Is it Worth It?

I have to say that using Twitter was not high on my list for a long while, but I finally dove in to see what this social media tool was all about. But since joining the service and selecting a few folks I wanted to follow (right now I’m following only about 20 people who’s blogs I read regularly), I find I’m really seeing a lot of value in this social network from the business perspective.

For those reading who have not heard of Twitter:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? (from the Twitter FAQ).

In 140 characters or less, you can send thoughts, observations, ideas, questions and other topics around you to your “followers”. These posts are called “tweets”.

The service is free. If you don’t have text messaging in your mobile phone plan, you could spend a bit of coin following those you want to keep tabs on. You can also follow using a web browser and Google Talk. Better yet, you can get a Google Gadget for your iGoogle page as well.

As you can see to the left, I have also inserted one of the Twitter badges to display the tweets of those that I am following, including my own. So every once in a while, you will spot my face among the notables tweeting regularly. But rather than just post my tweets here, I though visitors would enjoy to see what others are doing as well.

I have also installed the Twitter Updater WordPress plugin so that all new posts automatically get broadcasted to my followers.

Mike Sansone (who I’m following and vice versa), wrote an interesting post on Twitter on the day I signed up and started poking around (was that fate?). Check out his post on why he uses Twitter. 

What have I found interesting and valuable?

• Most of those you follow, follow you back – this makes you feel welcome into the community. These folks don’t know me and I certainly didn’t expect people to follow me right away as they don’t know me at all. So if you think you can lurk for a while, you can’t. Those of you who did follow back, I hope my life and daily tweets are as interesting to you as yours are to me.
• I get constant updates from people on what’s happening in social media. I can quickly scan the information and decide what is important and what is not. There are many things I’ve gleened over the past week that I would not have heard about had I not been following the buzz. And I just implemented a Yahoo Pipes feed as Mike suggested to keep those tweets that contain a URL to something I may want to find again later.
• It keeps me connected at all times. Whether I’m out at an event, in the car, or at my desk, I can keep informed and catch a few morsels of what others are doing.

On the down side, I don’t know how folks who follow hundreds, or in some cases thousands of people, can really absorb all of the information they get. I would assume they tune into certain folks and tune out others. Only following a handful of people to get started, I find myself already doing that. 

But the most valuable aspect of Twitter for me is that I’m getting to know many people who I would never have come in contact with personally (and hopefully they are getting know me as well). This media brings the world closer and connects people from everywhere with a common interest. To me, it’s almost not what you say, but the fact you are saying it to me, regardless of where I am.

So is it worth it? I would say absolutely. 

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Related posts:

1. Networking using Twitter
2. TwInbox: A Twitter Tool for Outlook
3. 6 Twitter Types to Avoid