Why do I continue to Tweet: My Experiences on Twitter

by Erik Manassy

I have many friends and family ask me constantly why I use Twitter. They usually start by saying, "I don't get it", and "Why are you CONSTANTLY Tweeting?" in a mocking tone. I then encourage them to view this video, Twitter explained in Plain English and then to get an account. I would say that about half the people get it immediately and then the rest finally come around after experimenting.

Once Twitter hit the tipping point this year, you couldn't go anywhere or watch any show without the term "Twitter" being mentioned and then more people starting to come around to me again.

I've had a Twitter account since November 2006. I think I was number 13,000-ish to sign up, and I'll be the first to admit that I didn't get it at first either. I disappeared for a year and then gave it a shot again. I'm glad I did.

I personally have had some exciting things happen because of Twitter:

• I was a Panelist on the Jets Blog. I met the blog owner because of Twitter.
• I was interviewed by a local Newspaper "The Weekender" talking about Twitter.
• I helped rally a group to help save Larry Grantham's Superbowl III Ring. Later receiving a letter from Larry's organization.
• I have met MANY MANY great people and built real relationships.

The next bullet just happened tonight. I revealed the new Jersey I purchased for my favorite team, the New York Jets. Big deal you say, but the responses were surprising to me. I started earlier in the week teasing people saying I bought a new Jersey and asked them to guess the number. I then posted more teasers on twitter until people kept asking me when I was going to reveal the number. I was waiting until I got the actual jersey so I could post it on Twitpic and the tweet about it, which I did.

I got a lot of responses immediately most saying they KNEW that I would select the #25 Kerry Rhodes Jersey. What is cool is, the player himself, @kerryrhodes, tweeted me within seconds of my post telling me I made the right choice! Only on Twitter could something like that happen.

Sanchez Poses for GQ: Don't Mess with the Hoff!

TJB20: My .02 on Brian Schottenheimer

During the recent owners meetings in Dana Point, CA Ryan predicted B-Schott would be his own boss next year. A short question, but lots of thought behind the answers on this one.

Need a second to review the rules and the panelists, check out the introductions. Again, I was asked to be a guest panelist and below is MY answer. If you jump over to the Jets Blog, you will see I'm in the minority that Brian will be a head coach. Most are saying he doesn't have the STUFF.

17) True/False: Brian Schottenheimer will be an NFL head coach at this time next year.

TRUE - He will be a head coach, the guy is a very young talent. He has proven that with the Jets and if Brett didn’t break down, he may be a coach this year. He has proven that he can adjust his offense to the talent making him very flexible and dynamic. Brian went from having to coach Chad and installing an offense that played to his strengths by going with short fast plays. Then he moved on to the fasted gun in the east in Brett Favre and completely changed the offense to play to Brett’s strengths. The guy is a winner and he will be a successful head coach in this league next year!

To read the full article, jump over to the Jets Blog.

TJB20: My Opinion on Jay Cutler

3) Given what the cost was for Jay Cutler (two first rounders and a third along with Kyle Orton in return for Jay Cutler and a fifth rounder) do you make a similar trade if you are the Jets?

Absolutely NOT! I thought that two first rounders were a lot, but to give up the 1st this year, the 1st 2010, Kellen Clemens and a third is a lot for a kid who is proven and young BUT also known as a problem child. The kid is immature, needs a lot of growing up to do and I hear that once a player goes down as having a reputation as “ME and only me”, it rubs the team the wrong way… Players don’t want to be in the trenches with someone like that. Mel Kiper warned us about this problem during the year he was drafted. He NAILED it and the Bears organization has their work cut out for them. Give me leadership and a weak arm (Chad, whom we should have never waived) over a gun and attitude any day (Cutler)!

Click Here to read the full article.

I am a Jet TJB20 Panelist

I was asked and I am honored to be amongst some great panelist talking about the state of the New York Jets on the blog:  thejetsblog.com.  Every day, two of the twenty questions asked to the twenty panelists will be featured on the blog.   

