Twitter

This Pillow is from Craftsquatch . It rocks.

A lot of people use twitter to promote their etsy shops. You might ask yourself: What does Janae think about the pros and cons of twitter? You might not. Either way I'm going to talk about them. because I can.
I'm happy I joined twitter. I finally know what the fail whale is. At first I just blocked everyone who tried to follow me because I didn't know who they were. Then I realized that the point is to meet new people.
sorry everyone I blocked...I wonder if there is a way to unblock people...

Here is a list of some pros and cons I've experienced

PRO: there are a lot of funny people on twitter. it's fun to read what people are up to.

PRO: One of the positives I've noticed is how soon you find people with common interests. If I had a question about something on etsy I could just write it in my status and within minutes have an answer.

PRO: I've made some great friends. My twitter bff is great and people have helped me promote my shop a lot. It makes me smile.

PRO: I've gotten more views in my shop. More views= more sales. I've felt really blessed about my little shop and how it's doing.

PRO: I've been part of some great teams. I feel like Twitter really has helped me meet people that let me on the teams. Really I don't feel worthy to actually be on the teams because the other shops on these teams are AMAZING! like die amazing. I am so unworthy.

CON- forum links.
In any public forum you hear about people who are unhappy. I never realized how much complaining happens in the etsy forums, and it is on twitter too. I know everyone has bad days sometimes but it can be draining. I'm glad the forums changed formats.

CON: the treasury team that said no thanks.
sometimes people other than me realize I'm not really worthy of their treasury team, lol.
I was also super bummed when I didn't get on a treasury team some of my friends on twitter were on. They kept tweeting about it non stop and I felt bad that I wasn't on it. It took me a while to get over myself and be excited for them. There is enough success for everyone.
Focus Focus Focus!

CON: Whining.
OK maybe I'm guilty of this too, but I see a lot of whining on twitter. One of the teams I was on had some negative press when members were complaining on twitter. They were saying some people were favorites on etsy. Those favorites were also on twitter, and responded. Some people left the team. I was so sad both for the people who left and the people who felt like they were invisible to etsy. Suddenly harmless complaining became a problem. I watched the drama unfold on twitter- it was mesmerizing. Maybe it's bad that I like watching the drama- I figure it's harmless and as long as it doesn't distract me from what I want to accomplish it's fun to read. Sometimes I want to complain too! Like when my kids color all over the house or I have a headache for a month that won't go away. That's part of life- we all need to vent a little.

PRO: Twitter is up all night.
I love some of my twitter friends. When all of my friends here are asleep and I want to chat with someone twitter is there. When I had breastfeeding questions with Mark twitter was there at three in the morning.

PRO: Justin Bieber is always a trending topic.
oh wait- maybe this isn't a pro. I giggle a little when people make fun of his hair or him. The kid owns twitter! You can't mess with that.

CON: Spam messages.
it's really fast to put an @ sign before your name. start talking about ipads and you will realize how many phony people use twitter. Ten million billion people will announce that if you click to their site you can win an ipad! Boo. still no ipad here.

Pro:
It turns out twitter is one of the best ways to get a hold of me when I leave my phone in New Jersey and you want to go out to dinner with your friends.

What have you experienced?