The World According to Twitter
By David Pogue and His 500,000 Followers
The wit and wisdom of the Twittersphere captured in a collection of hand-picked tweets.
Now, I am tempted to buy this book just to see if he gave me credit for sucking him into the twittersphere. Let me explain...
A few years ago, when I was "into" twitter, I noticed that my favorite tech guru was listed, but had no tweets. He had many followers, but no tweets. I emailed him, despite his page-long explanation of why he doesn't normally respond to emails, and asked him why he had not tweeted. Here is my email to him, which I have lovingly saved for 2 years:
On 12/5/08 6:58 AM, "michelle -----"
By now you know that twitter is like crack for some people, you have a decent following and you haven't tweeted in a year. I am just wondering why you stopped using it. Was a fun toy that couldn't sustain itself, did you not find anyone interesting to follow? Just curious. There are tons of people who throw up twitpics and the applications are multiplying day by day. I think there are a lot of annoying marketing people on there, but there are also some very funny people, i just dump the ones I don't like. I'm a bit of a twitch that way. throw your followers a bone, too lazy to correct this i am drying my hair at the same time.His response:
I’m glad you wrote... I was just thinking about this last night...
I DON’T GET IT!
I need a Twitter teacher.
I’ve sent out tweets several times, and they just... disappear into the void. How do I know if anyone’s listening? Sometimes I pose a question ... nobody answers.
I once saw a guy with a Twitter program that runs in the corner of his Mac screen, so he doesn’t have to be logged into the Web site to do Twittering. What was that?
Can you help me?
Hope your hair dried OK!
dp
My response:
I think that application is called twitterific, it is for the macs. I have a
gadget on my blog so when I am workign there I can tweet from my blog and see
what is being posed by the people I am following. You have a bunch of
followers already so THEY will see what you are tweeting every time you tweet,
you will see the people you are following. A lot of twitterers talk to each
other, they put an @sign in front of the username they are addressing. then
when you are in your home page you can look to the right and check your @
messages first to see if anyone had something to say directly to you.
you can also DM each other if you are following each other.
Tweets can be general or specific, it depends on your style. I will email
more later, go to get back to the class.
Michelle -----------A short relationship followed with questions asked through twitter on DMs, but they were BORING, so I won't share them here. Since he dived back in, Dave has tweeted 3,500 times has 1,327,540 followers, has written at least five columns about the application, and has now written a book. I think I deserve an honorable mention.
 |
| My most successful student... |
You go woman, with out your help I would not of had my tweet in the book ( page 223 ).
ReplyDeleteI Thank you for that.
Awesome! So I've got you to thank somehow for having made it into page 43 ;)
ReplyDeleteAwesome!!!
ReplyDeleteCool... You've been Pogued... Glad you gave him the nudge, or maybe shove.
ReplyDeleteYou are a terrific advocate of twitter - good work!
ReplyDeleteIf my vote counts, Michelle, you definitely deserve recognition for helping David "get" Twitter sooner than later.
ReplyDeleteHis "The World According to Twitter may have been published later than it was and, consequently, the timeline may have precluded ... ahem ... the contribution of wotten1 on Page 39. What a loss to the literary world that would've been!
Were politicians able to do what David did in the course of this contest ---
http://is.gd/co1Sz
--- the world, even outside of Twitter---would be such a better place.
David Pogue walked his talk: he made a promise and kept it!
Imagine the work just coming up night after night with different themes to which Pogue's Peeps were to return appropriate 140-character responses!
Then, imagine the gazillions of entries that David and his intern had to review to eventually select a favored few.
After all that, the repetitive stress syndrome that must've plagued David when he actually autographed by hand each copy personally to mail to each lucky winner.
Hey, Michelle---thanks for your nudging David into the Twittersphere a tad earlier than it might have taken--your teaching him the power of tweet taught me the power of an honest man keeping his word. In today's world, that's an amazing gift.
Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings to each and everyone of us!
Wow! I was thrilled that he ever answered my email in the first place. As I saw him using twitter more and more, I just chuckled a bit, as articles came out, I thought about how weird life is, how connected we all are, and how we rarely pinpoint the moment we change our paths. When I saw the book, I showed my family and ran off to blog about it without thinking twice: it was exciting to know my own small place in its progress. Of course, if you all hadn't been so interesting and so helpful to him in his quest, it wouldn't be a book. I am off to amazon now to get myself a copy!
ReplyDeleteNow I MUST buy the book. I was reading the first few pages on amazon and it seems so interesting, so I will check out all of your tweets on the pages you so helpfully posted.
Michelle, no question you deserve an honorable mention and have now received it. I have been a long-following fan of dp and it continues as I see he was just like so many of us who feel obligated to have that all-powerful Twitter account for that long-feared question in the interview "Do you have a Twitter account?". So many of us do and don't know what to do with it - me included. You've inspired me to share and receive. Happy Holidays.
ReplyDeleteMiChelle, I am a new twitter. I have learned sveral intersting twiwords from you by this article. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletewang 0717- I could not find you on twitter to follow you. Thank you for your kind comments.
ReplyDelete