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I just read Mark Butler’s post ‘Twitter is Stupid‘ on Courtney Tuttle’s blog. Woohoo, it’s creating dust already!
I do not agree with Mark, but I certainly can relate to some of the objections he has about Twitter.
Before going in to that, let me admit that I’ve managed to limit my time on social networking by setting a certain time schedule for visiting Twitter. If I can’t make it, I’ll skip Twitter and that happens quite often.
Also, when I use Twitter, or any other social network platform, I like to make sense with my remarks or shut my mouth, with the exception of a rare occasional chitchat.
Having said that, let’s go back to Mark’s post.
For starters, his remark about ‘nothing meaningful is being said’ is true. And boy, I see a lot of those tweets.
Maybe they could mean something for someone else, especially when you’re communicating with someone you personally know?
I’m sort of playing the the devil’s advocate here, but I should admit Mark is right: there’s a lot of irrelevant data most people have little or no interest in.
Therefore I scan the tweets with Twhirl. After using it for a while, you’ll get experienced in picking the interesting tweets out of the huge batch of information. I recommend using this tool.
Another one you can try is Quotably. It tries to thread the tweets, so you can follow a conversation. It’s not working perfectly, but worth to try.
Next.
The politically correct phrased objection ‘twitter is something the A List bloggers are promoting as a way to get their groupies to follow them’ is also true to a certain extent, although you can also say that they are ‘trying to increase their own community and build a bigger network’.
They, too, want to get something out of it, like poll results, other forms of opinions and even great content. But what’s against that? It’s not mandatory, they give you a choice, don’t they?
Using exactly this strategy, one of my posts ended up at Darren Rowse’ Problogger.net. I was quite happy with that bit of extra exposure.
The second part of that objection is ‘begging (the followers) for a shred of acknowledgment with some sort of “@joeshmoe” response to a….tweet ‘.
Yeah, some do that and I don’t like it either. The A-blogger can’t help it, only recognize it.
But so many others deliver valuable responses. And it definitely is a two-way process. Only yesterday, I had Maki of DoshDosh.com subscribe to my feed as a result of my response to one of his tweets. I was quite happy with that and didn’t think of it as a waste of time on Twitter. Would you?
By the way, talking about Maki, he has one of the best blogs on the Net and I really love to read his posts. Like :
Managing Information Flow about how to prioritize information highly effectively, including tweets from Twitter.
Understanding the Value of ‘Friends’ in Social Media Websites explains what purposes friends networks serve.
And there are a lot more of highly valuable posts at DoshDosh!
And on other blogs, like Copyblogger.com, EntrepreneursJourney.com and CourtneyTuttle.com, just to name a few.
What’s wrong with following these people on social media sites like Twitter? You get to know them a lot better, which makes it easier to communicate with them in a meaningful way.
And here we have arrived at the most useful benefit of using Twitter (yes, for as long as it lasts):
all people in Twitter are VERY responsive!
And let me immediately emphasize that this does not only apply to A-list bloggers, ‘guru’s or experts. It also applies to others.
Only yesterday evening, Vlad (who I already knew) of Sageblogger.com and Kerry Morrison (who I didn’t know at all) of Kmo.ca helped me out finding a teleseminar that I HAD to attend, but didn’t have the information about.
That’s just an example of many, but what makes this one so interesting is that I wasn’t on Twitter at all. Only when I discovered I didn’t receive the right information, I logged in and got what I needed within 5 minutes!
That’s making use of Twitter effectively.
No, Twitter is not stupid for me. Maybe you want to try again Mark? Oh, and you don’t use Twitter to generate traffic. You use it mainly to extend your personal network, the rest will follow.
Let’s hear what you have to say about Twitter.
Post your comments below.
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May 9th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Case,
I did not “get” Twitter at first. And while at times it can suck you in and help you to waste your time. There were plenty of occasions as the ones you have described that helped me find some very important information.
I appreciate the spotlight
May 9th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
You get what you deserve Vlad.
Congrats with receiving your green card!
May 9th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Thanks for helping to make sense of Twitter for me. Very useful information.
Regards
Robert
May 9th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Twitter. I love Twitter.
I can’t imagine another medium that has taught me so much.
I’ve followed links to mines of information, new techniques, blog posts, tools, services and startups, many of which I would never have been aware of.
I’ve been given beta invites, entered competitions, met interesting people, made new friends and followed seminars - as they happen.
All through Tweets.
No, Twitter is NOT stupid!
May 9th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Anyone who thinks Twitter is stupid needs to visit Jack Humphrey’s Friday Traffic Report and read some of his and Howie Schwartz’s stuff on Twitter and Microblogging. Then go over the CMSWire.com and read some of my articles on microblogging
May 9th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I love twitter. Made friends, learned something, found new blogs, promoted myself and others. It’s been great. Stupid? NOT.
@DivinePurposeMV
Thanks and stumbled too!
May 9th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Great post Case. I need to start using my digital timer more though… to limit my time on Twitter.
I use the Direct Messages feature a lot more than many probably do though.
Willie
May 9th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I actually twitter, but I don’t get there very often.
I could spend too much time reading tweets-looking for something with beef in it. It’s kind of addicting, so I don’t go very often - same is true for Facebook (and it’s really slow on my machine.)
May 9th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Twitter? What is Twitter? I found this blog through Stumble, is that kind of like Twitter?
Hmm, I must found out! Off to investigate!
Thanks
May 9th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Good advice there Case. Great links as well. I haven’t been using Twitter as yet but I have been reading up on it.
