Do any of you twitter?

[vimoh]

Let us try and answer the simple question: Why Twitter?

Twitter seems to be one thing. But it can be many. The thing that really puts it in league with the most powerful tools out there is the limits it has. Allow me to explain.

Twitter vs G-Talk

Let's face it, Google Talk is not the most productivity enhancing of programs. Quite the contrary in fact. Perhaps it's just me but I never get anything done when my signal is green on G-Talk. I can do a lot of things with it but all I ever manage is distraction.

Twitter on the other hand, is not pushy. It runs silently in the background with a pop-up (I use Tweetr) when there is an update. I am under no obligation to respond. It feels good to be connected to my online circle without having to make an effort.

Twitter vs digg / del.icio.us

As far as social bookmarking goes, newbie blogs don't get a lot of attention. The process goes thus: One is frequent on digg or del.icio.us - one stumbles upon a cool link - one likes it - if one has time, one bookmarks it - one moves on probably never to come back again. This might work for Google ADdled blogs, but I feel it is unwise to expect a regular readership that frequently bookmarks your posts. Especially if your blog is new.

How the link sharing method improves on the above is that it is something akin to an RSS subscription. You don't wander the web in search for goodies. You discover a person! You follow his/her likes or dislikes. True, there are people who scarcely post anything other than their own blog posts. But they are easily identifiable and 'unfollowing' isn't rocket science.

Twitter vs Facebook / Myspace / Orkut

Do I really need to spell this one out? Seriously?

If anything, social networking sites are becoming more bewildering by the day. And to think they were supposed to make life easier. Give us a great big collective break! Whether it be Facebook App requests, or Orkut Communities spam. Helping me maintain my social network seems to be the last thing on anybody's mind.

On Twitter, the only ones on my radar are the ones who are 'actually social'. As for communication, there are two modes. Private, and public. The basics. Couldn't ask for more.

Twitter vs Blogging

Twitter and blogs are NOT fighting. In my case at least, Twitter has proven a source of many ideas. Indeed, Twittering feels like contributing to a humongous worldwide team blog. Everyone is on the same page (so to speak) and everyone has free rein. It sometimes reminds me of my early days on livejournal.

I seem to have made quite a post of it. There should be a proper ending. Can't come up with one. Dang! Bye!

[Jay]

You guys should add me back on there! :P

But Twitter is more of a way to socialize and network with others... of course, I have gotten some decent traffic on there, especially when an A-list blogger links to a post on your blog!

[Jen]

You guys should add me back on there! :P

Huh? Did I miss out on an inside joke... or maybe a palace coup?

[RckStrScott]

I've been using twitter with the Twhirl application.

It seems to be everything you need it to be. If you want to use it to build traffic you can. If you want to use it to build relationships you can. If you want it to hawk products you can.

It reminds me alot of early myspace, when bands would use it to promote their bands. It was great for about 18 months. Made a ton of fans, built connections, even landed gigs and booked tours through it.

Then it was abused. And that was all she wrote. I am sure that will happen to twitter. As of now, it is great. It has helped me a lot with traffic building, and learning about new great blogs and bloggers.

cheers

[Jay]

Huh? Did I miss out on an inside joke... or maybe a palace coup?

Lol nah, no inside joke... I just followed a few people from here, I was just hoping they would follow me back, that's all.

[Jen]

Lol nah, no inside joke... I just followed a few people from here, I was just hoping they would follow me back, that's all.

Twitter went through a spell of not notifying people by email when someone new followed, and almost at the same time (coincidence? perhaps not) there was a major influx of self-promoting spammers on Twitter who sucked up a lot of the time it takes to find & check out new followers... could be you got lost in the crowd? (ahem, I notice you didn't try following me! )

[Jay]

Twitter went through a spell of not notifying people by email when someone new followed, and almost at the same time (coincidence? perhaps not) there was a major influx of self-promoting spammers on Twitter who sucked up a lot of the time it takes to find & check out new followers... could be you got lost in the crowd? (ahem, I notice you didn't try following me! )

Are you serious? I didn't follow you back? Well, I guess I'm going to have to go change that now! Or maybe in a couple hours after I get back home...

[Jen]

Well, I hadn't followed you in the first place because you forgot to tell us your twitter username but I just did a little looksee and found you at twitter.com/whojaybe anyway: so consider yourself Twitterstalked!

[eppiev]

Sorry it's been a while since I was last on the board here, but I greatly appreciate the feedback everyone has supplied on this topic. I guess when I initially looked into twitter, I just didn't see a unique value proposition. It looked to me like a mashup of instant messaging / text messaging / micro-blogging... and almost none of my real life friends were using it (except for shameless self-promotion of their sites... probably why it had limited value to me). So, did I really care that someone I barely knew was making a sandwich? Not so much.

Here's the kick though - I do a fair amount of real life networking. I'm active in some local meetup groups that pertain to my career, and I met some really interesting people... who use twitter really well. Checking their twitter feed quickly gave me a strong feel for who they were and what they were about. I actually enjoy following them (although they haven't followed back yet). Twitter provides a very non-threatening way of getting to learn more about someone.

At any rate, I'm still not sure how useful twitter is for me, from an outbound perspective, but I certainly enjoy following others. Perhaps as my following increases, I'll find greater utility for the posting functionality - I just don't want it to become shameless self-promotion.

So, with that said, I'm going to start following some of you guys here, and if you'd like, you're more than welcome to follow me (@eppievojt - http://twitter.com/eppievojt).

[Karen Swim]

I use and love Twitter! However, I realize that it does not suit everyone's style. I love the connections that have been formed. I have met and become friendly with many people I never would have met. It is a great source of ideas, thoughtful discussions, inspiration and yes at times just pure chatty fun. Twitter has become my "inner" social network. These are the people I talk to everyday so naturally when they tweet with a question or need I give it preference. I have not received 4000 new blog readers using Twitter but that has also not been my goal. You can find me tweeting at twitter.com/karenswim.