So Twitter Gold, my random series of Twitter-related posts... here we go... Was in Twitter yesterday for all of 3 tweets, but just happened to see my dear friend Rory Reid tweet that provocative headline from a post on his blog at CNET UK. Naturally, I had to respond, but their comment function doesn't recognise page breaks so reading my response over there is a bit of an ordeal - hence I thought I'd reproduce it here as a post. Before you go on, read his "Twitter sucks..." article and then come back here.
To address your points:
Who cares? Well, a Nutritionist might have a great suggeston for what to replace cheese with... and may find themselves with a new client as a result. If people's tweets are mundane - don't follow them! Follow those who are interesting - or who have information which could be useful to you."
"Too many stalkers. You have those stalkers anyway. They come and watch you and read your words every day on your website. You have no idea who they are. Twitter gives you the opportunity of actually engaging with those people who value what you have to say.
Most Twitter users are disturbed. Not much to say on this one. My dog is on Twitter but who am I to tell him he can't join in the fun. :)
Mostly spam. There's been a trend lately of people piling in and following 100's of people simply to get a huge following. But they are missing the point. Likewise, those people who do nothing but tweet "New blog post: shorturl/xyz" will find that no-one, not even their followers, are listening. You have to be valued or useful in some way to get them listen and that comes down to engagement. And 140-character tweets from businesses are great - they respect my time and mean I can unsubscribe from their email list and only deal with them when its convenient to me!
It's eating your brain. Following stars on Twitter is completely and utterly different from reading gossip rags. For a start, it's from the horse's mouth. Doesn't mean something's true necessarily, but it is free. Not only that, but you can actually converse with them, the main reason perhaps why the tabloids are knocking celeb twitterings. They (the publications) are now surplus to requirement in that little menage a trois.
A better argument for this last point might have been 'It's eating your time.' since you can get horribly distracted in there, but a little self-discipline is all that needs and there are plenty of apps and spin off sites that make life easier.
I'm self-employed and I do think the value of Twitter is more obvious for 'us' than for the employed. For those working for ourselves, it's invaluable. It provides me with a community of like-minds to learn from, bounce ideas off, share resources, knowledge, connections and fun with. It's a chance to share who I am, not just what I do, but what I'm about, my 'personal brand'.
For me it's like a huge party... too many people there to talk to everyone, but I'm guaranteed to find someone interesting each and every time I drop in and because people are there to network, no-one minds if I just sidle up to their little group and join in the conversation.
I'm just gutted you don't share my view. It could have been so beautiful. :)"
