Twitter Used

June 28, 2010 Written by Social Media

Recently, Sam wrote a post about the usefulness of Twitter. Some of the inspiration for his post came from this article by Dan Schawbel. Dan reckons Twitter’s power Twitter bird tweeting Twitter Usedas a marketing platform is declining,  essentially because too many people are broadcasting and it’s too cluttered for new messages to be seen.

This made me think about how I use Twitter. I broadcast occasionally and listen frequently. I search Twitter to find up-to-date social media news, reviews of new tech products, and to get solutions from people currently dealing with a problem I’m faced with.

I heard Tiger Woods was dead the other day so I did a quick Twitter search to see if the rumour was true, turns out he’s not. Such is the instantaneous nature of news on Twitter that I knew immediately he was ok when nothing Tiger-related appeared in the trending topics. News like that would be all over Twitter in seconds.

I’m interested to discover if my Twitter use makes me the exception rather than the rule ? Are others happy to use Twitter as an information source without contributing very much? Sure I send the odd tweet, but I’m a much more active as a listener than I am as a talker (apparently chicks dig that anyway).

So does this mean anything for Twitter as a marketing platform? Well iThnk it suggests people are still listening. Yea it might be harder to get through the clutter with increasingly more following, but so what? You will just have to get better at it. Do something interesting enough to capture and maintain people’s attention, like this.

What do you think?

  • alexwhalley

    Hey Andy,

    It's funny because I am the opposite, I listen rarely and I post often, well compared to Social Sam over there hardly at all, but I find twitter is useful for two things. One it is great to RT a post and then comment and helps get you noticed so you can build a relationship, and two, if you can build up your followers to be in the thousands, even though most are not targeted and as you said, not really of any use – it still creates some fantastic 'social proof' when you put the counter in view.
    It's funny that in general each follower is not contributing much, but together I can leverage them for other purposes.
    That's what Ithnk anyway.
    Thanks for the read Andy, ciao for now
    -Alex

  • http://www.blogswithwings.com Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella

    I do listen more than I post. But I do post a fair bit as well. I admit to being a little disenchanted with Twitter. It's harder work than it should be, not as much fun when I first started. But it's like taking your daily vitamin. I do it because it's good for me.

  • http://twitter.com/MooreofAndy Andy Moore

    Hey Joella. Glad to hear I'm not the only one with a listening-heavy Twitter balance. I like your reference to vitamins – that makes a lot of sense to me.

    What do you think has taken the fun out of Twitter for you? What has changed?

    Thanks for checking us out.
    Andy

  • http://twitter.com/MooreofAndy Andy Moore

    Alex you're a social media machine! You deserve to have heaps of followers and get the kudos that comes with it. I'm relying on Sam to get a million Twitter followers so we can then enhance the profile of iThnk.

    I'm certainly looking at ways I can be more active on Twitter and for that matter, other SM platforms too.

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