Why Twitter? And Is It Only For Web Nerds?
Posted by Matt on March 21st, 2008
I’ve been looking at Twitter ever since it came out (hit me up on Twitter here), and at first glance it seemed like a weird idea. “Why would I spend time constantly updating people on my status throughout the day? People won’t care when I’m at work as opposed to at the gym, or if I’m in the library or at Starbucks waiting on my coffee.” But, while some people use it as such, Twitter is about a lot more than that. Twitter is best described as ‘micro-blogging’. You should think of it as updating a blog 140 characters at a time.
The main point about Twitter is that it allows you to share your thoughts, ideas, and experiences at the very moment you have them. This is incredibly interesting to the friends and families you know. With Twitter, you are able to peek into the life of someone you know on a day to day basis. They can share with you not just where they are or what they’re doing, but their emotions, thoughts, and opinions throughout the day. Partying tonight? Update your Twitter to invite others to join you.
And ever since Twitter’s launch, Silicon Valley has gone Twitter crazy. Given the ease at which people can update, Twitter has turned into a place of ‘back channels’ for public events. What to know what’s happening at the Techcrunch conference while it’s happening? Check out Twitter. Follow the right people and you can gain a very accurate feed and overall opinion and pulse of an event. Even the latest in tech news and rumors pop up on Twitter first. Just recently, a rumor on the acquisition of Revision3 by CNET for $57 mil popped up on Twitter. Twitter is becoming the ‘back channel’ for Silicon Valley.
But its it only for web nerds?
When I explain Twitter to new users, their barriers of entry are 1, no one they know uses Twitter, and more importantly 2, they just don’t “get” it. While Twitter is no different than any other social network and users simply won’t join unless their friends have already joined, Twitter has a bigger problem. People don’t “get” Twitter easily. Regular people don’t think it’s worth their time to update it throughout the day. While I truly believe in Twitter’s eventual raise to as one the biggest social networks, the Twitter team needs to solve this initial “question mark” of sorts for new users.
Robert Michel
March 21, 2008
I just stopped by your blog and thought I would say hello. I like your site design. Looking forward to reading more down the road.
Robert Michel
frank
March 21, 2008
Nice blog man. Yea, I agree. I mainly use it for the ability to change my facebook status via aol im, Gmail (gtalk). It’s often more convenient than going onto facebook itself.
Aziz
April 4, 2008
Well Matt, I found your profile and came to this blog as a result of Twitter-reading. Not sure if that proves anything.
My opinion is that Twitter appeals to blog writer personalities. Blogs are not a fad, so I think twittering will continue too. I also think that there is a much bigger opportunity for businesses to use a Twitter-ish concept. It takes work to write a blog post, but following a friend’s twitters is quick and fun. That’s why it appeals more to someone willing to actually write a blog post. Businesses pay you to work efficiently, and this is a fairly efficient way for you to collaborate with your colleagues. Remember how LinkedIn fills a completely different need than Facebook and MySpace. This is what I refer to. I’d call it “Twit-Work”. Hopefully it wouldn’t just distract people from their work to the point that productivity completely halted.
The masses are always a full two to three years lagging behind.
Matt
April 8, 2008
@Aziz: I agree that bloggers embrace Twitter more than any other kind of person. Considering bloggers are here to stay, Twitter might stand the test of time as well.
@Robert: Thanks for stopping by!
@frank: I hear this from a lot of ppl (Twitter just to change FB status). Twitter should promote this more, it would probably drawn in a lot of FB users.
Jamie Mathis
November 12, 2008
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