For those who were in or around central Sydney this afternoon, you may have noticed the zombie outbreak. The undead were wondering around Circular Quay, and they weren’t very sturdy on their feet. I tripped one over. It was fun. He fell right into another zombie, teehee.

In related news, Sydney suffered a few ‘big-go-booms’ today. There was a gas explosion in Bondi Junction, and the CBD was out of power, closing down the Harbour Tunnel and bringing the CBD to a standstill. Why am I talking about Bondi and Twitter? Well, I’ll tell you (you didn’t think I’d leave you in suspense, did you?)

I noticed a person mention, that the power was out where they were in the CBD, and they mentioned that the event was far spread as evidence by the twitter conversations on #blackout.  Searching on Twitter for #blackout yielded results that indicated that half the CBD was in dismay. Also, people had likened it to the Apocalypse with even the Hon. Sen. Stephen Conroy taking responsibility. This goes to show you just how evil this man, spawn of Britania, really is.

Furthermore, it’s just another account of how the networking tool can be used on mass to convey current information happenings anywhere in the wide blue yonder.

After turning down a $500 million buyout option from Facebook, it has now emerged that Twitter is in fact gaining revenue from non-other than Microsoft, with a new site launched recently called ExecTweets.com.

While the original flavour of Twitter.com, with 1.4 billion tweets and counting, still remains free, ExecTweets has sponsored advertising as well as an undisclosed figure of moolah coming straight from Ballmer and into Twitter’s ever moth-ridden back pocket.

ExecTweets takes recommended twitter accounts from high rolling business types and displays them in a collection that can be moderated by the public, a feature never before available in the 140-character realm.

Although a profit building exercise, if you are one for trying to keep on the down-low, even if you may be a moolah mongol yourself, you can still have your tweets removed from this site, with the ‘Remove Me’ information located in a nice, barely noticeable grey colour right at the bottom of all the tweets sent to @exectweets

Hopefully this will give the twitter developers a bit more room to improve a somewhat segmented service with such niceties as, oh, I don’t know, reply-context? So one doesn’t have to wade through post after post of @randoms to get to actual content from the user… *sigh* One can dream.

I suspect that over half of “over-active” tweeters aren’t returning the favour.

As my suspicions were growing strong; I decided to try a small experiment. After typing a few posts which could have been considered controversial; along with advertising my blog and personal websites; I wondered if anyone was reading anything.

I set out to add counters to every page of my websites. I wanted to see if any of my 850+ followers were reading. Many people I follow post an average of 30 messages each day. Most of those same people are also following me.

Results of the Experiment

In a 3-day time, I posted a few messages about my blog; a few about my website; and tried to start a few conversations. The people who responded to my conversations were the same people each time.

These people were not of the ones who post 30+ times each day. These people post very few times; and they usually have something original or useful to say.

When I tweeted about a “special” on my website; I went to the website and continued refreshing the page to see how many visitors were showing up. To my “un-surprise”, I averaged 2 from each post (out of my 800+ followers)

The Proof is in the Reading

When I started spending an hour at a time watching and reading the activity of Twitter; I read a few RTs (re-tweets); a few @s; but most of the messages were from the same group of people and contained a whole lot of “I”, “Me” and “My” in them. Ironically, there were some of those 30+ Tweeters who were complaining of being “un-followed”. I wonder why.

Now, I know that there are those who have written the secrets to successful “Twittering”; and they feel that a Tweeter needs to be out there – alive! I believe that too; however, Twitter is a two-way street. If you’re so busy Tweeting, how can you be reading too?

How about making it a fair game? If you want to be noticed as an “all about me” tweeter; well, you’ve mastered it. What you may or may not be thinking is that when you post all those times;, you keep the Twitter-feed scrolling; which makes other people, including yourself, miss something that might have been really important.

Put Down the Fingers; and Step Away from the Keyboard

Sometimes, “nice” can be given in small packages. If you really want to be known as a Tweet-hog; and lose your followers; then by all means, keep it up; otherwise, give it a rest.

Ignorant people stay ignorant most of the time, because they have too much output and not enough in-put. Do yourself and others a favor. Stop typing; and start reading what others are saying.

So, a few weeks back I added Mr Bill Mitchell to Twitter.

We’ve had a few tweets back and forth on Twitter; as you do! But it wasn’t until today I discovered something quite amazing!

I give you Bills Twitter picture.

And also this fella below…….. Who you might recognise?

You decide for yourself.

Jeez, the people you find on Twitter?

—-

Disclaimer: Bill is a super friendly guy, you can add him yourself using the following link: http://twitter.com/askbillmitchell and you can add me too: http://twitter.com/warcom

There are obviously countless variants of the famous (and infamous) Twitter Bird / Logo that are floating around internet!

And here’s another poor birdie, that kinda reminded me of our Twitter Hero..

Click below

Warning: This may not be work safe.

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TwitHint is both pleased and honoured to have been added to the Alltop.com community!

Alltop’s Twitter feeds can be located here: http://twitter.alltop.com (scroll to the bottom, and you’ll find us.)

We have also implemented the AllTop widget, which you can currently find on the bottom right hand side of TwitHint.

Tweet Ya Later!

Yesterday, as I was visiting with my former neighbor, Carol, I mentioned a really cute video I had seen on the Internet. When I told her someone had referred to this video on Twitter™, she immediately interrupted with, “Oh, I saw that post too…and I also saw that video. It was so cute.”

Needless to say, I was utterly shocked at her reply. First of all, Carol is 70 years old; and she’s a Tweeter at Twitter™! I never would have imagined people her age being a part of such a network; because many don’t own a computer; or they only read email from family members.

Carol told me she had been a “Tweeter” for only a little while. She had been enjoying the humor along with some information; but then she’s also met and befriended people with the same interests as she had, and they tweet and instant message each other.

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Twithint.com is on the lookout for writers passionate about Twitter, Twitter and…. Just about all things Twitter!

Do you have a Hint or Tip about Twitter you’d like to write yourself and share with world? Do you want to write for Twithint?

Then look no further, submit your idea/story to paul at warcom.com.au and we’ll get back to you.

*Posts must be non-self promotional. However, in return we will provide you a 20-40 word promotional by-line.

Important: we receive a high volume of inquiries about writing and can’t respond to them all. However, we will certainly read and consider your mail.

Lately it seems as though I’ve had a whole bunch of Twitter folks follow me, simply for purpose of list building.

(List building = they add me now, with the intent of trying to sell me something later.)

Prior to the New Year I was actually pretty liberated when it came to Twitter. I was auto accepting new followers, adding any body and everybody and generally having jolly good time!

But with the New Year, brings a new set of Twitter rules for me…

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All aboard the twitter hint train!

What are you most useful twitter tips?

Comment away!

The best hints will be published