Twitter - Great tool or waste of time?

[Giganti]

Hi everyone...I've been tinkering with twitter lately and reserved my thoughts until I dove in to use it consistently. I have to say, I believe it's a really cool tool. I love that you can turn tweets on and off as far as receiving on your phone. Of course, I have David Allen's coming directly to my phone. For a guy like David who has a large following, the fact that he can communicate at a moment's notice to 1mm plus followers is a really powerful thing. I'm starting to buy in and think that twitter (and other social media) is the future of target marketing and general networking.

Curious to hear what everyone thinks. Do you use it? How often do you post? About what? Do you receive updates on your phone or just jump in on the web? Any other thoughts?

[ScottL]

What on the planet can happen that you need to be updated about it more often than a website is updated?

I'm excluding people who need it for their business.

[dschaffner]

Do you use it? How often do you post? About what? Do you receive updates on your phone or just jump in on the web? Any other thoughts?

Yes
It depends
What ever is on my mind
Web using Twitter.com or Brizzly.com
iPhone using Birdfeed

- Don

[Oogiem]

Do you use it? How often do you post? About what? Do you receive updates on your phone or just jump in on the web? Any other thoughts?

Yes
once a day or so in winter, whenever we have new lambs in spring, as appropriate for other seasons
What's going on on the farm, I keep several friends updated that way, save me time vs sending personal e-mails to all of them.
Web only, will probably go to phone once I get a new one and a data plan
I don't much care whether people follow me or not. I'm on twitter for me and a few specific people, if others find it interesting, useful or fun that's great but no biggy either way. I also don't blindly follow folks I don't find useful. Not that I don't like you but that unless you provide something useful (read fun, interesting or thought provoking) I don't follow you no matter how good a friend you are. Nothing personal just my way to throttle the fire hose that twitter can become.

[sdann]

What's going on on the farm, I keep several friends updated that way, save me time vs sending personal e-mails to all of them.

One question please. How are you certain your friends see your tweets? I use twitter to keep updated on some professional people in my business interests, but I find it impossible to keep up with all their tweets, nevermind all the recommended readings and other things they tweet about. Time and just the sheer tweeting volume forbid it. I don't even follow that many people and it's still impossible. Even the #hashtags will have too much information for me to keep up with.

I am also finding it hard to manage twitter. There is something great, but also really frustrating about it.

(It started out with one question, but I think it turned into many.)

[kewms]

One question please. How are you certain your friends see your tweets? I use twitter to keep updated on some professional people in my business interests, but I find it impossible to keep up with all their tweets, nevermind all the recommended readings and other things they tweet about.

At some level, you don't know. But then, you don't know whether people actually read your email or not, either. You really don't have much choice but to trust that the people who actually care will make the effort. (And to make the things you tweet worth caring about, too.)

And in some ways, it doesn't really matter. You've put the information out there. Some will read all of it, some will read none of it. Some will read carefully, some will skim. But if the information is out there with your name on it, it will affect your brand image in some (hopefully positive) way.

Moreover, because the Internet never forgets, the information will be out there waiting when someone needs it in the future.

I would say that Twitter works best as a narrow-cast tool, not a broadcast tool. It's great for, as one friend used it, telling everyone you know that your daughter was born. It's great for flight updates, sports event updates, and other time-sensitive but transient information. Used properly, it's good for letting friends know what you're thinking, or what you think might interest them. Overused, it's worse than spam and people will just ignore you.

Katherine

[Oogiem]

How are you certain your friends see your tweets? I use twitter to keep updated on some professional people in my business interests, but I find it impossible to keep up with all their tweets, nevermind all the recommended readings and other things they tweet about. Time and just the sheer tweeting volume forbid it. I don't even follow that many people and it's still impossible. Even the #hashtags will have too much information for me to keep up with.

I'm not sure. But the fact they talk to me about tweets when I see them in person or talk on the phone says most are reading them.

I follow 64 people. The number has been culled to be sure they post useful stuff, that I haven't seen anywhere else, that I'm interested in and that I'll have time to follow-up on. In fact I need to go weed out a few just because they tend to post stuff I've seen elsewhere.

I never use the hashtags to find stuff, too much comes in that way and I can't filter it.

I spend maybe 15 minutes a day looking at twitter and going to the links the people I follow have posted, do a quick scan and add to reading if they look good.

I could probably do better if I learned and used some sort of twitter manager SW but I just use my Safari browser, works and is fast enough for me.

[TesTeq]

I use twitter to keep updated on some professional people in my business interests, but I find it impossible to keep up with all their tweets, nevermind all the recommended readings and other things they tweet about.

I like the freedom that Twitter gives me everyday. I can discard any information without reading and see how it disappears in the past. And nobody will blame me It is just an optional information that I can live without...

[NewbGTD]

Checked it out due to all the hype I was curious.

Personally don’t need it. To me its just another inbox I can do without.

If someone wants to let me know about something they have a couple of options

1. text me/call me
2. email me

Simple. If its important that you know that "thing" people will deffo take one of those options to let you know. if its not that important maybe they wont, but you don't really need to know anyway if its not important.

as far as getting my information "out there" i also take one of those two options. if the "thing" is something I want 1+ people to read I just email/text in bulk from my phone or laptop.

I think all those sites tweeter, facebook etc are mostly a waste of time.

[Brent]

Which is exactly what folks said about email when it first came out; "if people really want to contact me, they can call me or send me a letter."

Hey, if Twitter's not for you, that's cool. Nobody needs to use these tools. But they are very useful.

I learn more things through Twitter, and much faster, than I would otherwise.