Discovering the possibilites and different platforms of social media I hear about twitter all of the time. So I went to the twitter page and had a look at the video there which is meant to convince people of how great this medium was:
But I’m sorry, this doesn’t convince me at all! What interest do I have in getting to know if someone is having coffee or going shopping? Why should I bother to waste my time for that?
In the video the speaker contradicts himself! First he says that it is not interesting to inform people about the fact that you are having a coffee. But then he says it was interesting to tweet about it…? It’s still a completly negligible thing.
Opinions
Negative opinions like that seem to be widespread. Nevertheless others (like social media professional Chris Brogan) sing hymns about twitter.
Brogan says: don’t tweet about what you are doing, tweet about what has your attention. Okay. But i am blogging about this anyway. So everyone who wants to know can subscribe to my blog.
In Chris Brogan’s blog “50 ideas on using twitter for business” he mentions negatives but of course mainly positives. Looking at these points more closely though one will find out that he emphasizes on the advantages twitter has for organisations or big companies.
But I am a one woman agency. How could I find a benefit in using twitter without being forced to invest too much time for this? And even if you’re not a one-man-show you still need to organize your time to have enough room for the important things. I cannot see how twitter can be one of these…
What do you think? Do you use twitter? How much time do you spend for it, does it pay off and if so then how?
I’m just getting going with Twitter. It’s actually proving quite useful. I’ve had more hits on my site and with Twhirl I can use the search capability and see what people are twittering about. This has led to job pitches and useful news/info.
Did you read Chris’ Yolanda post yesterday. That seemed a good explanation about how Twitter can work in practice.
Hi Jon!
I had seen this blog from Chris but hadn’t read it yet. So I did it right after getting your comment.
That’s all interesting for sure but it wouldn’t work (yet?) that way over here. It’s surely good to watch blogs, especially to make sure you can react on complaints.
But over here most of Yolanda’s social media activities would be unnecessary because she would be involved with the tourist info, fair organisation, city administration etc. anyway. So she would know in advance about the events and would not need to find out about them on social media.
That’s why I don’t get what benefit I should have to go on twitter. That’s fine if you have someone to care only for social media. But in my agency there is only one person for everything and that’s me.
As a sole proprietor I can relate to what you’re saying. For me it’s about building new connections and exploring a new channel. I’m looking for ways to share my message that I can add value to clients business communications and Twitter might be of use.
However, I have to balance tweating (or whatever Twitter folks say!) with other kinds of social media. Blogging has brought me two significant contacts this week. Twitter hasn’t. Yet.
My fear is that Twitter will just sink under spam though. The more I’ve explored, the more I’ve seen people abusing it.
It’s great for asking questions to friends though.