I agree that certain things can get out of control, I’ve seen this happen and it can be damaging to all party’s involved, but hey, that’s part of being involved with instant media.

Personally, I don’t mind if someone uses it for promoting their blog, I do. I’m not ashamed of that either because I set my blog up to share everything about books and reading, basically everything book related. To promote the books I review (whether I liked them or not it’s still getting the book seen) is part of my what I like to do as a book blogger. I enjoy it. I am probably one of those tweeters you hate so much. I tweet a blog post about four times a day for the different time zones.

One of the policies I have about Twitter though is I only follow authors or book bloggers so all the tweets I see, I want to see. It doesn’t bother me that they RT, if I’ve already seen it I just ignore it. I have total control, nothing is shoved down my throat, I either go on twitter or I don’t. If you don’t like the person who RT’s too much and is irritating you then stop following them. It’s as easy as that.

I run contests on Twitter and my blog and I never ask for anything, especially a follow – what’s the point? I’d rather someone follow my blog or my tweets because they want to, not because I’ve forced them to with a competition. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

I have ‘met’ some really fantastic people because of Twitter and I admit to being a twitterholic!! The one thing I do hate about Twitter is the amount of time I spend on it

Great discussion Sarah! Sorry I’ve rambled on for so long LOL

I manage it by not following a whole lot of people. I decided I wouldn’t feel obligated to follow everyone I knew or even all of my friends, just those with whom I tended to have twitter conversations, or who regularly posted links which I followed. I also change up the people I follow every now and again, if someone isn’t posting or just to give someone different a try. If I tried to follow everyone, I would only be able to pay shallow attention to all of them.

I like the @ replies thing a lot – that’s usually how I “meet” new people, and I tend to follow them if we’ve had some interesting conversations.

As folks above noted, I don’t really like the constant contest tweeting, but will occasionally retweet those if it’s someone I know well. I do admit I post links to new blog posts, usually twice a day, morning and afternoon, since I know some people miss the morning link. And I announce it if I have new publishing news, like a new sale or something.

The spam is annoying, and for the people who only post their blog links I ask why bother, but other than that it has been a surprisingly positive experience for me. I have been exposed to yet more bloggers and gotten to know some other people much better, so I am happy that I eventually caved.

I find twitter endlessly entertaining. Arguing, discussing books, whining, and eavesdropping. It has put me in contact with more Australian romance readers, which I love.
And the random discussions we can get into on there amazes me, from the lack of condoms in romance novels to looking at the Australian identity, how it is formed and viewed internally and externally…
Hell I even find the spammers and some of the spambots entertaining. – The random retweeters have often made me burst into hysterics.
The only problem I have is I follow a couple of lovely women, whose life mission it seems is to retweet every blog post or competition out there. So I see the same tweet about four times in a couple of minutes. LOL But when they are not retweeting they are endlessly entertaining, so I guess it balances out.

The downside of it is that it’s an almost constantly updating place, like shoveling snow while its snowing. I can never be “finished” with it, unlike the posts in my Google Reader. That’s what makes it a fatiguing, anxiety-inducing spot for me.

As for the quickness with which information spreads, I like that too. I like that as soon as there’s an earthquake, all the people in California tweet about it. Yes, there’s always the chance of encountering half-truths and misinformation, but there’s the chance for that with ANY form of communication.

The only downside to twitter as far as a I’m concerned is the spam. That is super-annoying. I just ignore it, though.

@katiebabs: Yeah, I’d say I got to know you and other bloggers/blog visitors more through Twitter than the blogs themselves.

@Karen Scott: The spambots suck. I particularly enjoy your reality show tweets. Far more entertaining than watching them on TV!

@Wendy: I check Twitter the odd time during the day, usually while I’m doing something else. I find it useful for tips on how to approach agents/editors and so on, as well as a great source of book recommendations.

@Louise: I think it depends on how you use it. I often tweet back and forth with some of the people I follow, but my husband pretty much confines his Twitter use to status updates and rarely engages with his fellow tweeters. There’s nothing wrong with either approach but they are very different.

@Trish: Given how extrovert you are in real life, that surprises me. I’m not shy but I’m usually a lot quieter than you are in social situations, particularly if I don’t know the people well.