Saturday 13 December 2008

Twittering

I quite like this Twitter thing. Saves having to construct a whole blog post when all you want to do is make a trivial comment, like - 'watching Newsnight, isn't George Obsorne getting a mauling?' - or - 'why is snooker so boring when Ronnie's not playing and so gripping when he is?'

Will no doubt come in very useful when watching the X Factor final - 'OMG what's that on his head? Oh, it's his hair' - or - '16 year olds singing "My Way": wrong, wrong, wrong'.

Just haven't worked out how to do it by phone yet, although I think I'm getting there.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

By phoine, you just need to set up your mobile with the sidebar on twitter and then text your tweets to the number it gives you. In the UK we don't get incoming SMS from twitter.

Or you could use a specific twitter client if you have a phone that could handle it - something like a blackberry, iphone or similar

Kerry said...

I had to give a mobile number to Twitter, and texted a number to them to confirm... but nothing has happened since. If I try sending an update to that number, will it somehow update my site?

I have an LG Viewty phone which I am sure is capable of doing all sorts of things, but I've never quite got to grips with it!

timbone said...

I am about to get ready to leave for another Christmas gig. Tonight it is a brass band who have asked me to help out on percussion, and make Christmasy sounds with a glockenspiel. This means I will miss the X Factor final. Oh well, I will watch the repeat on a digi channel tomorrow afternoon - o damn, I can't, playing with a symphony orchestra in a childrens concert.

This means I miss Beyonce as well, I hear Louis has leaked the information which was meant to be secret - maybe he should be a politician!

Unknown said...

In the UK you won't receive updates via SMS because of the Sender pays model for payment.

I think if you send a text message to the twitter number then it will update your status. If you have a decent mobile web browser and a data plan then you can use http://m.twitter.com to update your status instead.
From Twitter's FAQ page (http://help.twitter.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=102):

How do I twitter from my phone?

Once you've added your phone to Twitter, you can send a text message to the Twitter phone number assigned to you in your settings page. When you send Twitter a text message, we post it to your profile and send the message to all of your followers.

Kerry said...

Thank you Michael, very helpful - I'm getting there slowly.

And timbone, I am sure I speak on behalf of all visitors to this blog when I say I do hope you continue to keep us all posted on your activities. We appreciate it so much.

Anonymous said...

another internet fad? I give your Twitter account a month before it goes the same way as the Facebook account ...

Kerry said...

Twittering is the future! Fits into a parliamentary day much better than blogging.

Anonymous said...

I do hope you keep the conversation going on these various channels Kerry. I could probably not be more opposed to your politics but you do, I think, deserve kudos for being open about what you feel and do.

The important thing to remember is that Twitter is far more about the conversation than most other social media sites. People can get pretty vexed if you just appear to be spinning a commercial or party line, or follow thousands of people in an attempt to get reciprocal follows yourself.

In order to get the most out of it I'd suggest you limit the follows to those whose updates you actually care about and build slowly. Get involved with discussions and reply to as many @replies as you can.

For a superb example of personal brand management via Twitter look at Stephen Fry (@StephenFry) he talks about various projects, but in a very human way and without resorting to the inhuman language of the advert or party broadcast.

Anonymous said...

"Twittering is the future!"

Doubtless. Why is all too clear.

timbone said...

I had a metaphorical blush when I read your comment about me Kerry, not because I felt flattered, but because I felt silly. It is just that you mentioned the X Factor final, so I decided to say I was going to miss it. To make it more interesting, I said why, which is not really relevant to your blog or twittering. I will stick to the point in the future.