As I explained it to my mother, Twitter is like a superhighway comprising an infinite number of lanes that head in all directions. Over a half billion cars travel this highway, and they’re all honking their horns at once, 24 hours/day 7 days a week.
I Tweet You Tweet We All Tweet
The noise is deafening. Relentless, continuous chattering–554,750,000 registered users spouting a half million tweets at the rate of 6- 9,o00/second. (Click here for more Twitter statistics….)
Every day.
#WW #FF
Whatever that means. There is general agreement among us Twits that the second W refers to Wednesday. But what of the first W? Some say it’s Wacky, some say it’s Wet, some say it’s Writer’s. Wicked Wednesday, maybe?
Friday it’ll be #FF. Fast Friday? Freaking Friday? Finally Friday? Oh, yeah..it’s FOLLOW FRIDAY!
#WTF?
Everyone knows what that means. But seriously, wtf?
Whether it be #WW, #FF #MM (Monday, Monday?) what does it all mean? Well, as I told it to my mother, #WW and #FF are days of Mutual Admiration, where we honor and mention each other for RT’ing, following, SO’s and etc. I might tweet: #WW @YouRock, @MinnieTheMoocher, @EroticPancreas, @Nauseum…thanks for the follow!
Some overachievers–and I have been one–will tweet several #WW’s, because there’s that 140 character limit and I have many Twits to thank. After the #WW posts, @YouRock, @MinnieTheMoocher, @EroticPancreas, @Nauseum all retweet it to all their followers, who may retweet it to all their followers.
No #WW, No Cry
I’m totally grateful for any mention or attention I get on Twitter; far be it from me to complain about that. But, the Twitter traffic generated from these retweeted #WW’s–which really don’t say anything at all beyond a list of @What’sHerNames–is about as interesting and productive as a real-life traffic jam at rush hour in Denver.
I have adopted a new method for dealing with #WW, #FF tweets. Mention me? Instead of retweeting the #WW with a whole slew of @WhoAreYou, I’ll try to retweet something meaningful about you–from your profile, your tweets.
Make it easy on me.
Don’t make me search page after page of your RTing of everyone else to find the one tweet about YOU. Don’t make me compose something from your mini-bio on your profile page–I have x amount of time to spend on Twitter–I am happy to promote you, your book, your art, your diet plan, or your donuts. It’s OK to mention something you are doing a couple times a day in the midst of RTing everyone else. We are all here promoting ourselves, after all. Make it easy on me.
This blog by Alicia Cowan (@Absolute Alicia) gives fabulous advice on the whole #FF thing “Simple Twitter Tips: What Does #FF Mean?”
And let’s cut down on that meaningless #WW, #FF chatter, eh?
Mary C Simmons ... Art and Word 