The Jets Blog Description of the feature:

With last week’s widely publicized G20 Meetings in London, we thought it would be fun to convene the TJB20. In this inaugural edition, we’ve culled the thoughts of NFL Columnists, Jets beat reporters, bloggers, founders of online fan communities and typical Jets fans.

Here is my introduction from the site:

Erik Manassy (@e_man) Crazy Season Ticket Holder: Erik (e_man) is a gadgetphile who enjoys messing with Kerry Rhodes on Twitter. Manassy is a dedicated Jets fan, and a season ticketholder for many years. Erik is also a diehard Mets fan, who bought seats from Shea.

Again, twenty panelists have been asked from organizations such as:

• SNY
  
• NBC Sports
  
• Newsday
  
• Jetnation.com
  
• TheJetsBlog
  
• Jets Insider Magazine
  
• Gang Green Nation
  
• and others, click HERE to see the full list.

Be sure to check in every day to see if my posts are featured for the days topic. Thanks to Bassett from the Jets Blog for asking me to participate.

We are the Champions, sort of...

Well, it has been MANY MANY years since the last time I have attended a cub scout pine wood derby race. The last race was probably in 1982 and I was a nine year old youngster running my own car.

Today, I broke that gap by attending with my son, David, six years of age. We designed the NY Jets car, as most of you know from my gazillion photo's of posts talking about it on facebook, twitter, and flickr.

Twenty nine cars were registered and the age group raged from six yrs old to twelve yrs old. The levels were Tigers, Bobcats, Wolves, and Weblo's in that order. They ran four heats with the winner of each competing to have a final three. Then they ran one heat per level and then all the 1st place winners raced each other to become the fourth spot in the final race of the day.

Well, here is how are car faired:

Race 1: Finished 2nd of 4

Race 2: Finished 3rd of 4

Race 3: Finished Dead Last

Race 4: Finished 2nd of 4

So, it was NOT looking good, and my son was basically ticked off and giving me a look like he wanted to tell me off! ;)

Race 5: (The Tiger Level Race) - We win 1st Place!

Race 6: (The right to go the championship) - We are one race from the superbowl. So how did we finish? DEAD LAST!

At the end of the day, my son walked away with a 1st place medal for the tiger heat. He came up short for the grand prize and the chance to go to Districts, but overall we had a great day.

I spent the entire car ride telling him after his disappointment that it's ok not to win, but he has to be a good loser. His response: I'm sick of winning all these Medals!, I want a trophy. I respond: 24 kids walked away with nothing, and he goes, oh... ok I'll take the medal. Man oh man, as a youngster, I was happy with a ribbon.

@e_man 's Interview with "The Weekender"

I recently was interviewed by "The Weekender", NEPA's number 1 Arts Entertainment Weekly magazine.  The cover story is about Twitter, entitled, "What's all the Twittering About?".  To read it in its entirety, click over to "The Weekender".

  

I was contacted by the reporter via Twitter and was asked if I was interested.  Any time I get to bloviate, I'm game!  I'm cool with how I was quoted, but they got my name misspelled.  It's usually the last name they butcher, but it's all good.

Here are some of my personal quotes:

“Twitter is a different animal because it’s a micro-blogging tool, and because it forces you to post 140 characters at a time; it’s nothing like any of the other sites,” said frequent “tweeter” Erik Manassy (e_man), 35, of Hawley.

“I think of Facebook as people I personally know, and Twitter as people I have never met but are getting to know,” Manassy said. “I have pockets of people I interact with depending on the topic. If I talk Jets, the same 10 or so converse with me. Once I go tech, another pocket talk, and if I talk about local events, again, a pocket of local peeps interact. It is really cool!”

What do people tweet?

While a good chunk of Tweeple, especially newbies, tweet about where they are and what they are doing, Twitter-ers post links to interesting articles, pictures, motivational quotes and even breaking news. Manassy likes to post about the Jets, and since he works in IT for a health company, he uses Twitter to ask questions about software he’s evaluating.

Again, to read the full article, click on over to "The Weekender".

