Tag Archives: twitter

Is all this social media really worth the while?

I found myself checking twitter for the umpteenth time this morning. The stream of stuff coming into my feed is pretty much worthless. There are links that take me off to sites that find me screaming, ten minutes later, “What the heck am I doing looking at this stuff!??”

So, this morning, I wondered why did I ever start with twitter? The answer is simple – I began on twitter to promote my YouTube channel – pure and simple. When I post a new video, YouTube automatically posts to twitter – it used to post to Facebook too, before they became such rivals.

I went to my YouTube analytics to see just how much traffic YouTube brings me. Out of a half million views a month, twitter accounts for 26 linked views. That does not justify the amount of time in my life that twitter takes up. It’s not a messaging app. People can still contact me.

Most of it is bubble and I’m tired of it. So, I’ve removed the apps off my phone and computer and If the world doesn’t come crashing down, I’ll close my twitter account in a couple of weeks, just to show others that it can be done.

It’s great to keep in touch with what everyone else is doing and talking about, but my brain is not capable of handling all those conversations.

Then I thought I should draw a quick picture to illustrate this post and then I thought I might as well film it and then I thought I’d do a video and by the time I’ve finished posting, YouTube will have automatically posted to twitter, but I’ll never know what the tweeps think about it… unless I succumb!

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Primrose Hill Primary Academy – Lydney

me-drawn-by-amy-warner

Evie Warner draws Shoo Rayner Chibi Style!

I visited Primrose Hill Primary Academy in Sydney last Monday. It’s quite local to me.

I had a great day telling stories and drawing with the children. I didn’t know that I was being closely observed!

Evie Warner was taking in the details of my hair and glasses and eyebrows too – and drew me as a mini-me type Chibi style portrait.

I particularly like the short trousers – I hasten to add that I wore long trousers on the day!

Thanks Evie and keep on drawing!

Is twitter really a waste of time?

I’ve been trying to come to terms with twitter recently. I can see that in general, it’s a wonderful idea but, as I explore it more, I realise that it is awash with scammers and robots that spend all day posting the same old tweets that are advertising stuff – any stuff – the owners don’t care what they are advertising, as long as they get you to click on a contextualised link and make then a micropayment. But it all adds up.

I’ve noticed one kind of follower: Their picture is usually of a fit looking person, usually a studio shot, often looking like a corporate website photo from iStockPhoto.com. When you check them out, they follow several hundred people and have several hundred followers too. This they mange to do without having made any tweets at all! How?

They follow big names in a certain field and follow their followers too. Most people are so pleased to get followers, they follow their new followers out of gratitude and courtesy.

Those who don’t reciprocate after a few days are then unfollowed, to keep the followed figures looking about right. Why?

When they reach a set amount of followers, they will bombard them with tweets, carefully crafted to draw in those followers who have self-selected themselves as being fairly good targets.

Just because you have a thousand followers, it doesn’t mean anyone is reading your tweets. Having a thousand followers creates another problem. You will have so many tweets to read in a day, most of which will be total rubbish, that you will never find the good tweet amongst them all.

As a marketing tool, I beginning to think it’s a bit rubbish. You may have a well-targeted group following you, but there is such a small chance of them ever seeing your tweet, it’s hardly worth the effort.

The secret is to carefully weed out followers and those you follow, so you know that you have a really good list. But this takes time and great judgement. Unfollowing or blocking some people may cause offence!