Twitter, twitter, twitter…
Twitter me this, twitter me that… what is twitter really good for? Its a question that everyone is asking, no one truly knows the answer to, but people all over are still using it. Are they really?
Rachel makes a good argument for the uselessness of Twitter. If you truly look at what twitter is, it’s a tool to help people stalk you. They literally took a cool feature from Facebook (the status bar), and just built an entire community around it. Now I know they added those cool little text message notification to tell you what your friends are doing, but really… I don’t need to be updated that you’re “tying your left shoe” or that “you’re coming back from your trip to NY.” Twitter is a tool that pretty much all bloggers are using to try and push their posts (at least in my opinion).
With that said, I use Twitter. Why do I use it? Because I need to stay up to date with everything going on in the Web 2.0 community as the CMO of Future Delivery. Have a met any friends through Twitter? NO. Do I actively visit the site everyday? NO.
I do have one question though. Why is it that some people have 50,000+ people following them?!?! That completely boggles my mind because I want to be them, hahaha. But seriously, I do. Can you imagine the power that these people have? Every single thing that they post can potentially be text messaged to 50,000+ people. This is insane for viral marketing!
So, my quest is to find out how to get more people to follow me on FB. If you have a strategy, contact me and we’re work on it together to figure it out.
Twitter 
Facebook 
Vimeo 
Viddler 
Stumbleupon 
Delicious 
When you find out, please let me know. Twitter baffles me…like who cares??? But, apparently a lot of people do. Why? Maybe we could collaborate on an article sometime.
Best,
Tim
Timothy S. Hillebrand, Ph.D.
Editor
Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine
tim@pocketpcmag.com
I think Twitter can be best used by organizations or large entities that want to get their message across, often times, in an immediate manner. For individuals, however, Twitter can be more of a toy, rather than a real tool…I don’t think there is a clear cut answer to what the purpose or use of Twitter is…it really depends on many things and most importantly who the user is. I wouldn’t necessarily say its useless.
For example, all users of Facebook/Myspace have a generic common denominator - obviously these are people who want to network, socialize through the web. But users of Twitter don’t have a common denominator at all….presidential campaigns use it to publicize the whereabouts of their candidates (VIP dinner, rally, etc.), whereas some growing number of colleges or government agencies use it to “break” news or other emergencies. I think Twitter is an “express lane” conduit of information. If you’re in the business to CONSTANTLY update your “followers” or in this case clients, then by all means, it’s a great, user friendly tool. Plus, you don’t need fancy IT equipment to build this infrastructure. It’s only a few clicks away.
I think the people behind Twitter have created something that they really don’t know its true purpose. They want the web community and the people at large to mold its usage and in many ways define the product. This also answers the question why venture capital into Twitter has been slow, if not absent.
Gregory
Hey Greg,
Thanks for the comment. I agree that Twitter is a great method to keep your followers up to date of your whereabouts.
So then the breakdown is like this:
- Facebook status update is to keep your friends posted about what you are doing
- Blogging Feeds are to provide in-depth, personal information to your readers
- Twitter (for company use) is for companies that don’t want to create a blog (because it’s too much work) and just want to blast their followers with some things to keep them up to date.
So the question remains, how do you increase your followers quickly?