My Rewarding Experience

As most of you know, I'm a huge Jets fan and a frequent user of Twitter.  Two weeks ago, the all knowing Jets Freak, Bassett from "The Jets Blog" posted tweet linking to a story about Larry Grantham and his Superbowl III Ring being up for auction.  It was entitled PLEASE READ and it did it's trick, it caught my attention.

Larry Grantham had fallen on rough times concerning his health, and his medical bills were racking up.  Without the knowledge of his friends or family, he contacted an auction firm and put up his prize possession up for sale.  Bassett and others were rallying the troops to see if we could raise the money needed to buy the ring back for Larry.

The first thing I did was contact "Freedom House Foundation", the firm collecting donations on Larry's behalf and made a personal financial contribution.  You see, Larry had been an alcoholic for a portion of his life, and I had read he had personally raised awareness and funds in excess of a Million dollars to help that foundation.  The least we could do is return the favor.  Larry never asked for help, yet people were willing to do it and they did in droves.

I had heard rumors that the Jets organization caught wind of this story and could have been responsible for getting the ring back.  If this is the case, my hats off to the Jets organization and it's ownership.  It was the "RIGHT" thing to do.  I also knew that a current Jets player, Kerry Rhodes used twitter and I had tweeted him while he was at the Pro-Bowl.  His response was awesome:

"wen is it needed and how much is it"

The lesson I got out of this is whenever you have the ability, help out the less fortunate without looking for an award.  I wasn't expecting anything for my part in helping with the awareness of the issue, but when I got a letter from Larry thanking me, it made me feel VERY GOOD.

I have since purchased the card I show in this story and I plan to frame the letter and the card and hang it on my wall as reminder to myself that when I can, help those in need.

Listen up Jets, All I Want for Christmas is...

.... a win of course, but for a reason other than the obvious division title and playoff trip.



The story starts in the pre-season at my office in Wilkes-Barre, PA one fine summer morning when the usual coffee talk started about the Football. This day I happened to be talking to a Dolphins fan who was talking a lot of smack and how the Phins' were going to take care of business, win the division and just kick the Jets Butts.


You have to understand my laughter as thoughts of the disfunctional squad of rejects who finished the previous year with 1-15 danced in my head. On top of that, they just acquired Chad Pennington and we Brett Favre. I'm feeling good because we have acquired the QB god out of his so called retirement, and just like every other crazed fan, I went out and bought 1 of 10,000 jerserys sold that night with the announcement. I think Chad sold an even 10.


I let the kool-aide drinking fan go a little more, and then I challenged him! I told him to put his money where his mouth was but not in the way that is so typical.





The challenge is the following:



The Jets and Dolphins sqaure off the first game of the season, September 7th, and the last game of the season, December 28th, creating a "Book End" season. Whatever team SWEEPS the series, the loser has to purchase an authentic customized jersey with their last name on the back and the number of the jersey has to be double zeros ("00"). On top of this, the jersey must be hung on the wall of the cubicle for the entire 2009 season. Everytime there is a company dress down day, which includes the company picnic, the loser must wear the Jersey. If the series splits, the bet is off.



As you are aware, the Jets won the first game. If the Jets win this Sunday, I win the bet.

So, as much as it would pain me to see the Patriots OR the Dolphins win the division, the Jets can make this dedicated DIE-HARD Jets fan happy by winning this game and for the 2009 season. Jets, take care of your business, and let's root for Buffalo (so we can win the division) and/or root for the Jags to defeat the Ravens (so we can make the playoffs). Any other win after this is icing on the cake because you have many leaks in the defense and I don't see us going far in the post season.

Oh, and all you dolphins fans out there, if you do make it to the playoffs, please see the picture below. Keep drinking the Kool Aide!

If the Jets lose this game, and want to be ammused by my rants, follow me on Twitter.

Thank You Wayne Crebet!

Chrebet calls it a career (AP):
I'm going to miss this guy!

"Jets receiver Wayne Chrebet said Thursday his career was over, one month after sustaining a season-ending concussion. Chrebet spent 11 seasons with his hometown team after signing as an undrafted free agent out of Hofstra, but was plagued with head injuries the last few seasons. Though he was undersized at 5-foot-10, he quickly became a clutch possession receiver, working his way up the team record..."