Dull thoughts in a sharp world.

I’m not a huge Twitter user… I try to post a useful link once a day and read other useful links.  I would like to use Twitter a lot more, interact with other users to share ideas, and definitely gather and consumer the latest and greater info… a bit too busy right now.  I understand that most people think that Twitter is a way express “what you are currently doing”, but come’on people, it’s not really used for that.  I really do not care if you are walking down the street, wearing your new blue jacket on, and running into a tree on Twitter.  I used to Twitter what I was doing exactly until I realized that NO ONE CARES.  Twitter is used for spreading of information, ideas, news, and thoughts.  Discussions about relevant topics, brainstorming, etc.  I feel like people are competing to see who can tweet the most.  Here are some examples of tweets I follow today:

“Coming up with new content to post! Enjoying a little down time before it picks up again!” – Thank you for informing me of your next tweet.

“Can’t believe how quickly the day has gone by! Already time for lunch!” – I can tell time.

“I am seriously bored” – We all are.

Hundreds of these.  I realize that I can just block or unfollow these people, but some of them are my competitors and I want to read the 1 out of 50 tweets that are relevant.  Not sure if it just a misunderstanding of social media or what.  So if you are in the same boat as me, here is a reblog from Mashable! on tools to filter through all the noise.

So what do you do when you want to quiet the Twitter noise but don’t want to de-friend people? You currently have a few options:

1. Instead of listening to all of the noise, you can focus in on certain signals
2. You can use a platform to group your favorite tweeples and focus only on them
3. You can mute the tweeps that you don’t want to receive tweets from

Focus on the signal rather than the noise

Just Signal
Just Signal is an early-stage site that promises to stream in the tweets and FriendFeeds that you are interested in. The way they facilitate this is through a “filter” text box. In the text box, you input all of the keywords that you would like to filter in from Twitter, and they will feed “almost in real time.”

Tweetbeep
Tweetbeep is a great site that is very similar to Google Alerts. Using Tweetbeep, you can track any keywords that you want on Twitter and instantly get emailed when your keyword has been tweeted. This platform is much better than Just Signal because you don’t have to sit idly waiting for your keywords to stream in. With Tweetbeep, you just set your keywords and let them come into your email box.

Twilert
Another great alternative is Twilert. Like Tweetbeep, Twilert lets you create keywords that are tracked on Twitter and sent to you via email. Put simply, it’s Google Alerts for Twitter.

Isolate your favorite tweeple from the rest

To be perfectly honest, I’m a twhirl fan, but Tweetdeck has a killer function called Tweetdeck Groups that allows you to isolate your favorite tweeple from the rest of the noise. Just choose who you want to stand out, and Tweetdeck will create a column specifically for this user’s feed.

This is especially useful when you’re following over 300 people. So instead of sifting through all of the noise, just go to your favorite group and read the tweets that matter most to you.

You can view a comparison of Tweetdeck and twhirl here.

I just want to MUTE the noise

Twalala promises to mute certain people on Twitter without actually de-friending them. Why on earth would you want to actually mute someone?

• If you don’t want to see someone’s rant about their bad day at the office, you can mute them for the day.

• If you missed the season finale of Dancing with the Stars and don’t want to find out who won, you can mute any tweets with the keywords “Dancing with the Stars.”

Twalala feels that people would rather mute than de-friend because de-friending can be seen as offensive. Also, many people wouldn’t want others to know that they have just de-friended them, especially with sites like Qwitter out there.

Now, I am probably over-reacting and maybe I’m not the one who uses Twitter correctly, but I use my chat to let me friends know that I am bored, not broadcast it to millions of professionals, social media gurus, early-apaters, technologists, and businesses.