Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about Twitter, the popular “social networking” tool that allows you to write brief one- or two-sentence updates about your life (called “tweets”) and then instantly broadcast them to your friends and colleagues. Some praise Twitter as a cutting-edge networking and marketing tool, while critics brush it off as a narcissistic time-waster. This article from BusinessWeek.com sums up both perspectives. Like most things, I suppose it all depends on how you use it.
One thing is for sure: Lots of people are growing addicted to Twitter.
I consider myself pretty tech-saavy and I don’t like the feeling that I’m missing out. So I decided to do a little research into Twitter. I downloaded a Twitter app for my iPhone and I was surprised to discover that I’ve been tweeting for months without even realizing it. Apparantly I somehow set up my blog to automatically “tweet” each new blog post, and then I completely forgot about it. (Here’s my Twitter page.)
I confess I’m unclear as to what makes Twitter so great and why I should use it. I find it hard to believe that most people would have that much interest in my day-to-day activities. To me Twitter seems like just an interesting novelty, but I don’t want to shrug it off prematurely. Maybe I’m missing something. So I’m appealing to you, my readers, to help me broaden my understanding.
Do you tweet? Why or why not? If so, do you use it primarily for business or to connect with friends? How has it helped you? Are there any rules for using (or abusing) Twitter? Please post a comment and share your thoughts. You can even post a link to your Twitter page if you’d like.