23
Oct
2009
Recently, I made the mistake of telling my husband that I was listed as one of WeFollow.com’s most influential “tweeters” in Sacramento, CA. Since then, he’s been telling people at various networking events that I’m Sacramento’s Twitter Queen. While his bragging certainly gives me a tiny warm feeling inside, (I mean, really, how cute! Right?) I also get embarrassed by his praises. Besides, my ranking just got overtaken by none other than my own co-worker, Natalie Paulsen (aka: @nataliedaily) who is currently the most influential tweeter in the Sacramento, CA listing. Dang, girl.
But, this post isn’t about my co-worker, popular as she may be. This post, as Elle Woods would say, is about ME! Let’s pretend I am Sacramento’s Twitter Queen. (Don’t tell Natalie I’m pretending to have rights to the crown.) If I were to hold this high ranking title, there are a few changes I’d make to Twitter’s growing empire.
First, to satisfy my boss’ request, I’d add a feature that would allow users to forward other users to follow. Let’s say Gordon starts following his friend (and Secretary of Labor), Hilda Solis, and he wants me to follow her too because she shares interesting insight on government. What if there was a way to forward her handle to my DM box with a note that says, “Follow Hilda – she provides great insight on government.” Instead, as it currently works, Gordon has to email me ideas which takes extra time and work.
Second, I’d makeover Twitter’s current search function. I need an easier way to search my own followers instead of the entire database. Sometimes I need to send an @ reply to a follower but I can’t remember their handle. I’ve often found that if you don’t remember the exact handle, Twitter can’t find the person.
Third, I’d change follower lists to show a person’s bio instead of their last tweet. I don’t decide to follow anyone without reading their bio. If Twitter included this information, I’d save an hour or two each month because I wouldn’t have to click on every individual person to decide if they were worthy of a follow back. (Yes, I know there are apps like Tweepular which provide this function, but, why can’t Twitter just build this into the site?)
Fourth, also by the boss man’s request, there needs to be a way to mass delete DMs. Every few months Gordon will clean out his DM box but it always takes a long time because each DM must be deleted individually.
Finally, I’d implement a feature in the @ reply category to help sort through these messages quickly. Right now, the only way to access older @ replies is by clicking the “More” button at the bottom of the page. Now that I’ve been on Twitter for a full year, I want to re-read all of the early @ replies I received as a newbie. But, that process could day 30 minutes before I could access the page. 30 minutes is long enough for a manicure, or an episode of The Office. Sigh.
So, dear peasants and squires, minions and knights, this Twitter Queen is calling for change. Are you with me?
