The Day I Fell in Love with Twitter (at 7:52am MST)
So far I’ve been having a hard time really adopting Twitter. I’ve tried following some folks and posting some things along the way but I haven’t had that SHAZAM moment yet. Until this morning. Yesterday, I’m following the NFL news and see that Ray Lewis has signed an extension. I go to www.baltimoreravens.com to get the news from the source.
At the bottom of the article is a little note that says follow the Baltimore Ravens on Twitter. So I do.
Pretty cool, I’m thinking. I wonder what they will do with this. So this morning I’m driving to work and listening to some DJ stammer on about something when I feel my pocket buzz. Low and behold its 1WinningDrive letting me know that Joe Flacco is about to be on “Mike and Mike in the Morning.” My heart began to flutter! This is what Twitter is all about. Someone at the Raven’s office in Ownings Mills is telling me to change the radio station. And of course I did (unfortunately, I’m in MST and Flacco wasn’t on).
So far my Twitter experience has been seeing @bill, @bob, @sally run across my screen, indicating inside conversations that I feel left out of. Or seeing some self aggrandizing narcissist person who thinks people care what they do every 30 minutes, post inane updates.
But not now, I’ve got Shaq tweeting to me his lunch location and the Raven’s are going to tweet during Matt Birk’s press conference. Come on Gary Williams, get on the train. Let’s go O’s! I want to know how the middle rotation is looking during a spring training day.
What teams are you following? Whose doing it well?
~porter32
on March 5th, 2009 at 8:51 am
update – now they are sending me pics on tweetpics….love it!
on March 5th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Ok so I’m researching my other teams and what I’m finding is that there are other websites posting as the O’s and Terps but its not the O’s and Terps. http://www.sportytweets.com is the main source
So if you post a tweet handle (there has to be a name for that right?) it has to be directly from the team or athlete.
on March 5th, 2009 at 9:05 am
This could be just want I needed to really come on board as well, great find Porter. FYI, I can tell you how the O’s middle rotation is looking without twitter….but you don’t want to know. OH SNAP!!
on March 5th, 2009 at 9:06 am
This is what I have recently been trying to explain to people when they ask me why the hell anyone would want to be on Twitter. It takes that “SHAZAM” moment as you call it, when you finally find that relevant person(s) to follow that provides you with a no muss no fuss insight into something you care about. I follow a photographer that always posts links to his new material that I really enjoy browsing through. I know, not quite as exciting as sports, but we all have our thing.
on March 5th, 2009 at 9:25 am
I follow some local bars and breweries that let me know about happy hours and other drink specials. And that’s much more exciting than sports!
on March 5th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Glad you finally found your place on Twitter, Alex. I have been following the TN Titans for a while now and they are doing a good job with updates. I also follow @DMNSportsDay and @DallasCowyboys because I like to argue with Cowboys fans. Good thing they got rid of TO. Going to make their job a lot easier. Then I get stats from the TN Volunteers, Duke bball, and the Nuggets. Just waiting on NASCAR! Although I doubt it is going to happen.
on March 5th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Need you ask?! @redsoxcast is a twittercast from the official site.
I also follow:
@GlobeSox – Red Sox updates from The Boston Globe
@RedSoxMLB – from the sportytweets.com site you mentioned
And @redsoxnow – no affiliation whatsoever, but some good tweets
Did I mention that I got Green Monster seats in September against Tampa Bay?!!! (Sorry, that was off-topic, but I couldn’t resist.)
There is a lot of talking, blogging and tweeting going on about how to use Twitter ‘correctly.’ That it’s not supposed to simply be a news feed (be it ingoing or outgoing) and that you’re ‘doing it wrong’ if you aren’t interacting and utilizing the social side. But isn’t simply subscribing to your fav team’s twittercast an interactive touch point with your team? I think if you find a purpose that gives you that shazam moment, whatever that may be, then you are doing Twitter correctly.
p.s. Crystal, great idea. I think I’ll start following the Yankees so I can trash-tweet!
on March 5th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
2 words – Da Bears! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPP3aTB6nLo&feature=related