This post is for a friend who was hesitant to use twitter. We had an extended email conversation, and I wondered the entire time why we weren’t just twittering it, and he wanted to know the reasons why. So here we go, why use twitter:
Lets start with my twitter profile @footinmouth:
- Communication Style: 140 character microblogs – Example of a Tweet:
- You can send messages @ specific accounts, like @bloggingmothers or @mwilton13
- You can follow other peoples “twitter streams” of messages.
- Other people can follow your messages in your twitter stream.
- You can send private messages that aren’t shown publicly as well
- You can get a Firefox Extension like Twitterfox so you don’t even need to go to twitter.com
Uses:
- People who you follow generally follow you back, so you can get the word out about your new posts, online finds etc
- Follow industry leaders: For SEO I follow @graywolf, @mattcutts, etc and can see what they are twittering about. Instead of reading blog posts a day or two after they’re posted, I get it right away and sometimes participate in their conversations that found their posts.
- Interaction: You can send your friends articles, communicate smoothly instead of over time with emails.
- Build relationships: I have found new freinds at twitter, had twitter freinds like @erinmaher, who does a blogging tip blog, write a guest blog about content writing for newbies, and got added to this website Magazine article for tweets about 2009, all through twitter.
I have enjoyed this site, it’s helped me personally, professionally and I completely recommend this for…well…everyone! There are many more reasons, but these are the most fundamental in my opinion: So…What do you say? Join Twitter? Let me know if I missed any important points!
Update: Even Search Engines are getting into it @Yahoorealestate
7 responses so far ↓
Allen Harper // December 5, 2008 at 5:30 pm |
Very cool… I’ll look into it in a little bit… nice post though…
I’m just worried about a couple things…
First… how much of my time will this take up? Seems like a little bit of a time waster… but I can see the benefits of it for sure…
And lastly… how often am I going to have to goto the site in order to keep it updated and get full use of the service… and if I use the Firefox plugin… that would require I left Firefox open for updates right? And since Firefox 3 has a slow memory leak… if you leave it open for more than a few hours without closing it can build up to around 2mbs of memory usage… since it uses dynamic caching to keep tab memory and the awesome bar running at peak efficiency.
I think I saw an Adobe AIR app for twitter… if that’s true… I’m sold…
I’ll keep you informed
Erin Maher // December 5, 2008 at 5:54 pm |
Twitter is great for networking. Like you said, I met you over it and had the opportunity to do a guest post. I also have found several job opportunities for my freelance writing. Twitterers are a savvy bunch, and whenever I have a question and don’t want to sift through a mountain of search results over google, I ask it on twitter. It’s great for research.
I second your motion on joining twitter.
Mike Wilton // December 5, 2008 at 6:04 pm |
@Allen Harper – I’ll be honest dude…When I first started using Twitter it was a HUGE time suck. But after installing Twitterfox which Jeremy mentioned above it made a huge difference. It’s all in how you manage your time while using it.
You do not need to keep Firefox open to get your tweets. It’ll pick up anything you haven’t read for you when you open Firefox.
I have gotten a lot of great information from Twitter, made a lot of great connections, and participated in some really good discussions. It’s an awesome tool and connects you with a TON of people in the industry.
jeremypenguin // December 5, 2008 at 6:33 pm |
@Allen
Wow, thanks for the tip about FF3 eating resources over time. I’ll be sure to close it occasionally
In terms of time, Like @mike said, if you use the twitterfox app it REALLY is useful and minimal on time especially considering the data streams you can tap into you’ll get some very good info and articles daily.
Mixx.com Day of the Ninja | Musings For A Darkened Room // December 5, 2008 at 6:34 pm |
[...] ninja equivalent to Talk Like A Pirate Day. I discovered this morning when mixxing a story about reasons to use twitter that Mixx.com has decided to show homage to the day by incorporating a ninja theme into their [...]
Allen Harper // December 5, 2008 at 7:53 pm |
Just to touch base on what I mentioned earlier… there is a AdobeAIR application for twitter… so now you can have it sitting on the side lines functioning as a desktop app…
very nice
jeremypenguin // December 5, 2008 at 9:36 pm |
So I take it I’ll be tweeting at you soon