Eurovision - the biting comments people make are hilarious, you don't necessarily need to actually watch the show, just be entertained by the tweets about it!

Arkady

Turns out that you can post your tweets to your Facebook wall using an option in the standard Twitter settings. That’s a one-way street though.

Four Eyes

Yes I knew in the settings on twitter you can tick the 'post tweets to facebook' option which sends them as status updates. However, considering I sometimes tweet over 60 times a day I think I'd manage to obliterate all my facebook friends within a very short space of time if I did this...

Tweetdeck is also fab when you're following a particular hashtag. I've been loving #tweetlikeastockphotoday which has been running the past couple of days. Just search for it in tweetdeck, it will create it as a new column for you to watch (be careful if it's a trending topic however as it will move so fast it'll give you an epileptic fit).

Arkady

I see. I’m not so prolific. But I had my Foursquare account tied into Facebook for a while, and lost friends that way.

emine

Taking to Twitter to mock some poor woman's teeth, such a force for good. That's the other thing I include in reasons I dislike Twitter - how easy it is to gang up on people, and how quickly it can whip up a mob. Terrifying.

krappyrubsnif

@FourEyes, you tweet 60 times a day.........mY God. More often than I check SG org. We both need to get a life.

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Four Eyes

@misscara that is so not true!(only about half of them)

@KRS I said 'sometimes' tweet over 60 times a day. On a bad day it could approach 100 but usually about 20-30. I'm logged into tweetdeck at work, and it's mostly just conversational banter because nobody in our office actually speaks. That's not much compared to one of my best friends who has sent 50,000 tweets in a year.

And yes, I need to get a life.

harpistic

And your friend with the 50k tweets has HOW many followers?! ;)

But seriously, don't you ever feel that you Have A Life *because* of Twitter? Pre-Twitter existence seems kinda drab and meaningless by comparison! :)

Four Eyes

She has about 700 I think. Not that many in twitter terms but that's a lot of people to engage with if you're up for it?

There was a life before Twitter?

harpistic

Yeah. It sucked. All we had was FB back then. As I said, sucked ;)

700's not a bad number if she follows most of them back. I just don't get those people who whinge because Twitter won't let them follow more than 2001 people... *eyes pop out*

Arkady

Anyone have tips on how to get the best out of LinkedIn and other online job sites? I'm in the market for a new job. Career, even. MSc finished, time to step it up a gear.

helen

@arkady for linkedin, i reckon best approach is to write a list of potential or interesting employers and then search through your connections to see if they have connections to them (or connections to connections to them). then ask for an intro, and write a really good intro to yourself. In the US this is the main way people are using linkedin (and cutting out the recruitment companies)

checkski

I didn't understand a word of that, and I don't think I want to. God - and I thought I was a time-waster, overly keen on Killer sudokus as I am. Compared with this lot I am a hive of purposive industry.

sgc

There's a thing called (I think) Selective Tweets which lets you post certain tweets to Facebook by using the hashtag #fb at the end - I'm not sure how to get it, but I'm sure if you google it you'll find it. Also, I think even the basic 'post everything to fb' thing doesn't include @ replies (though if you use someone's @twittername in the body of a tweet rather than at the beginning, that would still show up).

I like Twitter in bursts, as it has a decent mix of people I know and like, and people I don't really know outside Twitter but who are interesting and engaging. I've met quite a lot of new people through it, as well, and been to some interesting events (such as the Boring conference...)

Oh, and I think the basic way to get the most out of Twitter is to engage with people, don't just tweet into the ether, reply to people, get into conversations, expand your circle (most of the people I follow are people who were involved in conversations with other people I follow(ed at the time) and who seemed interesting or funny).

Ali

Arkady, This depends on what your looking to do and in what industry/profession ? Generally: First thing get you CV sorted with accurate dates of where/what you have been doing Make it chronological with most about the most recent ie nobody is interested in what you did 10 years (prob less than that now) so make the older stuff more of a summary. At the start of the CV have a positioning statement ie I am a constant blogger on the local blog with 5 years expertise incorporating lots of political and local knowledge. I have detailed expertise in xx and have successfully delivered xxx. Eg I have successfully managed large cross functional performing teams delivering high quality output enabled by my expertise and knowledge of governance processes and team dynamics. Sounds like bollocks but works in the right context. You must make sure that you are able to substantiate what you have written with examples as you are leading/making it easy for the interviewers to have something to ask you. You can also base you opening statement at your interview so you can get an element of control in the situation and again when at the end you can repeat a version of it as you closing statement. The other thing to do at the end of the interview when they ask if you have any questions after you have asked a couple of relevant questions that reinforce why you so good for them finish by telling them that you really would like the job and is there anything they have doubts about in giving it to you so I i(e you) only have this one chance to talk to then so is there anything else they would like to ask you I have to go out for a while but will post some stuff about LinkedIn and Agency web sites later. Get you CV sorted as that is the base for everything

Arkady

Thanks Helen & Ali @Ali, that reinforces why I am being told elsewhere. I’ve brought my CV up to scratch, save for that initial descriptive paragraph. I’m pretty open-minded about what comes next, but my skills are in research & reporting, and administration (though really want to lose the focus on the latter). Something civil-society focussed would be great. I’ve had my head in academia so long I don’t really know what’s out there.

David Barry

I might be able to assist; at least up to the point that its worth a phone call or a cup of coffee.

You can contact me through putting a comment on my blog

I am "whispering" this as I dont want to expose an email address to harvesting.

email

nlondon@mac.com

blog

davidbarry.posterous.com

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