Explain Twitter to me please

[truthseeker]

I can understand Facebook, Bebo etc... Stay in touch, see photos, etc...

But I dont understand Twitter for ordinary people. Fair enough, you might want to follow some commentator or celebrity and see things that they say. But why on earth would you personally want to be saying anything (I mean, who would be following an ordinary mortal?), or hearing anything that millions of other strangers are saying?

Plus, I dont understand the hashtag thing. I hear about things Trending, and see things like #Budget2013 (to use an obvious example), but how do you decide what to use as the hashtag and how do you know what other people are using?

If someone made a comment about the recent Australian prank call would they use #prank, #prankcall, #queenprank, #kateprank etc? And how do they decide?

 

[micmclo]

I love twitter!

I don't tweet much, I've about 15 tweets in 2 years.
I save my razor sharp wit for AAM

I use it for sports journalists and to get injury updates for my fantasy football team

Realy you get out of it what you put in.
If you're interested in some topic and know the best people to follow it's great.

If you want to follow so z list celeb tweet about their breakfast or their trip to the bathroom, well yeah don't expect any useful info

As for the hashtag.
Well you just make them up, your list of examples, they are all fine.

#getwiththetimesOP

 

[truthseeker]

#getwiththetimesOP

#thanksbutlessofthelip ?

 

[callybags]

All I ever hear of is people getting into trouble over twitter, so I remain outside of the cosy group of twitterati and class myself as illetwitterate.

The best time to buy a budgie is when it's going cheep.

 

[TarfHead]

I've been on Twitter for a while. I rarely tweet. When I do, it's like sending someone a text message, e.g. radio station presenter, Irish Rail customer complaint.

The accounts I follow reflect my interests in life. Politicians, sports people, journalists covering same, US media figures. Often times I scroll past tweets, other times I follow a link or check out a photograph.

It's people who have something to say that I'm interested in hearing. I don't actively seek out the company of people who I disagree with or annoy me. The same approach works well on Twitter. And Facebook too.

 

[MeathCommute]

If you receive a reply from a celebrity, then the number of followers you have jumps. If it is someone like Lady Gaga (who has the most followers of anyone on Twitter) then you will end up with thousands of people who follow you, provided your comment to Lady Gaga was interesting enough to have been retweeted by her or replied to. However once you have followers, you'll have to give them something interesting every now and again, or they will quickly un-follow you, anytime they do a spring clean. My favourite people to follow are Donald Trump, Alan Sugar, Piers Morgan, Joey Barton the footballer and Tyson Fury the boxer. All good for arguments and rants