Twittering on.

Discussion in 'General' started by von Poop, Jun 16, 2012.

  1. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I set up a WW2T Twatter account a while back, so as to bookmark the name.
    https://twitter.com/#!/WW2Talk

    Haven't tweeted, but have gradually come to understand how Twitter can be a good thing - ignore the J*st*n Bie**r and depressingly lowest-common-denominator broad mass of the thing, & set up a feed of interesting people, and it's a good source of appropriate links and news.
    (And never look at what's 'trending' I say! Makes you feel a bit ill usually.)

    Now, our approach to 'promoting' here has essentially been word of mouth, with no real promotion at all.
    Seems to have worked, as it allows for gradual growth among people who actually have something to contribute or a need to find some answers. And, importantly, it keeps the loonies down somewhat.

    I'll never send out mass emails (always spam as far as I'm concerned), and I'm not into any sort of wider WW2T advertising at all, but I'm wondering if it's worth Tweeting some of our better threads, or ones that have proven somewhat sticky in getting answers?

    The thing with Twatter is that you have to subscribe to a given feed, so it's a kind of contained promotion to people who have deliberately chosen to follow the feed. They're likely to have an interest in WW2 or they wouldn't have bothered subscribing.

    Any thoughts?
    Maybe suggestions of threads that might benefit from a nudge on there?

    ~A
     
  2. Jonathan Ball

    Jonathan Ball It's a way of life.

    I believe you know what I think, Adam but definitely worth promoting the forum more this way. I send out the odd link to this forum as does Lee (@psywarorg) and Paul (@sommecourt). It would be good to know who else here, if anyone uses the service?

    Threads or subforums that may benefit? In my opinion definitely Battlefields Today, Research and Genealogy and Theatres of War but I suppose the content would be at the discretion of the account holder and I can't think of anyone better to entrust it to.
     
  3. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I'm softening, JB. I am softening. :)

    It's been interesting when you and the others have mentioned something on here to see the slight boosts to activity it engenders.
     
  4. Jonathan Ball

    Jonathan Ball It's a way of life.

    I did a little experiment on the 6 June and linked to a couple of the photo threads I've bored everyone with here on Normandy armour and Casemates etc. I then took a quick look using 'who's online' at the guests section and saw that one had 7 viewers and the other had 8 viewing. By no means earth shattering by any stretch of the imagination but it did show how the two mediums can intergrate.

    There have been good attempts at themed military history content on twitter and whilst the @arras95 stuff didn't really do it for me the @RealTimeWWII account which this year is doing 1940 has been absolutely bang on. It's 244,466 fellow followers obviously agree.
     
  5. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Anything beyond cuneiform characters in fired clay tablets borne by carrier pigeons is too artsy-fartsy for me! No, wait...
     
  6. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    There have been good attempts at themed military history content on twitter and whilst the @arras95 stuff didn't really do it for me the @RealTimeWWII account which this year is doing 1940 has been absolutely bang on. It's 244,466 fellow followers obviously agree.


    Have to agree mostly. 1940 is working better than Arras95 did. Falklands82 was (is) also interesting to follow.

    Incidentally, a few have said they 'don't do' Twitter - you don't need to join or subscribe to view someones posts, just need to know their twitter page and you can follow posted images/links or view conversations. It can be a read only microblog.

    I've found a few interesting items that I would have otherwise missed, Twitter is good for that if you don't have much time to muck about on line or read loads of on-line newspapers.
     
    BarbaraWT likes this.
  7. PsyWar.Org

    PsyWar.Org Archive monkey

    The thing with Twatter is that you have to subscribe to a given feed, so it's a kind of contained promotion to people who have deliberately chosen to follow the feed. They're likely to have an interest in WW2 or they wouldn't have bothered subscribing.


    Yes and no. You can reach wider than just those following you by the use of hashtags and, of course through retweeting. In the latter respect it is like word of mouth recommendation.

    I certainly was not an early adopter of Twitter and was very sceptical before trying it. But it is actually a rather good way of interacting with like-minded folk when twittering on specific subjects like #WW2.
     
  8. PsyWar.Org

    PsyWar.Org Archive monkey

    It would be good to know who else here, if anyone uses the service?


    I know it's not #FollowFriday but don't foget @3468marsh and @geoffsengine both of whom are well worth following on Twitter ;)
     
  9. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    Just caught this link posted on Twitter a few hours ago. Shows the sort of fascinating thing that can come up when you follow people with similar interests (which in my case is not limited to the history of conflict)

    Cheers,

    @geoffsengine


    V2 rocket map on London and Surroundings:

    V2 rockets on London and surrounding counties - Google Maps
     
  10. Jonathan Ball

    Jonathan Ball It's a way of life.

  11. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Well, my thoughts on Twitter come as no surprise; it is a superb medium for sharing information and active collaboration. The key to a good Twitter account is focussed content. No posts about what your cat ate for tea etc.

    I wonder if in future within upgrade it may be possible to automatically Tweet new threads in certain forum areas? That way it would keep the forum's feed constant without too much effort?

    It's certainly another way to reach people from here.
     
  12. rosstcorbett

    rosstcorbett Member

    Hi everybody,

    I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday.

    I'm not sure how many people are on twitter but I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread in which we can share our Twitter names - It's another good way of staying in touch.

    I'm Ross and my Twitter name is @WW2Discovery
     
  13. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    @sommecourt

    Welcome, Ross.
     
  14. hutchie

    hutchie Dont tell him Pike!!

    @19thportWksp
     
  15. PsyWar.Org

    PsyWar.Org Archive monkey

    @psywarorg
    @arcre_uk
     
  16. Jonathan Ball

    Jonathan Ball It's a way of life.

    @3468marsh
     
  17. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    I would put mine but I rarely use it and even rarer use for WWII tweets.
     
  18. Big Sandy

    Big Sandy Member

    I've fought shy of twitter and suchlike, (faecesbook especially, msn, bebo, all those) for years.

    I do see the increase in thread activity though on a.n.other forum (not going to spam you with it, thats just not nice at all. Very poor etiquette.) But I'm noticing that although we have increased viewing, higher online member counts, but curiously there's less posts!

    Should I use twitter myself ?(I really like Von Poops name for it...LOL) I really dont know. I think I'm just antisocial. A misanthropist.....
     
  19. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I've provisionally turned on the Twitter bookmarking for the forum.
    (I stress 'provisionally', cautious about anything like this.)

    If you click on 'Tweet this thread' below, it ought to take you to your Twatter account with a pre-prepared URL.
     
  20. jacksun

    jacksun Senior Member

    I use twitter for inbound only. Follow my local papers, couple of pundits, hockey and the like. You get news fast and can go look at what you want, ignore the rest.
    Outbound, well if anyone cares that I'm sitting on my couch in my drawers eating pizza and watching some ridiculous sitcom they need a life. I've got one so I don't need to twit.

    As for defacebook, well I'm on the same non-defacebook page as you are.

    W

    I've fought shy of twitter and suchlike, (faecesbook especially, msn, bebo, all those) for years.

    I do see the increase in thread activity though on a.n.other forum (not going to spam you with it, thats just not nice at all. Very poor etiquette.) But I'm noticing that although we have increased viewing, higher online member counts, but curiously there's less posts!

    Should I use twitter myself ?(I really like Von Poops name for it...LOL) I really dont know. I think I'm just antisocial. A misanthropist.....
     

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