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.
