Twitter: It's All About Self Promotion

Tricks to being heard in the clutter
By Ambreen Ali,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 9, 2009 6:19 AM CDT

Without understanding Twitter's purpose, the social networking rage—which has gained 1.2 million viewers from last year—can feel "like a noisy bar where everyone is shouting and nobody is listening," Julia Angwin warns in the Wall Street Journal. "It's about promoting yourself." That's why general musings fall flat, while provoking opinions earn the honor of being quoted repeatedly, or "retweeted."

Twitter makes for "very good people watching. It's a bit like stalking," says Angwin—who has so far drawn 1190 followers with such tweets as, "Eating strawberries during a snowstorm. Not carbon efficient but lovely." But the social tool falls short in the, er, social realm. "I found it difficult to acknowledge answers," she writes. "Twitter wasn't designed for these kinds of social interaction or conversation."
(More Twitter stories.)

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