Let's talk about Twitter Options

[tamar]

somebody explain the appeal of those things, if i want to send my friends a message i'll just email them, if i feel like splashing out i'll text them

facebook, i've never felt so bullied to join a website and when i finally do i couldnt believe how much hype it had got over so little, either i got no friends and just dont get it or it's rubbish

Here are the reasons why I use Twitter:
1. Networking
2. Learning news
3. Getting answers to questions quickly.
4. Finding job prospects (well, people have actually found me)
5. Networking
6. Communication with lots of people easily (I can send an SMS to 40404 and it will go onto Twitter and if someone, like my husband, wants to check on me, he gets the message by going to my Twitter page or by getting an SMS during designated hours -- that part is actually very cool).
7. Keeping track of what I'm doing
8. Sharing information and findings with my followers
9. Networking
10. Networking!!!!!!!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

People are on Twitter because they want to physically be there. It's not like a "chat room" ... it's a constant flow of good information (provided you're following informative people!)

Bottom line: Twitter is a great network tool, but it offers a lot more. Here's a good blog post on the subject matter (not mine).

[Jill]

It might be in the article you posted, which I will read later, but would you mind briefly explaining how you get news and answers to questions via twitter?

To me, it's just facebook status updates, so I'm always confused when people say they use twitter for business purposes, etc. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[tamar]

It might be in the article you posted, which I will read later, but would you mind briefly explaining how you get news and answers to questions via twitter?

To me, it's just facebook status updates, so I'm always confused when people say they use twitter for business purposes, etc. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Jill:

I subscribe to news bots, but also, since I'm regularly using Twitter (via Twhirl which you can download at twhirl.org), people are always sharing news with me. I actually have another post scheduled for tomorrow about how I use Twitter to consume the news. It should be an interesting read. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

As for questions, it's just a matter of asking. See the screenshot on Problogger's recent post for an example.

When I have a question, I typically get a lot of feedback almost instantaneously. It's really wonderful how Twitter has filled a void.

I really think it was an evolution for me, though. If you're just using it to update your status and move on and you're not actively engaged, your user experience will be a lot more different than the one I described.

[Jill]

Interesting article from Problogger.

I see how twitter can work that way, but I can't help but wonder how people can monitor all those tweets all day/night? Hard enough monitoring a forum, twitter is so fast, I wonder how people get work done if they're addicted to Twitter. It seems that the best use of it comes if you're constantly watching the tweets. Unlike Facebook which is much slower moving. You can go once a day (or less) and not miss too much.

[the_j0ker]

I tried using twitter for a bit but never really got the attention of anyone. I don't have a lot of friends on there so networking is kind of akward poking more-or-less-random people. I'll check out the blog post you linked tho.

[Julie Joyce]

I thought Twitter was worthless until DazzinDonna changed my mind and told me to just try it...I am definitely not a huge fan, but I have been alerted to news items from tweets. You have to be very careful whom you follow if you truly want to use this for only professional reasons, since some people tend to just let you know what they're about to eat for dinner and what time they're going to bed.

[dbstudio]

I understand why people think Twitter has a limited use. When I first heard about Twitter I thought that too, so I signed up followed a few geeky networking friend and then I started to see a pattern. Not only did they use it to create a networking hub but also as a rebounding board for ideas and advice. I can see sending out and email balst would get the result but by Twittering they are doing this with out creating unnecessary email spam. Many of them use tools like Twittervision to see update real time and therefore staying connected.

Think about using Twitter as an aggregation tool by using Twitterfeed. I have set up several sport enthusiast Twitter accounts like <snip> and <snip> . All you have to do is find relevant feeds and point them to the Twitter account and they will automatically generate the post. Low maintenance and useful for the follower. Essentially this is the same idea as news alerts but you have more flexibility. This is also a great way to promote you blog entries through your Twitter account. I have seen significant bursts of blog traffic from Twitter after the post was fed.

This post has been edited by Randy: Mar 13 2008, 12:36 PM

Reason for edit: Live links removed per forum rules.