Internet Barf

Inside the Minds of Twitter Users

Mashable has a post today called "Inside the Minds of Twitter Users" by Ann Handley of MarketingProfs.com. You should check it out before reading on.

The survey of 432 Twitter users was conducted by MarketingProfs on Twitter from 4/8 to 4/15, 2009. The data was collected and analyzed by Allen Weiss, MarketingProfs CEO, Professor at USC’s Marshall School.

I enjoyed reading the post although I thought it was strange that only 432 Twitter users were surveyed.

I must have missed the survey and since nobody asked me for my opinion I'll make it 433 Twitter users here:

"You should follow people who follow you"
Mildly Disagree
I say mildly because of course I look at people who follow me, and I might follow them back. If I do, it's not because they followed me. It's because I am interested in seeing what they have to say. And that doesn't mean that I won't unfollow them next week. I think I am going to make my own version of the napkin flow charts that I have seen others make about this.

"People you follow should follow you back"
Strongly Disagree
Never. As I mentioned before if I am following you it's because I am interested in what you have to say, what you do for a living, who you are, or any number of other things. If I followed everyone who followed me, just because, my network would be a useless mess.

"People who have a large number of followers are smarter than those who don't"
Strongly Disagree
Umm no. Britney Spears has 1,113,126 followers, nuff said. You don't need a bunch of followers to have a great Twitter network. It's your network, do whatever you want with it. I don't believe that Ashton Kutcher enjoys Twitter any more than I do even though he has 1,344,5456 more followers than I do.

"People who have a large number of followers are more respected than those who don't"
Strongly Disagree
I don't use Twitter to get respect. I have a life outside of Twitter for that. Ashton Kutcher can commission a billboard and go on Oprah to get to 1 million followers and beyond and I still don't respect him anymore than I did three months ago. I shouldn't make it sound like I have anything against Ashton Kutcher. In fact, I respect him just for using Twitter in the first place. He doesn't tweet much about his newest movie, or TV show, or other self promotion. He and his wife tweet normal things that normal people do in their funny, normal lives. Every now and then they might drop a plug for a project or a good cause, and good for them. That makes them real, rather than just soul-less celebrities. And for that alone, they get my respect.

"I feel bad when I tweet something and nobody responds"
Mildly Disagree
I say mildly because it is always nice to see @replies come in and I can almost guarantee that if you have ever @replied to me you get extra points on the follow flow chart. That being said, @replies are not my main goal when tweeting. I am here for me. This is me. If you don't agree, if you don't like me, or if I have offended you, the unfollow button is a click away. I am well aware the there are plenty of people who follow me who don't agree with some of my views but most of them hang around just to lurk. And that's fine too. Afterall, that's how I started.

I read their red book that they're going to read over there

A tweet from @DarbyShafter had me thinking about how strange the English language can be. He mentioned that the words 'there', 'their', and 'they're' are hard to remember.

In English, this story can be spoken perfectly but the spelling and grammar are totally incorrect.

Their once was a family who's car was knot working sew they borrowed won from they're neighbor. The family was going on vacation two California butt they had too stop inn Las Vegas first. The family was very hungry and tired when they got too the hotel. It was nice two get some piece and quiet and a peace of pie. The son red a read book about Halloween. He was trying to figure out witch which was the good won and witch which was the bad won. Outside, the father watched the wind blow while he tried to wind his watch. Inside, the mother was sew happy about the dress she was sowing because she new that it wood make her daughter happy. The daughter was happy to here that he mother could be hear with her. They wood bee driving two California in the mourning. As they drove they talked about what they wood dew when they got their. The father wanted too take his sun two the museum and learn about the son and the the moon. The mother wanted to take the daughter to sea the see and the beach.

What dew ewe think happened next?

Add your own chapter to this story with your screwiest English flubs in the comments below.

Brian Hansen

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