Just for fun.
Posted on Jun 21, 2009 - 12:35am by Terence Smelser in Technology
Everyone knows what Twitter is right? If you don’t, you should. It’s fun, its a great way to stay in touch and it’s almost INSTANT. When that plane went down in the Hudson river a couple of months ago, I knew about it, almost before it hit the water. When the elections in Iran were discovered to be soured, I knew about it, HOURS before the CNN anchors did. (not that I was in the least surprised by it) I get 99.9% of all my World, National and Local news though it. Instead of the failed national media’s daily rhetoric of Obama worship, bile, vomit and hate for conservative women, I get truth, honesty and honesty in opinion, up to the second, second by second.
Then again, I’m a bit of a geek and always have been.
I talk to truckers all over the country, every single day. There are a lot of truckers on Twitter that use it for a lot of the same reasons I do. Virtually instant nation wide communications about trucking issues and a lot of people to poke fun at too. Road conditions, storms, DOT checkpoints and virtually anything else you might want to know about. When the DOT, National wide, had their last “lets supplement our budget with trucker pay” contest here a couple of weeks ago I had up to the minute station information, closures, road blocks, etc etc. Some people get email on their phones when an Amber Alert is given, this alert is instantly dumped into twitter and often reaches the other side of the country before the official word does. Yeah, its fun, but it can be a damn fine tool also.
Drop by and take a look and feel free to follow me there. (@TerenceSmelser)
Warning, there are some serious idiots on Twitter and they want to sell you things that you don’t need or want, they want to offer you “work from home” opportunities or they want you help them smuggle a ga-zillion US dollars in the country and some of the worst of them are truckers. (Like this surprises any of us…)
Worse yet are those that claim to “want to help” truckers, especially if you are new to the job. They want to “help” you NOT make the mistakes that “SO” many of us have. Trust me, everyone of these people that I have run into so far, want to “help” themselves to your money, as they sell you a “book of secrets”. There would be your mistake…
Let me make this real plain, if you’re new to the industry and have a question, ASK me, ask one of these other writers here, ask your BOSS. I probably wont know the answer, but I’ll point you at the guy that does. He’s probably that quiet “old fart” driving for the same outfit you do. Neither one of us is going to “charge you” for information that you deserve.
t
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We're on Twitter!
Twitter is definitely an amazing tool. It took me a while to “get it”, though. Try these things if you are new to it;
Search for, and watch for hashtags that interest you. A hashtag will look something like #iranelection. If you search for that on Twitter, you will get a litst of all the posts that contain it. (There are a LOT right now)
Post your Twitter handle around the internet. If you visit forums or other social media like blogs, add it to your username (@pfuse).
Comment. It doesn’t have to be a world changing thing for you to comment on it, but don’t make it drivel either. Commenting your opinion will get you followers, commenting something like, “Cleaning my fingernails” will make you hated.
And finally, it’s not necessary to follow EVERYONE. Don’t follow someone just because they follow you. This is how the above mentioned spammers get their word out. When you see someone is following you, just click their name and you will see all of their tweets. It will be clear pretty quickly if they are someone you want to follow back.
If you have questions, just tweet someone. I’m sure that the author (@TerenceSmelser) or I (@pfuse) (or nearly anyone on Twitter) would answer any questions they are able.
I follow a few people on my Adventures in Trucking Twitter I enjoy it, but how do people realistically follow hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. You wouldn’t be able to do anything else.
Twitter is a good tool and like any tool, it’s only as good as the person using the tool and there are plenty of idiots that think they can turn twitter into the next marketing gold mine.
The numbers in Twitter are not really as daunting as they seem.
political pundits, other bloggers and a couple of computer nerds. What all of us have in common, is of course some common interests. Books, Science Fiction, Horror ect ect… And of course, most of us are political junkies. Not all of my friends are members of the “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” as I am, one or two are 100% the other direction.
I follow about 1600 people and I’m followed by about 1950. I didn’t really intend this when I started, it’s just worked out that way.
Yes, there is A LOT of traffic, LOTS AND LOTS… No, its impossible for me to stay up with the posts of 1600 people, even if I wanted to.
What happens is you build up a “Core” of people that you interact with. My “Core” contains about 20 to 30 people and you will see me interact with these people every day. About a third (give or take) of these people are truckers. I also speak with stay at home moms, authors, politicians (I’m political, if you hadn’t noticed)
Makes for some great discussions.
What about the other 1600 or so? These folk send messages directly at me at times, when I’ve said something that interests them, (or pisses them off) or I send messages to them, for the same reason. This how I met and built my “Core” to begin with.
Toss 140 my way sometime.
t
When you say you get NEWS “fast”, and other info from Twitter…
what/who are you “following” to get these incredible updates??
I would like to get that info also.
Thanks, Laurie
@Lay_TruckingAdv
Well there are several “News” services posting almost constantly through the day.
Several regional stations around the country are on twitter
@talkto10 is out of Miami FL
@StockMarketNews is of course stock news (I follow but don’t pretend to understand)
@weirdnews is just exactly was it claims to be, worth the follow though.
I also follow Fox and a couple of their affiliate stations that twitter.
I was just going thought the “All Friends” stream in tweetdeck to get those few names.
There are a couple of setups that seem to have news feeds from several of the “Big Players” AP, Routers, etc etc, that tweet a lot of it out. WAY before the “Press” can get their hair done and show up.
The Airplane in the Hudson, I honestly dont remember which one of my tweeter friends first posted that, someone in that immediate area (I know several up there) But I knew there was a plane in the Hudson and that all were ok, WAY before the Main Stream press got the story. The first tweet about that one was from a guy on the first boat on the scene. (mere minutes from touchdown)
Iran… I expected Iran to go the way it did, I’ve blogged pretty strongly about it afterward. “MY” first news of it was on twitter, and the protests and the violence (all expected by me)
When you have a few moments, dig though the list of those I follow, LOTS of Newsies there.
@TerenceSmelser
t
Thanks for the tips. I’ll have to check out your Twitter page and see who you are following.
Happy Tweeting!