Twitter - Why? How?

Thought I would start a thread about Twitter and to see peoples reactions to it.

First things furst, I was never a fan of it, however......

Since the close of 606, it has been without a doubt the best thing that has happened to this forum. On the back of twitter, we have managed to recruit new members to the site (we have actually had roughly the same number of new members since 606 closed than before it amazingly enough) and it has led to us getting some fantastic exclusives for this site.

So although many of you might find it pointless and depressing, it does have its uses. And this thread will let you have your say but also act as a "how to" thread for anyone who would like to give it a go.

So a few basics first:

Twitter allows you tell other members things in 140 characters or less - there is a real art to getting a meaningful message in such a small character limit.

When you first join, its like having an email account where no one knows your email address and you dont know other peoples. By electing to follow people, you will then see what they are saying on twitter. To follow someone, find them through the search function and hit the follow icon.

From now on, everytime a person you are following posts a message, you will get to see it.

So that is how it works but the real challenge and point of it is to get people to follow you too. This means that everytime you post a message, your followers will see it on their homepage.

A message posted is called a "tweet"

Okay so far - you will see the "tweets" of the people you are following and people who are following you, will see your tweets.

So what else can it do? Well tweets can be "retweeted" (aka RT) - this means that a tweet can be forwarded on to your followers or one of your tweets can be forwarded on to another set of followers if it is retweeted.

So for example - I send a tweet about "Mike Tyson would beat Mohammed Ali". If Mike Tyson saw this tweet, he could RT it to his followers (all 1.4million of them). So now your message is seen by all of Mike Tysons followers too.

Just imagine how much of an advert that would be if the message was "Mike Tyson would beat Mohammed Ali - discuss it at www.606v2.com" and it got RT'd by Mike. Hopefully you can now see the power of twitter and its uses for our forum.

So thats how you tweet and retweet.

The next thing that is useful is to get people to see your messages who arent following you. Like email, you can address a tweet to someone. So if you know their twitter name, you can send a mesage to them. All twitter names begin with a "@" symbol (ie @606v2sportsforum).

So if Mike Tyson wasnt following you, you could still get him to see the message by tweeting "@MikeTyson would beat Mohammed Ali". This would then appear on his profile.

This is how we get most of the pro sports players to either follow us or RT our messages. Usually when we get a RT, you will find that people who read the message and enjoy it will start to follow you to see what else you have to say - that is how you build up a following.

There is one final thing that you can see and use on twitter and thats using the "#" symbol. By putting a # before a phrase, it can be tagged. What this means is that you can get certain themes "trending". Here is an example. Lets say I wanted to get some intention about Xfactor, you could write a message like this. "@simoncowell - I think that #USxfactor is better than #UKxfactor"

This would mean that the message would go to Simon Cowell and anyone searching for either the term UKxfactor or USxfactor would see it too.

If enough people start using a #usxfactor at the same time, it will become a trend (like a top most searched kind of idea).

So thats Twitter in a nutshell.

So hopefully, you will all join twitter very soon and make sure to follow the 606v2 twitter accounts. And if you see a message from us, make sure to RT it to a potential new audience.

Here are some of the account names you can follow:

606v2rugby
606v2darts
606v2wrestling
606v2sportsforum
606v2cricket
606v2boxing

A full list is on our portal page.

Let us know if you join up and start to follow!

im already on twitter and i follow the cricket one, i was gonna help liam with running it at the start but i lost track of it, and i believe that fists and gregers now run it...good job lads.

Have taken it up past 100 followers now, but need to spend a bit more time on it really. Will be looking to get another Q&A arranged for cricket soon.

well done fists, and if ya need some help im willing to help out

I'd be very worried if Mike Tyson was following me. Especially in a dark alley.

Skydriver wrote:I'd be very worried if Mike Tyson was following me. Especially in a dark alley.

I am on twitter, but mainly for work - i do lots around marketing and research

Follow the awesome boxing and cricket accounts then bud

I don't need Twitter I'm already following you.

If you are going to do it right, buy some night vision goggles through our amazon link

Getting dispatched as we speak...

I follow cricket, v2sports, 6WF and wrestling and Cricket is by far the most active and engaging for twitterers.

I'm a bit weary of Twitter. It's great for the forum, and businesses, bands stuff like that, but I'm not sure I want to know so much about the people I admire, so I avoid it. I'm friends with a couple of my fave people on Facebook, but they don't post on that as much as Twitter. I'm not knocking Twitter generally, it's just not for me.

Does this really need to be a global announcement?

Davie wrote:Does this really need to be a global announcement?

Is it really that much of an inconvenience to you?

just more carp to wade through when I go to the golf section

Its one thread out of 51 on the golf sections first page. Im pretty sure you are able to scroll down the page ever so slightly so you cant see it (as this is at the top)

Davie wrote:just more carp to wade through when I go to the golf section

that comment suggests that the rest of the golf section is crap too.

But to answer your question, yes it does need to be a global as we are about to have a twitter competition in a few days where the winner gets an amazing prize - best one yet.

At least the Hobonator gives a proper answer - seems like it touched a nerve to pose the question.

I'll reserve judgement on whether it NEEDS to be but at least I appreciate a straight answer rather than a defensive reply

I didn't know about the competition as I haven't been around today

Davie wrote:just more carp to wade through when I go to the golf section

Who stole the jam from your doughnut??

You were looking for Twitter operatives for a few sports awhile back. I was just wondering what was going on with that?

What sports take your interest, SV?

Fists of Fury wrote:What sports take your interest, SV?

I was kind of interested in the horse racing Twitter and seeing if I could revive the horse racing forum?

I'll put it to the other guys, sportsville. Will be in touch.

If anyone wants any help just give me a shout, I do a bit of social media coaching for my work - I'm @ScrivRec on twitter btw

I was wondering who you were! Cheers Ed!

No tweets on the 606v2 cricket twitter feed for quite a while now.

ShankyCricket wrote:No tweets on the 606v2 cricket twitter feed for quite a while now.

BUMP. I think we need to get that account up and running again. Andrew/Fists doesn't have the time. Need to find new volunteers.

Agreed - if anyone wants to put themselves forward for the task please PM me.