The appeal of Twitter: The debate rages on!
September 11th, 2008 § 3 Comments
I have to admit, even as their popularity soars, I’m still a little baffled by the appeal of services like Twitter. I know that a lot of people are using them to stay connected. Admittedly, there’s some business value in the immediacy and access that Twitter allows, but I’m still wondering…what is the point? My own personal Twitter experiment some time ago lasted all of 2 weeks after a friend urged me to try it. I was vigilant with my updates, but after a few days of staying on top of what people had for lunch and the weather in their various locales, I started to lose interest in what seemed like a pointless exercise in navel gazing.
This month, BusinessWeek (a highly underrated business resource), is keeping the debate alive, asking the question: Does Twitter distract and annoy? Check out both sides of the debate.
Couldn’t agree more, even though I’m quite fond of navel gazing.
I do not see the point of twittering as a stand alone-service. But when integrated with other services, like facebook for instance, where it is just a part of your bigger social network dahboard if you will, I don’t mind it. Especially when it comes with the option of tuning which tweets you want to see.
I was amazed the other day when a friend told me he is on so many different social networks he had to use a synchronization tool to distribute all his tweets to these networks.
I tried Twittering once, and then have tried again, and I’m with you — it still feels pointless. It seems too much like IM taking the long way around. I know of no one in the world that I need constant personal updates from. And if I need it in a project setting, IM seems much better. I must be missing something here. I’ll check out the debate.
Twitter has value for me.
Yes it’s full of hangers-on, mountebanks, and navel gazing, but it’s also populated by smart people who know things that I don’t.
For example, I needed a free site-tracking tool that wasn’t Google’s arcane Analytics. I went to Twitter first (before a search engine) and someone recommended Woopra. We use it religiously.
I’ve also followed their links to new companies and conversations about technology. I can’t tell you how many times people in the office have said ‘where did you find this?’ — you can guess my answer.
Twitter lets me leverage a network full of knowledge.
As a journalist, I feel Twitter offers a more personal connection — even moreso than Facebook or LinkedIn. Staying in their orbit makes me more credible and them more human.
The trick for Twitter, imo, is NOT to use the web-based service. It’s cumbersome. Try third-party apps like Twhirl or Tweetdeck that integrate with notification apps like Growl.