I don’t want to jump into another social site that can suck my limited time, I’d rather figure out how to use the site from a marketing standpoint first - and assess whether it’s worth the investment.
May 10th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I’d have to agree with Mark that it’s just one more thing to get between me and my work.
I could see myself spending alot of time using it but i’d rather refrane from getting sucked in!
May 11th, 2008 at 9:07 am
My biggest complaint with that post (and the comments that followed) is that most of the folks haven’t really given Twitter a try. That’s fine, but don’t run something down if you haven’t really used it, you know?
May 11th, 2008 at 11:06 am
@Bob Younce,
I think there is not a single comment and out of all who have commented I can see only one commentator acknowledged that he is not familiar with the service. Can you explain how did you arrive to such conclusion?
I also can’t see how any one is “running something down”. With all do respect Bob, my biggest complain about comments like yours that you wrote them without actually reading neither post itself and the comments that followed. All you did is to read the Headline.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I love Twitter. I was introduced to it during the 2007 Thirty Day Challenge, and Ed Dale has a great video lesson out on the 2007 Challenge called “The Tao of Twitter”. He’s also done a recent lesson on using Twitter with Quotably.
I’ve met some really cool people and I find a lot of the Tweets are very informative. I also love short, so 140 characters keeps people on topic, on task. I can read a page of Tweets in less time than it takes to read one blog post.
It’s my favorite social network and everybody is on it. Hillary Clinton to John Reese to Ed Dale and some of my personal contacts around the blogging and marketing world.
I love Twitter!
Sherri
May 12th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Interesting post! I didn’t know what Twitter was till now. As an avid facebook and myspace fan, I will definitely check out this new application. Thanks!
May 12th, 2008 at 9:35 am
I just can’t get into twitter. I just don’t like always being connected. I also don’t think there are enough people wanting to know what I do on a day to day basis. Maybe I will try it out though and make it funny. I bet I could do that.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:16 am
[...] 101 Tweeting Outside The IM Niche… Social Marketing Pitfalls & The Twitter Time Suck Why Twitter Is Not Stupid! So How Do You Find People on Twitter? Tags: twitter This entry is filed under Blogging/RSS, Social [...]
May 13th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Twitter seems like it’s just ripping the status feature from Facebook and making that the whole focus of the site. I’ve seen some cool Twitter extensions (I guess that’s what you’d call them) that let you do things like help you quit smoking by keeping track of your last cigarette, diet ones by counting junk food, and stuff like that.
It really is just a little novelty site that is essentially a light version of Myspace and Facebook.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
twitter can be useful as a business tool like how firefighters used in during hte wild fires in california but overall it seems kinda pointless for average joes just updating people that they are feeling fine or not.
May 14th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I love twitter and I don’t think its stupid either. Like you if i am swamped - I don’t use it too often. But I do try to tweet a few things and reply to a few others.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:55 am
I’m not yet understand about twitter, but many people used twitter, so i must learning about this, cause i’m usually using entrecard.com in my blog
May 16th, 2008 at 5:36 am
@kachinko - Really?????
Well, as long as you fake having 28,000 RSS subscribers on kachinkoonline.com, you’re TOAST buddy.
kachinkoonline.com/wp-content/themes/lightbreaker/images/kkl.gif
You don’t even have a feedburner account!
May 16th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I think one of the things that overwhelms people about Twitter is the fact that it’s not very easy to figure out how to use it right off the bat. Like most people, I prefer something that I can just rip into without having to read a complicated instruction book or constantly search a help index.
Luckily, I found a post called “Twitter for Dummies” on a Mommy Blog called jenuinejen.com that did most of the leg work for me. It’s a quick read with simple explanations of the basic commands for using Twitter. I highly recommend it.
So now that I know how to use it, I don’t think Twitter is stupid either.
-Lee
May 17th, 2008 at 10:21 am
The thing I love about Twitter is that it is my favourite part of Facebook, expanded upon. I love reading the status updates, etc., so i love twittering.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Not stupid at all. A fantastic networking site. It’s where I keep in touch with a number of marketers. Even one of my products was born from a Twitter discussion.
Kevin
May 19th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I don’t think twitter is stupid. Its really interesting to read what everyone is doing at that point of time. And you can keep updates on friends and family.
Its a bit pricy for me (international text costs a bomb) because I’m not living in the US tho
May 20th, 2008 at 12:41 am
@space codes Try Twitter.com. All you need is Internet access, which you seem to have already.
If you really would have read the article, you would have discovered about twhirl and quotably.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:43 am
The beauty of Twitter is that, unlike a full-out blog, there’s no obligation to be philosophical, thought-provoking or grammatically sound. Because it doesn’t require that kind of extra effort, it’s great for people like me who want to jump on the social-media bandwagon but don’t have the time to set up something elaborate on WordPress.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
All these hype about twitter makes me want to try it. My first impression is it seems stupid but maybe I am judging the book by its cover.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:22 am
I honestly don’t see myself ever twitting. If I want people to know what I am doing all the time, I will make sure they know, otherwise I keep it to myself.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:50 am
I think that different people value different things and all of us have different mindset. For me, i love Twitter! Why not? It helps me to broaden my social circle.
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 am
twitter is good! it has helpped me widen my social circle and exposed me to many knew blogs!
July 19th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Twitter is just a new toy, or if you want new web2.0 toy. I think everyone should use it for whatever one likes: expanding network, making friends, writing notes to himself…
Twitter is web (mobile?) service, so we can’t talk about if it’s stupid or not. Only users can use it in smart or not so smart way.
Flitter