What to Look for When Following Twitter Users

As any Twitter user would know, Twitter is all about following and obtaining followers who are interested in the same things you.

Like any other social media, users need to be cautious when trying to utilize social media such as Twitter. You need to be able to decipher the people that are interested in the same things you are, and are actively using twitter in a way that benefits you.

A vital point to choosing the right people to follow is to first choose what you are interested in. For this blog's purpose I will use my own description on Twitter of what I am interested in.

Make sure user's tweets are relavent to you. For example, MTV's hit show "Jersey Shore," has Snooki and Sammi, couple of the shows characters, actively using Twitter.

Unless I wanted to follow Snooki or Sammi for entertainment purposes, their information doesn't relay any message that fits the description that I am looking for.

Users I do follow are @designmodo and @Designrfix.

Because both of these users tweet about Art related topics, it would be logical to network with these Twitter users.

As a current student, following people that tweet about topics related to my majors allows me to obtain ideas from others that are more experienced in the field I want to enter.

Using Twitter to network with people like @Designrfix and @designmodo allows for useful information rather than how to dress up as Sammi off of "The Jersey Shore" for Halloween.

Finally don't allow the amount of people that Twitter users follow/being followed by fool you. Even if there are high amounts of people following the user, it doesn't mean they are a useful source of information.

If users only have 1 tweet with 100,000 followers it defeats the whole purpose of having a Twitter account.

Making sure that you know what you want to get out of Twitter and pick the right people to follower that share a mutual desire similar topics are essentials to utilize the full potential of your Twitter account.

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Twitter connects Obama to youth

On October 14th, President Obama took action to reach out to the young people  by holding a live, interactive, commercial-free discussion on MTV, BET, CMT, and others.  

The discussion was open to 225 young people in the audience and anyone with a Twitter account.

By using the hastags #mygreatesthope and #mygreatestfear, all users able to voice their hopes and fears to the president.

Many concerns were addressed at the chat. Some of which included: violence in schools, legal immigration, crime among young people, increasing the rates of black men and women in college, and fears of America turning into a communist country.

Obama answered each concern individually, enforcing the idea of unity by saying, "We're all Americans. We all want the best for this country. We may have some disagreements in terms of how to get there, but all of us want to make sure our economy is strong, the jobs are growing..."

Politically speaking, this type of discussion can enforce a sense of unity among the youth for the future. Obama is known for reaching out to the young people. He is putting forth effort to get the youth involved with issues of their nation by using Twitter and MTV (popular mediums) as means to connect.

Other media platforms that were used included MTV.com, BET.com, and CMT.com where the chats were streamed live. Not only was media used to help viewers interact with Obama, but the discussion could be viewed by way of television or Internet, which increased viewer ratings.

These forms of media should  be attributed to the unity of the nation because only a select number of individuals would have been able to contribute to the conversation without them. By using Twitter to help viewers interact, the opinions of all young people were heard and addressed.

There is much thanks to be given to technology and media for opportunities like this to be made possible.

To view a clip from the discussion, visit http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/582038/a-conversation-with-obama-begins-with-a-question-on-healthcare.jhtml.

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Tweeting in the Media

A new form of interviewing is starting to replace the usual "man-on-the-street" work. Now, instead of putting a microphone in front of you and asking you to comment, many media companies may start asking if they can use your Twitter feed. To make this even easier, developing company Wiredset has created Trenderr to sort marketing information for businesses, and now a new site specifically designed for the media: Curatorr.

According to Frederic Lardinois, Curatorr allows the media to perform advanced Twitter searches and place relevant tweets into folders for future use. These tweets can then be shown on television straight off the site.

Curatorr was used first by MTV during the Hope for Haiti Concert to publish tweets on the air, and other networks like CNN have also began to use Curatorr. It currently is only available to TV networks and other media companies, and the price each company will pay depends on how it is used.

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Jersey Shore 2?

The Jersey Shore is MTV's newest hottest show since the Real World was cool and Laguna Beach was still worth caring about. With the seven member cast shocking the country with their tan six packs, perfectly primped hair, and fist pumping leaving their audiences wanting more we must ask the question, "Will there be a season two?"

All across the United States magazines, celebrity news stations, and fans have been following the debate about the next Jersey Shore. However, sources are saying the Guidos and Guidettes are asking for a few more incentives. The initial salary deal for the cast has gone from a $5,000 per episode per cast member contract to $10,000 per episode per cast member. This will double the $420,000 season two MTV was hoping to air next fall. Nicole "Snookie" Polizzi, Pauly D Vecchino, Vinny Guadagnino, Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola, Ronnie Magro, and Mike "the Situation" Sorrientino are asking for all the money they can get and the negotiations are looking positive for them.

The Jersey Shore has sky rocketed MTV's ratings. In the last episode there was a reported 4.8 million viewers and that's the situation.

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