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My Twitter timeline is about 50/50 on whether Twitter parties are any fun. Personally, I really don’t object to Twitter parties: it’s no different to when my timeline is hijacked by X Factor tweets or a juicy news item being re-tweeted and is all part of Twitter being a community. Bearing in mind that Twitter is still relatively new, you have to let people experiment to a certain extent without being too judgemental; after all, what does it really, truly matter? As long as you aren’t being flooded with objectionable or unpleasant Tweets (totally at odds with the point of a Twitter party) then use your judgement. Your choices are a) join in, if it is an open party, b) ignore, c) unfollow or d) moan. I would rather a million times have my timeline flooded with party than moan.
Ideally, all Twitter parties should be open for everyone to join in; spot prizes are good fun but not if you can’t get your hands on them! And, if they’re sponsored, as long as it is correctly declared in accordance with the OFT guidelines, then it is far better to be informed than uninformed, and I’d expect someone to get paid for their time if they’re hosting or producing a Twitter party. It’s really all too easy to be judgemental and a nay-sayer when something different happens in your timeline, but it is your timeline… you don’t have to keep anyone in it that you don’t want to!
I want to be open to Twitter parties and make a judgement based on the event, not the theory. Watch and learn, I think is the way to go with this one. And anyway, one day I might have a genius of an idea for a Twitter party…Chanel might phone.. (okay, well not likely in my lifetime, but you know.. a girl can dream).
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7 comments
Personally I don’t object to them as such but it very much depends on whether its a brand I’m interested in and tonight, I’m giving Twitter a wide berth. I don’t like my timeline being clogged up with stuff I’m not interested in, but because I may like the people involved I don’t want to unfollow which leaves me with two choices, stay away for the duration or put up.
Lush have been having parties for years and frankly I think a forum is a much better venue for such things where people do have a choice to opt into that particular section of the board, or just avoid but still be able to use the board.
I think people read twitter differently–some skim ignoring most of what they see.
A few (myself included) tend to read almost all and so I don’t follow a huge # of people. I can’t. A flood of anything that I’m not interested in may be grounds for un-follow. Since twitter follows/unfollows are completely costless (I can simply start re-following another day), twitter parties about things I find irrelevant don’t bother me at all (as long as the party participant doesn’t mind my un-follow).
I started to take part in a twitter party this evening, but after a while, I lost interest. Like Charlie, I think a forum would be much better for such events, and would probably make following the whole ‘event’ a lot easier :).
I also started to take part in the Twitter party tonight, but once I got bored I just read *non party* tweets. I would never unfollow someone just for being involved in the party though. I think that we will be seeing more twitter parties in the future when brands catch onto the idea that it is a way of increasing their profile/followers. Jude xx @jadlgw
Just to be clear, I don’t un-follow just for being involved in a party–just when there’s a flood and it’s not something that I’m drawn to….
I think because it’s such a new concept that I’m sure we will see more and more of them, some brands will get it totally wrong and others won’t.
I feel tonight even though I slightly cringe at the term ‘Twitter Party’ the buzz was there around that brand and people were excited to share what products they liked and what they wanted to try. But I would say an hour was maybe slightly too long.
As for the previous Twitter party… I really didn’t mind that some bloggers had be asked to do sponspored posts but I felt it was more tweets from them about the product and wasn’t about involving people into one big chat. But then again that could be because it was focused on one product and not a whole brand with lots of different products.
As for the amount of people tweeting it’s always going to happen like you say… for example when Xfactor is on, it can be a bit annoying if you aren’t interested but it’s never for that long.
Fee x
Apologies for the delay in commenting. I think twitter parties can be good, but it depends on how they are done. For me, twitter parties are a bit like a promotional giveaway and I don’t see anything wrong with that. I missed the 17 cosmetics party, I think I was travelling or hung over that day and I would have very much liked to have taken part. I can’t say I was thrilled with the lipcote one. I wasn’t even flooded with it, I think I missed the rush, but I just thought it was a bit forced, not very well executed and it was not open to everyone. Allowing only certain people to the party fun, and others feel left out xx