Building Moxie (an outtake) Two things that woke me up in the middle of the night last night

The Best Thing to happen to Home Improvement since the Hammer

I recently signed up for Twitter. You know, it, Twitter, has been all the “tweet.” I signed up with the sole purpose of tweeting back to the website that I recently put up, http://www.buildingmoxie.com/. With a little widget there, I can keep my visitors in tune with my “status.”

I really don’t know how to use it yet, I will admit, RT and @ = confused. I can’t really provide assurance on when exactly I will start using it for its intended purpose. But its value, beyond my status, is already tremendously clear.

If you care, my handle is @BMoxieBMore (and yes I use it as a salutation)

About a week or so in, I had some free time, so I started to dig a little. First, I was amazed by the number of tweets that were actually about Twitter (or other social networking vehicles) – Meta-tweeting, I'll call it. Second, I figured I needed to follow a few others.

I started by searching for a few organizations that I really respect; This Old House, Fine HomeBuilding, etc. Then I figured I should look a little closer to home, here, in Baltimore; The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Magazine, etc. It was during this rally that I stumbled across @BaltimoreHUD -- Baltimore HUD Homes. It worked -- #Houses, #Baltimore = Follow.

Now, @BaltimoreHUD likes to tweet. I mean, I know I am only following like 30 some people/organizations, but already there have been several times when these folks have filled my entire home page. Every five minutes, all day long, it seems. Link, Link, Link, Link . . . . Sure I am interested in some of the things they want to present, but come on – I am this close (can you visualize me holding up my fingers?) to blocking them.

And . . . I have heard (but have not checked the validity of this claim) that some organizations are tweeting their heads off simply to decrease the amount of money they must pay Google and other search engines for sponsored placement.

I guess, in the end – I don’t know their motives, and I will not begin to explore their organizational structure, but right now, reality is -- they are just noise to me. I don’t even look at their posts – and it is a waste, because I am certain I am missing something useful.

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More Moxie:

Baltimore HUD Homes: http://twitter.com/BaltimoreHUD