I'm sure anyone who regularly uses Twitter will agree with me on this one, Twitter is just so much better than Facebook. There are numerous reasons why, but to get your head around it you HAVE to be a regular Twitter user. The amount of times I've told people how I use Twitter more than Facebook and they just reply with, "I never really understood Twitter." Well, in my experience you have to stick with it for a while to enjoy it. I joined Twitter when I didn't know anyone personally who used it, therefore I had to find my own way about it, and I had to create my own network. A lot of people tend to join after they see someone close to them enjoying it, but I did it the hard way unfortunately. It took me a year and a half before I started getting any replies to my tweets. And I've been on Twitter for 3 years now.
Anyway, once you do get into it, you quickly realise how it's better. Here's a list:
1. It's more open. On Facebook most people tend to hold back opinions since there are always going to be people on your Facebook who you would prefer didn't see. Twitter is different, however, because you can (pretty much) say whatever the hell you like, and if your followers don't like it, they can unfollow you and it's no big deal. The vast majority of the people you follow you don't know either, so it's really not much of a loss to you if you lose a follower. There are plenty of people who have met friends through Twitter though, and regularly meet up for social gatherings, which is really cool, I have met a few fellow Tweeters.
2. The people are more creative, honest, interesting, more up for the craic and friendlier. Twitter people are awesome. I could tweet someone I have never met in my life about something personal and it would feel completely normal. Also, if I tweet something that's utterly wrong, my followers will tell me, and vice versa.
3. It allows you to set up little 'networks' of friends and information... you can make your feed anything you want. For example you can follow loads of people who live in your city and get all of the local tweets with information about good restaurants, traffic jams or general news. It's good to know what's going on around you - Twitter's in real-time, so often I hear about accidents or road blockages before they even hit the local news! On the other hand, you can set up a list of people who blog and tweet about, for example, new technology coming out in the next week or month and technology news. This is a great way to find out about new technology because it's up-to-date and all in one place. And it you don't like someone's tweets, you unfollow. It's not like Facebook where you have to sift through your relatives' crappy jokes and spam posts.
4. There is a 140 character limit. You'd think this would be restrictive, but surprisingly it works. All it does is ensure no one makes insanely long posts that no one really reads, like Facebook. Tweets are short and to the point, meaning you can skim tweets very quickly and efficiently. And you get faster as time goes on.
5. Hashtags can be used to unite people in a general topic. For example, the X-Factor is on television right now, here's the trending list:
The trends are cool because you can easily find out lots of opinions on one topic if you want to. Alternatively, if you're sick of people you're following tweeting about the X-Factor, you can easily mute the hashtags that are relevant and you don't have to read them again. It's easy. You don't have anything like that on Facebook!
6. One tweet can easily reach thousands of people, literally. Retweets are a godsend for businesses because they could tweet about something interesting and get loads of attention for free and in a relatively short space of time. Say you have 500 followers, which is about the norm for personal accounts. Your tweet could reach 100 people in one night, say 10 of your followers retweet and they all reach 100 followers, that reaches another 1,000 people, then 100 of them choose to retweet and that reaches ANOTHER 100,000 people... you get the jist. Things can become viral very quickly. Twitter has also been used for other purposes too, like finding stolen goods. I once read an article (sorry I don't still have the link!) about a guy who had his iPhone stolen whilst on holiday in America. He tweeted about it when he got home (he lived in a different country) and it was retweeted hundreds of times. Someone suggested using "Find My iPhone" to track it down, and the phone had been carried to a different state. Since the tweet had reached so many people, some tweeters who lived in that state decided they would get it back for him. After contacting the police and nothing was done, they took matters into their own hands. The iPhone's rightful owner sent detailed documents on the iPhone's location and they got the phone back and sent it back to the guy. It just goes to show you how versatile Twitter can be!
7. Twitter allows you to broaden your horizons a bit, read different opinions, get some interesting information, meet new people. Facebook is boring compared to Twitter because with Facebook you're stuck with the same old people. On Twitter you can go on what we call a 'Following Spree' or an 'Unfollowing Spree', easy. You control your feed. Simples.
As always, thank you for reading, and thanks for the feedback I've recieved via Twitter about my previous blog posts, I appreciate it!
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