Annual Report 2012: Twitter

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Social media and I have a pretty tenuous relationship. Every few months I get the urge to quit it all and never again share what craft beer I'm about to drink. Then my son says something cute and I think about how I can grind that sweet memory down into 140 characters. Prior to 2012, Twitter was my secondary choice to Facebook. I never saw it's true potential until I realized the role these services play in my life. Instagram is my favorite*. More than anything else I want to see pictures of people's cool shit, families and beers, it delivers. Twitter is for following people I don't know, but who have interesting stuff to say. Facebook is for following people I do know, often have nothing interesting to say, but maybe they don't use Instagram to share their pictures.

Frequency
There was a steady trend upward in overall use from Jan. to Sept. and then a sharp decline there after. This can be a attributed to a bug in October that broke the link between Instagram and Twitter on my phone. Without sepia tone pictures of hamburgers to bolster my original content there was a marked decline. Daily frequency saw Tuesday and Saturday running neck and neck right up through December. Tuesday edged out Saturday when Christmas day fell squarely on Tiw's Day.

Content
Before the above mentioned Instagram bug my feed was three parts square photos, DailyMile humble brags and the occasional witty comment. I often use Facebook purely for announcing family updates (e.g. "Who had a baby? We had a baby!") and save Twitter for jokes that might as well be balled up and thrown into the ether. It is a great service, but for the most part I consume and do not create. The common relative and family friend do not seem to have an interest in the service. Which is a blessing and curse. Blessing in that I can say some funky ass shit for a select few followers and my second cousins won't see it. Curse in that when I want to share news with everyone I have to do it in two places.

Retweets
One fourth of the tweets I usher unto the web are just recycled witty comments and jokes from other people. Over the past year I have attempted to curate that list to people I finding interesting and who do not spam their followers. My number one retweeted account though is of my own making. Unashamedly self marketing my restaurant review blog once a week-ish. Check out 100 coming soon! After that though there is a solid mix of comedians, video game and sports writers, scientist and a few friends and family too. This curation led to a steady increase in retweets through the year, that I anticipate will continue in 2013.

*Instagram is owned by Facebook, now panic and freak out!